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Sex Discrimination

National Press Club: Everyone's Business: 2018 Sexual Harassment Survey

Kate Jenkins CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY I acknowledge the traditional owners of this land, the Ngunnawal people, and pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging. Change takes time In my role as Sex Discrimination Commissioner, many people tell me to be patient. They tell me that change...

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Australia's journey to a National Inquiry into workplace sexual harassment

The following opinion piece by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins appeared in Fairfax papers - SMH, the Age and The Canberra Times On 5 October 2017, I boarded a flight from Britain. By the time I landed in Melbourne, the world had changed. The New York Times story exposing decades of...

Category, Opinion
Sex Discrimination

Time for some home truths about sexual harassment

The following opinion piece by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins was published in the Age newspaper on May 3, 2018 It’s time for some home truths about how we are talking about and dealing with sexual harassment cases. We need to stop talking about so-called ‘‘hush money’’ and refocus...

Category, Opinion
Sex Discrimination

Fourth National Survey on workplace sexual harassment

The Australian Human Rights Commission has begun the fourth national survey into workplace sexual harassment. The Commission has undertaken regular surveys on workplace sexual harassment since 2002. The Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins said the next iteration of the world-leading survey...

Category, News
Sex Discrimination

AHRC to review residential colleges at the University of New England

The Australian Human Rights Commission will conduct an independent review of residential colleges at the University of New England (UNE) in the regional centre of Armidale, NSW. The University has seven residential colleges, currently home to approximately 1800 students. The Australian Human Rights...

Category, News
Commission – General

Sexual Harassment - Safer Workplaces

The Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins delivered the keynote address at the Women in Film and TV NSW - Safer Workplaces Strategies forum. Good morning everyone. I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which you meet, the Gadigal people of the Eora...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Another 'aberration' shows that 18C is the problem and must be changed

State and federal governments should reform laws that make offensive acts unlawful and refocus them on protecting free speech and stopping workplace and public harassment. This week a news story broke about a complaint made under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act by a Queensland University...

Category, Opinion
LGBTIQ+

I want to hold your hand: LGBTI people have some surprisingly modest aspirations

Visibility remains one of the greatest challenges in tackling the legacy of state-sanctioned discrimination against people on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status. In the past 30 years we’ve made great strides in ensuring people are treated equally before the law...

Category, Opinion
Race Discrimination

Forty years of the Racial Discrimination Act

In October 1975, at a ceremony for the proclamation of the Racial Discrimination Act, then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam described the legislation as ‘a historic measure’, which aimed to ‘entrench new attitudes of tolerance and understanding in the hearts and minds of the people’.(1) The Act was...

Category, Opinion
LGBTIQ+

It's time for the transgender talk, Australia

The backlash against tweets directed at Catherine McGregor on Q&A last week should spark a conversation about transgender people in Australia. We must improve attitudes, writes Tim Wilson. We all need to learn something new for the first time, so let's use the opportunity presented by last week's...

Category, Opinion

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