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I would also like to acknowledge the presence of Members of Parliament - Mike Reynolds (Speaker of the Legislative Assembly), Linda Lavarch, Dean Wells, Evan Moorhead; Christine Smith, Desley Scott, Kate Jones, Dianne Reilly and Vicky Darling.

I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and pay my respects to their elders past and present.

For those of you unfamiliar with Australia’s Human Rights Commission, it’s an independent government body that protects and promotes human rights. My role as Human Rights Commissioner is to check that human rights in Australia are being respected including the human rights of children and young people.

I also want to thank the conference organisers for the opportunity to speak today. conferences such as this are great opportunities to discuss some of the pressing human rights issues in Australia. I'm particularly pleased to be talking about queer rights in the workplace, as fair employment conditions are some of the most fundamental of all human rights. Trade unions have a long history of…

I'm very pleased to be speaking to you today. I'm especially encouraged that so many young people have put aside a weekend to think about, and talk about, human rights.

Homelessness has, I'm sure, been on your agendas for many years. More recently, both Parity and the Rudd federal government (if I can put you both in the same league) has given it a much increased focus. Today, I want to identify the many human rights issues raised in the context of homelessness, and suggest how a human rights framework would help address what is an ever-increasing problem in our…

The globalisation of the world economy, including much improved communication and transportation, has increased flows of people across borders.  This includes the movement of children, both with their family and unaccompanied.  Separated children crossing borders may be refugees, humanitarian asylum seekers, trafficked girls who will be forced to work as prostitutes, or simply children lost in…

Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to speak at this conference. I'm very pleased to be here.  Firstly as a senior Commonwealth public servant not based in Canberra I immediately warm to this forum. The challenges of interacting with, and learning from, our colleagues are increased greatly by the fact that we aren't located in the city viewed by most commonwealth public servants as…

At ‘Raising the Bar: Leading Sustainable Business in 2008’ Annual National Conference of the Australian Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility

Acknowledgments I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet. I'd also like to thank the Aged and Community Services Association for inviting me to speak about police checks today. Introduction I suspect the average person in the street associates police checks with high-security jobs, such as airport security, or, on the other hand, with jobs working closely with children…

Scarlett Finney was only six when she saw the brochures for the Hills Grammar School, set in park-like grounds in Sydney's outer suburbs.  She indicated her keenness to attend "the school in the bush".  Her parents were prepared to pay the fees, and saw the setting and curriculum as providing her with a great education.  But the school refused her enrolment due to the…

I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we stand, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.

I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we stand, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present. I make this statement at any function where I speak in order to:

I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we stand, the Eora People, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.

I would like to open today by reading you part of an e-mail that a work colleague of mine received recently from a young Australian woman in her early twenties, who recently completed her Bachelor of Communications degree from UTS in Sydney. As it happens she also holds Polish citizenship and is currently visiting her grandparents in Warsaw.

I should add, at this point, that my work over the past few years and my inquiry on children in immigration detention (CIDI), in Australia, the report of which "A last resort?" was tabled in the Australian Federal parliament in May of 2004, has made me even more keenly aware of the fragility of child asylum seekers. But more on that later!

Firstly I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand and by so doing remind ourselves that Australia's cultural traditions stretch back many thousands of years. The acknowledgement also expresses our aspiration for a just and inclusive Australia for all.

In so doing however I am confronted with the classic dilemma of many, namely what fresh insight can I bring to bear on this subject that has not already been canvassed.

Firstly I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand and by so doing remind ourselves that Australia's cultural traditions stretch back many thousands of years and express our aspirations for Australians of the future to be socially just and inclusive.

It is my pleasure to report to you today on the outcome of deliberations of the Working Group on Human Rights Education. This working group was relatively small in size but very diverse and robust in its deliberations. It consisted of representatives of Arabic countries, including the host country Qatar as well as Japan, the Philippines and Australia.