Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
This morning about 20,000 Australians woke up in a prison cell. What will their day bring? Most of you know far more about that than I do and that is precisely why we have called upon your expertise for today's workshop.
Disability Rights
Can I also acknowledge Blake Dawson Waldron lawyers for providing the venue and facilities, and the NSW Disability Discrimination Legal Service for their initiative in organising this forum.
Disability Rights
Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM Human Rights Commissioner and Disability Discrimination Commissioner Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission, Sydney, Australia
Rights and Freedoms
Thank you for inviting me to speak today. Firstly I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we are now meeting, the Gadigal people.
Disability Rights
The standard sort of speech that is often delivered by people in my sort of position at this sort of event is a combination of pep talk and pamphlet, with some bits of a law lecture thrown in: telling people with a disability and their advocates that they have rights under discrimination law, and telling employers that they have responsibilities, and attempting to set out the terms and the effect of the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act (or "DDA").
Disability Rights
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. Whilst planning this speech, I was thinking that it was a long time since the first time that I addressed an NDS (then Acrod) conference. I was asked to give the Kenneth Jenkins memorial oration at the Acrod conference in the early 80s, as the first President of DPI Australia. The speech then was just the type that you would expect from the head of an advocacy organisation finding its feet, to the conference of the service provision organisation. It was brash, assertive and demanding.
Disability Rights
While there is no section in the Disability Discrimination Act titled "Tourism" every aspect of the development, management and delivery of tourist services are covered by one or more provision within the DDA.
Disability Rights
I hope that you are not expecting from me a speech full of stirring rhetoric, to inspire you before you settle into detailed and practical discussions throughout the rest of this conference.
Disability Rights
Paper delivered by Elizabeth Hastings Disability Discrimination Commissioner 1993-97 at the Creating Accessible Communities Conference Fremantle, 12 November 1996
Commission – General
The topic for discussion is the role of human rights in good governance. Along the way I will touch on HREOC’s perceptions of cultural change at DIMA, legal roadblocks to cultural change, and the importance of human rights principles in the law and policy making process.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
May I begin by acknowledging the Larrakeyah people – the traditional owners of the land where we meet today. I pay my respects to their elders and those who have come before us.
Disability Rights
Thank you AMTA for support in attending the first meeting of the TEITAC Committee, held from Sep 27-29 at the National Science Foundation in Arlington Virginia, near Washington. While in Washington I also had a meeting with the Telecommunications Industry Association during which I briefed them on the legislative background and current situation concerning access to telecommunications products and services in Australia by people with disabilities.
Disability Rights
Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. Can I begin by apologising for the Acting Disability Discrimination Commissioner Dr Sev Ozdowski. Sev has been following this inquiry very closely but had arranged to be away this week before the schedule for these hearings was settled.
Disability Rights
Let me first pass on regrets from Sev Ozdowski that he was not able to be here as planned. He very much wanted to attend this as the first major disability conference since he commenced duty as Disability Discrimination Commissioner at the end of last year - but he had surgery this week that meant he could not travel.
Rights and Freedoms
In the contemporary world, and particularly amongst developed economies, many of us believed that the culture of civil liberties, freedoms and non-discrimination are reasonably well established and these precepts have clear links to innovation, creativity and the broader concepts of economic productivity and a well functioning civil society. Indeed, I believe that many of us had come to accept and expect this to be the situation, and that conferences like the one we attend here today could be built on this very premise.
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