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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

National Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committee ( NAJAC) Colloquium

I would like to begin by acknowledging the Ngunnawal people peoples, the traditional owners and custodians of the land where we are gathered today, and pay my respects to their elders. I would also like to thank the members of the National Aboriginal Justice Advisory Council for providing me with the opportunity to speak today and acknowledge my distinguished fellow speakers and panel members.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Indigenous peoples and the right to self-determination

I pay my respects to the Gadigal as a Kungarakan man whose traditional country lies far north from here, up near Darwin. I recognise the relationship of the Gadigal to this land and their ongoing responsibilities to it, under the watch of their ancestors. In other words, I recognise the ongoing dimensions of the sovereignty of the Gadigal to this country.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

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I am honoured to present this distinguished lecture, which has been established as a tribute to the contribution of Sir Wallace Kyle to Western Australian society.

Disability Rights

The Disability Discrimination Act Seven Years On

I wrote the title for this presentation almost a year ago when I was first asked to give it. I came back to it two weeks ago to write the actual paper and thought "what does this mean?"

Disability Rights

Adaptable Departments - disability action plans and what makes them work

I am very pleased to be able to contribute to this Forum and would like to congratulate the co-convenors, Rhonda and Fiona, and their organisations for this initiative, which is just one part of the Disability Advisory Council's Disability Action Plan Project running throughout 2006.

Disability Rights

Using the Disability Convention for practical change (2009)

Some of us here were sitting in a stuffy conference room in the UN headquarters in New York when the Working Group completed its drafting of the convention. It was only stuffy because - in true UN style - we had exceeded our time limit for the session, the interpreters had gone home, and the air-conditioning had been turned off. But for most of us, these disadvantages paled in the excitement of what we had achieved. And that excitement was amplified as we watched the General Assembly confirm our work.

Disability Rights

NOT HAPPY JAN : Speech for Epilepsy Action AGM

Thank you for the chance to speak with you at your AGM today. AGMs are important formal processes in the corporate life of an organisation. But they also provide an opportunity to reflect on what the organisation has achieved over the last twelve months, and to look into the future at the challenges ahead. You - as members, directors, staff and supporters of Epilepsy Action - know the organisation much better than I do. So I'm not going to attempt a review of your past, or polish up my crystal ball for some future gazing.

Disability Rights

Providing Access to All

Some of us are women and some are men; some of us brought new names and accents in recent decades and some of us have Australian ancestry reaching back tens of thousands of years; and some of us have one or more disabilities.

Disability Rights

Release of third progress report on South Australia's Promoting Independence strategy

I am not here to present South Australia's government as having achieved the last word in access and inclusion for people with disabilities, any more than this report itself seeks to claim that the task is finished.

Disability Rights

Presentation of Victorian Local Government Accessible Communities Awards

Most of you here today would know that it is not trite to say that local government is the closest level of government to our communities, and as such plays a key role in building and reinforcing the fabric of those communities.

Disability Rights

Foresight not oversight

On behalf of the Commission I'm very pleased to receive the C & W Optus Disability Discrimination Action Plan. It's a great way to celebrate this International Day of People with Disabilities.

Sex Discrimination

Deacon’s lawyers seminar on women and workplace issues

Work and family: The legal perspective Speech delivered by Pru Goward, Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner at the Deacon’s lawyers seminar on women and workplace issues, 9 July 2003 Chairman of Deacon’s Melbourne office, Peter Beaumont, National Workplace Relations Team Leader, Neil Napper...

Rights and Freedoms

Human rights issues for young refugees and asylum seekers

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 the aftermath of war. So today, children can literally travel across the world undetected and unprotected. And Australia, as part of this global system, has its share of these children.

Rights and Freedoms

"The local face of global justice policy": Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM (2004)

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.

Rights and Freedoms

Association of Childrens Welfare Agencies Conference

I am delighted to be invited to speak today at the Biennial Conference of the Association of Childrens Welfare Agencies, in association with partner organisations dedicated to the wellbeing of children.