News

Disability Rights

Launch of Accessing Abilities

Allow me to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we stand [the Nyoongar people] and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.

Disability Rights

2nd Victorian state conference for disability direct support workers: Opening address

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

The continuing battle for equal rights for people with a disability

I have to admit that two months ago when I took the title " The Disability Discrimination Act and the continuing battle for equal rights for people with a disability" for my paper today I was not attaching great importance to the precise words of that title.

Sex Discrimination

National Strategic Conference on Fatherhood: Pru Goward

Of course, women too can be violent. However for the most part, the purpose and effects differ radically - male violence is used to regulate women's behaviour, and men's. Men commit most of the violence that is considered in the criminal system, against women and against other men.

Rights and Freedoms

Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby: Graeme Innes AM (2007)

I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. It's almost 18 months since we launched the Same-Sex: Same Entitlements National Inquiry. In that time, we have travelled around Australia to hear, first hand, about the impact of discriminatory laws on same-sex couples, and their children. We received 680 written submissions from across Australia and met with more than 500 people. The Inquiry put federal laws under the human rights microscope.

Rights and Freedoms

Access to education: a human right for every child: (2000)

Thank you, Megan McNichol, conference organisers and the Isolated Children's Parents' Association for inviting me to speak at your annual federal conference today.

Commission – General

Enhancing Equality: Reforming Anti-Discrimination Laws to Make Australia Fairer

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

Commission – General

Launch of the Supreme Court Equal Treatment Benchbook

When I first entered the law 'benchbooks' were closely guarded, leather bound books into which judges carefully entered notes as a case progressed - usually I thought adverse comments and exclamation marks about one's arguments or less than flattering remarks about one's principal witness. These books seemed to be some kind of secret code to the outcome of cases and never saw the light of day.

Commission – General

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The theme of this Conference - Human Rights and Equality for Women in the 21st Century - is rich fare for any time of the day. It calls for speculation about the future and assessment of the past; it invites fresh perspectives and challenges the imagination; it asks for re-examination of motives and goals.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

The Informa 3rd Annual Negotiating Native Title Forum (2009)

I begin today by paying my respects to the Wurundjeri peoples, the traditional owners of the land where we gather today. I pay my respects to your elders, to the ancestors and to those who have come before us.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Speeches 2007: 40 years on: what does the ‘Yes’ vote mean for Indigenous Australians?

Anglicare, Tasmania Annual Social Justice Lecture 22 August, 2007 TOM CALMA Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner National Race Discrimination Commissioner Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

The current challenges facing Indigenous people in Australia

The position of Social Justice Commissioner was created in 1993 in response to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and HREOC"s National Inquiry into Racist Violence. It was created to ensure an ongoing, national monitoring agency for the human rights of Indigenous peoples.

Disability Rights

Presentation to Accessible Arts Workshop

George Bernard Shaw once said that the only alternative to torture in life is art. I'm not sure that you could my presentation this morning art, but I do hope it isn't torture.

Commission – General

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Amongst all this expertise, it is fair to ask why is the President of the national human rights commission – and particularly a President who has only fairly recently commenced in this role - here presenting the keynote speech to such a conference?

Disability Rights

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But people with disability for the most part were either invisible within mainstream education, or invisible because they were excluded and segregated off somewhere else.