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I recently returned from attending a United Nations meeting, where work is progressing on the development of an International Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

For thousands of years, Aboriginal groups, who might spend much of their time living far apart in the expanses of this land, pursuing separately the business of survival, would come together at times to meet, to trade, sometimes to resolve differences, but also to exchange knowledge for mutual benefit.

Have you ever stopped to think about all the things that we take for granted? When you're wandering through the breakfast cereal isle at the supermarket, for example, do you ever wonder whether Uncle Toby really was? If so, was he related to Sara Lee? Were Nana's apple pies originally made by Granny Smith? It's not so much that familiarity breeds contempt as that it lulls us into a state of mind…

I am delighted to have been invited to speak to you tonight on the Eve of International Women's Day, as so many of you are at the eve of being women yourselves, whether international or not. I can tell you, from my own experience, that being a woman kind of creeps up on you: one minute you're a girl, or an adolescent (whatever that may really be), and the next you are a woman!

The fact that CEOE is conducting this forum in itself indicates that disability is widely seen by business as presenting significant occupational health and safety (OH&S) issues. And certainly, concerns related to occupational health and safety are widely experienced by people with disabilities as barriers to equal opportunity in employment.

Probably most of us here are parents, and we all have dreams for our children. One of my dreams for my 18-year-old son and his girl friend is that they will be able to participate in society in the same way as everyone else.

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.

I want to start, though, by talking for a few minutes about the broader legislative context under the Disability Discrimination Act and about what all of this is for in terms of achieving access and inclusion.

The Australian Human Rights Commission Act tells us that the Commission's functions should be performed "efficiently and with the greatest possible benefit to the people of Australia". That is also a good summary of the goals of the Department of Finance, in public expenditure, public administration and policy and regulation.

I also acknowledge Ministers with us here today; Ambassador Don Mackay joining us from New Zealand by video link; and many friends and colleagues from the disability and human rights community.

I'd also like to acknowledge, as I have done at similar conferences previously, what I have owed personally to people in education in NSW. Education with the support of many great education professionals together with support from family and friends to achieve my goals is why I am in the position I hold now. I compare that to the position of many blind and vision impaired people, facing over 80…

On March 30 this year Australia lined up with 80 other countries at the UN in New York to sign the Convention on the Rights or Persons with Disabilities

I was around as head of the then Disability Advisory Council of Australia back in the late 80s and early 90s when ACROD and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission worked together on a discussion paper and consultation process to identify and pursue areas of increased need for human rights protection for people with disabilities.