Australian Human Rights Commission
e-bulletin
April 2010
Welcome
Welcome to the first of the Australian Human Rights Commission's monthly e-bulletins, where we will keep you up to date with our latest programs, projects and news. Please forward to friends and colleagues who have an interest in human rights.
In this e-bulletin
- Easier access to new public buildings guaranteed from next year
- Proper and meaningful engagement with Indigenous peoples tops list of concerns from Commissioner’s trip
- First equal pay test case shines spotlight on important human rights issue
- Recent media releases
- Recent publications
- Recent submissions
- Recent speeches
- Get involved - upcoming events
Easier access to new public buildings guaranteed from next year
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| From left to right: Parliamentary Secretary Bill Shorten, Commissioner Graeme Innes, Attorney General Robert McClelland, Minister Kim Carr, Parliamentary Secretary Richard Marles |
The Commission’s central role in a 10-year campaign to improve building access for people with a disability finally paid off in March when new standards for access to public buildings were announced by the federal government.
“The Premises Standards will lead to practical improvements for Australians with disability who’ll find it easier to get into and move around public buildings once the new standards come into force,” Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes said.
“These long awaited improvements to new and renovated buildings will also make an enormous difference to those with prams, people making deliveries or anyone having to navigate equipment with wheels."
“We expect these standards to become law in May next year when we will start to see the real impact on the ground with almost every aspect of design improved – including entrances, door widths, numbers and location of accessible toilets, lifts, turning spaces on passageways and increased wheelchair spaces in cinemas and theatres,” Mr Innes said.
Proper and meaningful engagement with Indigenous peoples tops list of concerns from Commissioner’s trip
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| Commissioner Mick Gooda with Dr Fiona Arney, Head of Child Protection Research, Menzies School of Health Research, in Darwin. |
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda has returned from far north Queensland, the Northern Territory, Perth and Narrogin in WA with one message clearly received: Indigenous Australia wants proper and meaningful engagement from government.
"Coordination of services at the community level was also a cause of concern virtually everywhere I visited," Commissioner Gooda said, citing an example of a school boy who was attending classes without his hearing aid, and suffering educationally as a result, because privacy concerns had prevented his health worker telling his teachers he needed the aid to learn.
"There was also concern wherever I went with what was happening in the 73 prescribed communities in the NT which I think brings some urgency to the need to ensure that the emergency response measures are compliant with the Racial Discrimination Act as well as our international obligations," he said.
Further trips are planned for other parts of the country with Commissioner Gooda using the insights gained to raise issues with government and to help set his priorities for the next five years.
First equal pay test case shines spotlight on important human rights issue
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Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick looks forward to the outcome of equal pay test case |
Australia’s first equal pay test case under the Fair Work Australia legislation could lead to clearer guidelines on what equal pay for work of equal or comparable value means.
Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick says the test case brought last month by the Australian Services Union could deliver potential increases in the pay packets of more than 200,000 community sector workers who are largely women.
"If Fair Work Australia (FWA) determines that the work of ASU members is undervalued, it could lead to other equal pay cases being brought before FWA and potentially to salary increases for other sectors," Commissioner Broderick said.
"A large proportion of the Australian population remains unaware that Australian women receive 83 cents for every dollar a man earns for equal or comparable work.
"This case allows us to educate the community about what equal pay really means."
A decision is expected to be handed down by FWA towards the end of the year.
Recent media releases
- Commission welcomes important move to improve quality of care at GP visits (9 April 2010)
- Suspension of processing asylum seekers raises serious concerns (9 April 2010)
- NT communities must have same protections as the rest of Australia (15 March 2010)
Recent publications
- Know your rights: Sex discrimination and sexual harassment
- Social Justice Report 2009
- Native Title Report 2009
Recent submissions
- Inquiry into the future direction and role of the Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee - 19 March 2010
- Inquiry into the Welfare Reform and Reinstatement of Racial Discrimination Act Bill 2009 and other Bills - 15 February 2010
- Reform of Australian Government Administration - November 2009
Recent speeches
- Tabling of Disability Standards on Access to Premises Graeme Innes, Canberra, 15 March 2010
- International Commission of Jurists (Vic) Opening of the Legal Year Delivered by the Hon Catherine Branson, 1 February 2010
