By Jessie Taylor When I was approached by the Castan Centre to write a blog for refugee week, my heart sank. To be clear, I’m delighted to write for the Castan Centre (which I proudly identify as the birthplace of my human rights consciousness), but I just don’t know what to say anymore. What can […]
June 19, 2013
2013 Refugee Week Blog: Oceans apart: compassion, politics and refugees
By Lizzie O’Shea This week is Refugee Week, an opportune moment to reflect on the year that has passed. We are now detaining more children than ever before. Through the creation of the dysfunctional and inappropriate “no advantage” test, we are also creating a subclass of asylum seekers gripped by poverty. This particular category of […]
June 3, 2013
2013 Reconciliation Week Blog – “On Reconciliation”
Guest Blogger – The Koori Woman This post forms part of the Castan Centre’s 2013 Reconciliation Week guest blog series. You can also read posts by Inala Cooper of Monash University, Shireen Morris of the Cape York Institute and Luke Pearson of AboriginalOz and Indigenous X. It wasn’t until Kevin Rudd gave his Apology speech that I felt, for […]
May 30, 2013
2013 Reconciliation Week Blog – Symbolism, change and reconciliation
Guest Blogger – Luke Pearson, IndigenousX This post forms part of the Castan Centre’s 2013 Reconciliation Week guest blog series. You can also read the post by Inala Cooper of Monash University, and the post by Shireen Morris of the Cape York Institute. National Reconciliation Week is upon us… and Sorry Day is just behind us.And sadly […]
May 29, 2013
2013 Reconciliation Week Blog – Why we need constitutional reform: recognition and equality before the law
Guest Blogger: Shireen Morris, Cape York Institute This post forms part of the Castan Centre’s 2013 Reconciliation Week guest blog series. You can also read the post by Inala Cooper of Monash University and the post by Luke Pearson of AboriginalOz and Indigenous X. The conversation about constitutional recognition of Indigenous peoples presents us with […]
May 27, 2013
2013 Reconciliation Week Blog – Southern Dreaming: A Reconciliation Retrospective
Guest Blogger: Inala Cooper, Senior Adviser Indigenous Policy and Strategy, Monash University This post forms part of the Castan Centre’s 2013 Reconciliation Week guest blog series. You can also read the post by Shireen Morris of the Cape York Institute and the post by Luke Pearson of AboriginalOz and Indigenous X. One thing you can be guaranteed of in […]
May 23, 2013
The ethics of enforced child vaccinations
By Dr Paula Gerber The debate around whether children should be vaccinated against illness such as the measles and whooping cough tends to be highly emotive and divisive, with the medical profession on one side talking about epidemics and quoting lots of scientific data, and concerned parents on the other side, recounting heart-wrenching stories of […]
May 22, 2013
Human Rights in the Federal Budget Part 2: The Attorney-General’s Department
By Adam McBeth The Attorney-General’s Department has trumpeted the commitment of an additional $130 million in the next year “to improve access to justice for all Australians.” The bulk of that amount will be spent on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse, with a further $23.5 million split between Community Legal Centres, […]
May 17, 2013
Human Rights in the Federal Budget Part 1: Creative Accounting and Overseas Aid
By Adam McBeth Following Tuesday’s budget, much has been made of the government’s deferral (yet again) of the commitment to increase spending on official development assistance (or overseas aid) to 0.5% of gross national income until 2017-18. This amounts to a cut of $1.9 billion from previously forecast aid levels over the period to June […]
May 15, 2013
Hurting the most vulnerable: the Disability Discrimination Act does not apply to immigration law
By Adam Fletcher I have already written on this blog about religious exemptions to the various federal anti‑discrimination laws, but there is another exemption which gets less coverage than it deserves. Section 52 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) says that the Act does not ‘affect discriminatory provisions in,’ or ‘render unlawful anything that […]
June 20, 2013
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