Change in the Disability Rights Team at the Commission

I am writing to let you know of some changes occurring in the Disability Rights Team at the Australian Human Rights Commission. As some of you may be aware, David Mason has for some time been carrying extra duties as well as his role as Director of the Disability Rights Team. He has been responsible for leading the Commission's input into new equality legislation, a new National Human Rights Action Plan, and for contributing to our work around the parliamentary scrutiny process for assessing whether new laws comply with our international human rights obligations. The Commission has come to the view that this second role is a critical part of our ongoing work, and should be carried out on a full-time basis. David has agreed to take on this new role, and his depth of knowledge, skills and experience will ensure it is effectively carried out. It is also a great opportunity for David to have an impact in a broader field.

David has been the Director of the Disability Rights Team since its creation – along with the commencement of the DDA – in 1993. That length of time, and his demonstrated capacity for progress in this area, has meant that his place will be a difficult one to fill. He will be very much missed.

However, David is not going away completely. He will be available to provide advice to the Disability Rights Team, and will still have responsibility for exemptions and other related legislative activities throughout the Commission.

The new Principal Advisor in the Disability Rights Team will be Helen Potts. Helen comes to the team from her role as Principal Advisor in the area of Age Discrimination. She has qualifications in law and human rights, and a background in community advocacy and disability. She will bring skills from which we will all benefit.

Helen joins an already strong and effective team. Cristina Ricci, whose excellent and committed work is familiar to many of you, remains as Senior Advisor. Sythany Leang continues as Advisor until her return to the Attorney-General's department in September. Also joining us is Si Qi Wen, my new Executive Assistant, who – along with her legal qualifications – brings experience as the Marketing Advocacy Specialist with Cochlear in China.

Also, as some of you may be aware, Catherine Branson QC has come to the end of her term as President of the Commission. Cathy brought fearless visionary leadership to the Commission, and leaves an organisation much better suited to working in a collegiate way across teams to address broad issues in the human rights field. She too will be sadly missed.

The new President of the Commission is Professor Gillian Triggs. Gillian has been Dean of the Law School at Sydney University for the past five years, and brings with her a background in international law. I am delighted to have to her energetic leadership, and her family experience of disability will enhance the work of this team.

These personnel changes provide us with an opportunity to formalise the change in direction which David and I have been leading for some months. I am keen, in my final period as Disability Discrimination Commissioner, to take the DDA and its benefits to places it has not visited so frequently. In order to do that, whilst continuing some of the work with which we have been involved, we are keen to celebrate what has been achieved in the twenty years of the DDA's history, and to look at areas where the legislation has not had as great an impact. These include areas which focus a little more on intellectual, psychiatric and cognitive disability.

We are currently developing activities in three areas -

* Twenty Years, Twenty Stories: Celebrating the achievements and learnings from the first twenty years of the DDA. You might like to look at my speech to the Deafness Forum on this subject.

* Work in the area of violence against people with disability in institutional settings.

* Work in the area of access to the justice system for people with disability.

Some of you may be aware that we have been investigating these areas during the past few months. It is now time to plan the course we want to take, and to set off on that course.

Inevitably, both the changes in personnel and the new directions we are taking on will mean that we cannot continue to do all of the things we have done in the past. Our work has already come to an end in some areas – the completion of work on DDA Access To Premises Standards, and moving captioning to mainstream regulation by ACMA being two very significant examples. There will be other areas where our input will decrease or not continue. This is the inevitable result of having finite people and financial resources to address the broad spectrum of disability rights policy throughout Australia.

However, we will work hard to ensure that the involvements we do have are effective in progressing those rights. Improving the quality of life of Australians with disability remains the passion of all team members, and of the Commission.

I look forward to continuing to work with you in the disability field. The Commission would not be able to achieve what it does in this area without your input and support.

Graeme Innes AM, Disability Discrimination Commissioner

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