Human Rights Commission revamp From AAP 17feb99 3.20pm (AEDT) EQUAL opportunity will disappear from the name of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission under a major shake-up outlined in Parliament today. HREOC will become the Human Rights and Responsibilities Commission and the number of deputy presidents halved to three under legislation introduced this morning. "TheGovernment's examination found that the current structure of the commission is inefficient and top-heavy and does not always operate in the best interests of the entire Australian community," Attorney-General Daryl Williams told Parliament. Under the reorganisation, the commission will have a president and three deputy presidents - one each for human rights and disability, social justice and race, and sex discrimination and equal opportunity. That's a cutback from six commissioners covering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice, disability discrimination, human rights, privacy, race discrimination and sex discrimination. The privacy commissioner will be removed from HREOC under separate legislation passed by Parliament today. Mr Williams said the Human Rights Legislation Amendment Bill (No 2) would be the catalyst for fundamental cultural change at HREOC. "The bill makes it clear that the new commission's priority will be to educate Australians about human rights and discrimination and to help them understand their responsibility as members of the Australian community to respect other people's human rights," he said. Debate was adjourned. >From the ABC Protesters to take fire to G-G's home Wednesday 17 February, 1999 (2:10pm AEDT) Aboriginal activists at Parliament House in Canberra say they will take their protest fire to the Governor-General's residence tomorrow. They have conducted a traditional ceremony on the Parliamentary lawns to heal their anger at the Federal Government and its indigenous policies. Protester Kevin Buzzacott has symbolically speared an Australian flag and soiled it with ashes, to remove the evil he says has desecrated Aboriginal land and culture. "This thing never meant to be the boss of this country, it not the Government for this country, so we're going to rewrite all the wrongs so we can make peace again," Mr Buzzacott said. "Their monuments and their flag mean nothing, take them down, pull them down, they're nothing." ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
