Month: September 2018

Speaking up

On By More to the StoryIn Events, Festivals, politics

What a privilege and inspiration to hear Professor Gillian Triggs, former president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, speak last night.

Professor Triggs is on the first leg of a book tour promoting her memoir Speaking Up. She spoke at the University of Western Australia to a packed theatre about her life and the many challenges she faced during her five-year tenure. She withstood relentless political pressure and media scrutiny as she and the Commission advocated for the disempowered, the disenfranchised and the marginalised.

I’m thrilled that I will be interviewing Professor Triggs myself at the Ubud Readers and Writers Festival in October. It will be a chance for us all to learn more about her global views and the lessons and insights she has taken from her time at the Human Rights Commission.

She left us in no doubt that as an Australian society we have failed to measure up to the human rights standards we hypocritically endorse. She worries about the decline in political leadership in Australia, and in her speech, highlighted some key issues in her book. She spoke passionately about Indigenous Australians and their human rights, freedom of speech, gender and marriage equality and the monitoring, treatment and law about asylum seekers.

She believes Australians can pull together and become a better society. She argued that the time is right for a legislated charter of human rights.

“We do not view social justice through the lens of human rights in Australia. Human rights law does not inform the legal or political discourse and is often ignored and expressly overridden by the parliament.

It is our responsibility as citizens in this democracy to become more informed and to speak up about injustices.”

I am looking forward to my interview with Professor Triggs and I’ll share some more of her thoughts on this blog.  In the meantime, I recommend the book Speaking Up to everyone.

speaking-up-cover

 

Refugees create jobs

On By More to the StoryIn Events, Refugees in WA

Recent Australian Bureau of Statistics data revealed that people who arrived in Australia as refugees are the most entrepreneurial migrant group. ‘This builds on earlier research showing people of a refugee background tended to work several jobs in their first few years in Australia to build capital to start their own businesses,’ the ABS said.

Today, Australia is more multicultural than ever before. We live this reality in the food we eat, the music we listen to and, most importantly, with the people we choose to spend time with.

Refugees are not taking Australian jobs, they are creating new ones. There are so many good stories around about big and small enterprises but I wanted to highlight one.

The Fare Go food truck is a social enterprise food truck operated by people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds. Started by CARAD – the Centre for Asylum Seekers, refugees and detainees in Western Australia, the Fare Go food truck gives us the opportunity to eat, share and connect over food from different cultures while empowering refugees and asylum seekers through employment.

I was pleased to see that the Fare Go enterprise has been chosen to participate in the Pitch for Good event in October.  Impact Seed, StartSomeGood and City of Perth host the event which is essentially a triple-decker live crowdfunding campaign!

It is such a great event – and the finalists are all doing amazing work. Each have the chance to ‘pitch’ their idea to up to 250 people, all of whom are interested in social enterprises and keen to make a difference. There is a cost to attend and all money goes to the enterprises participating. You can find out more about the event and book to attend here.

Fare Go food truck