What will the Human Rights Act 2019 do for children with disabilities in Queensland schools?

A free event for parents to better understand the new ‘right to education’ and complaint options.

In 2019 Queensland will get a Human Rights Act. Uniquely for Australia this Act will provide for both a Right to Education focused on inclusion and equality, and a mechanism to bring complaints to the Human Rights Commission.  This new right, and the new option for complaining, have the potential to bring life-changing reforms to the way education is received by individual children with disabilities and other complex needs. 

The University of Queensland Pro Bono Centre invites parents and carers to a free community discussion to learn about the new law and process, and to ask questions of human rights and inclusion experts from the School of Law and the School of Education.

Speakers

Dr Emma Phillips

Emma Phillips is a systems advocate and lawyer.  She holds a PhD in law from La Trobe University, which explored human rights concerns associated with the marginalisation of disempowered workers from and within the Australian labour market.  Emma has a keen interest in human rights and anti-discrimination law and the protection of vulnerable groups within society.  She has been actively involved in the campaign for a Human Rights Act in Queensland and is Chair of the Human Rights Act Sub-Committee of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights.  She writes papers and submissions directed at achieving attitudinal change and law reform and appears at public hearings and Senate inquiries on relevant issues.

Dr Rhonda Faragher

Dr Rhonda Faragher is Deputy Head of the School of Education and a senior lecturer in Inclusive Education. She has internationally recognised expertise in the mathematics education of learners with Down syndrome. In her research and teaching, she works to improve the educational outcomes of students who have difficulties learning mathematics, for whatever reason, including through educational disadvantage. Beyond mathematics education, she has expertise in inclusive education in a range of contexts, including secondary classrooms.

Dr Faragher Is the Director of the Down Syndrome Research Program within the School of Education. She is an appointed Board member to the Academy on Education, Teaching and Research of IASSIDD - the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, Chair of the Down syndrome Special Interest Research Group of IASSIDD, Trustee of Down Syndrome International and an Independent Director of Down Syndrome Australia. She is Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities.

Dr Faragher is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has received a number of awards for her work including the 2016 ACU Vice-Chancellor's Medal for Staff Excellence, a Commonwealth of Australia Endeavour Executive Award and the 2011 Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia Research Award.

Professor Tamara Walsh

Professor Tamara Walsh has degrees in both Law and Social Work, and her interest is in social welfare law. Her research studies examine the impact of the law on vulnerable people including children and young people, people experiencing homelessness, people on low incomes, people with disabilities, mothers and carers. Most of her studies are sociolegal and empirical in nature, and she draws on human rights discourse and social exclusion theory to explore the influence that the law has on complex social problems. Her research has spanned 15 years and has been widely published, both in Australia and internationally.

In 2008, Tamara designed and established the UQ Pro Bono Centre, along with Dr Paul O'Shea and Prof Ross Grantham. The UQ Pro Bono Centre facilitates student and staff participation in pro bono legal activities, particularly public interest research and law reform. It is now a flagship program of the Law School. In 2010, Tamara established the Manning Street Project, a joint initiative between the TC Beirne School of Law and Caxton Legal Centre, which engages students in action-research on a volunteer basis to contribute to the law reform activities of the community legal sector.

In 2016, Tamara established the UQ Deaths in Custody Project, which she runs in partnership with a team of pro bono law students and IT staff. This Project monitors deaths in custody across Australia, and administers a public website which is an important resource for researchers, coroners and members of the public: www.deaths-in-custody.project.uq.edu.au.

Tamara is currently the lead researcher of the ARC Linkage project 'The criminalisation of poverty and homelessness: A national study' (2017-2019). She is also completing a project on the impacts of the child protection and youth justice systems on vulnerable young people, and she has been instrumental in the proposed establishment of a Community Justice Centre in southeast Queensland.

Tamara undertakes pro bono legal practice in the area of child protection, and she lectures in human rights law and constitutional law.

Loretta Kreet

Loretta Kreet graduated with law and economic degrees from the University of Sydney.  She has practiced for over 20 years as a consumer advocate and has broad and extensive experience in the areas of consumer credit and financial services. As an employee of Community Legal Centres and subsequently Legal Aid Queensland she has represented vulnerable and disadvantaged people.  Ms Kreet is a Senior Consumer Lawyer within Legal Aid Queensland’s Civil Justice Services Unit.  Currently she represents participants of the National Disability Insurance Scheme who have commenced appeals to the AAT. She is a parent of a child with a disability.