Graeme Innes

Dr Graeme Innes was awarded an honorary doctorate for his work in campaigning for Australian's rights. Photo: Michelle McAulay.

Since raising money for the Royal Blind Society as only a 3 year old, Graeme Innes has spent the last 30 years campaigning for people with a disability and advocating for human rights.

Born in Sydney, Mr Innes was blind at birth due to a congenital issue. This however did not hinder him in his academic pursuits. After first attending the North Rocks School for Deaf and Blind Children where he was named school captain, Mr Innes was one of the first blind students to be integrated into the mainstream school system when he attended Ashfield Boys High School.

Mr Innes completed a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Sydney, before embarking on a distinguished career that would lead him to becoming Australia's Disability Discrimination Commissioner in 2005 and drafting the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of Persons with a Disability.

In addition to his time as Australia's Disability Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Right's Commission, Mr Innes also spent two years as the Race Discrimination Commissioner, and four years as Human Right's Commissioner.

During this time Mr Innes led or contributed to the success of a number of initiatives including the Same Sex: Same Entitlements inquiry, which resulted in removal of discrimination across federal law; the drafting of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and its ratification by Australia and was crucial to the development of the National Disability Strategy and the Disability Standards 2010, as well as the establishment of Liveable Housing Australia. As Human Rights Commissioner, Mr Innes undertook three annual inspections of Australia's Immigration Detention facilities.

An active high profile advocate for the implementation of cinema captioning and audio descriptions, Mr Innes has also served on a range of boards and tribunals including the Residential Tribunal of NSW, Administrative Decisions Tribunal of NSW, Fair Trading Tribunal of NSW, and Social Security Appeals Tribunal. In addition, he has also been Deputy Chair of the Australian Disability Consultative Council, Chair of the Disability Advisory Council of Australia, the first Chair of Vision Australia, and is currently the Chair of the Attitude Foundation.

In 1995 Mr Innes was made a Member of the Order of Australia, and in 2003 was a finalist for Australian of the Year. He has also been recognised by the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby as an outstanding supporter, and was awarded for his outstanding service by Vision Australia.

Mr Graeme Innes was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of the University of Canberra for high continued advocacy for human rights and in particular people with a disability.