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Graeme Innes

Director

Graeme Innes AM is a lawyer, author, and company director. His autobiography Finding A Way achieved popular acclaim in 2016.

Graeme led the merger of four blindness agencies to form Vision Australia, and chaired the board of that agency.

He is also a Director of:

  • The National Disability Insurance Agency;
  • The State Insurance Regulatory Authority, regulating workers’ compensation and motor vehicle accident insurance in NSW.

He is the Chancellor of Central Queensland University.

He has been a human rights practitioner for more than 30 years and is a conference presenter and facilitator.

Graeme was a Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission for nine years, responsible for issues relating to disability, race and human rights. In this role, he led work on:

  • The ratification by Australia of a UN Convention on the rights of people with disabilities;
  • The Same Sex Same Entitlements inquiry;
  • Regulations in the areas of accessible buildings and transport;
  • Work with industry on TV and movie captions and accessible banking standards; and
  • Three inspections of Australia’s immigration detention centres.

Graeme was awarded an AM for his work on the development of the Disability Discrimination Act, was a finalist for Australian of the Year, and, on the international stage, he was a member of the Australian delegation that participated in negotiating the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. He was awarded Honorary Doctorates by the University of Canberra in 2014, RMIT University in 2016, UNSW in 2017 and Edith Cowan University in 2018, in recognition of his work as a human rights activist.