Early career

After completing practical legal training at the College of Law in 1978, Innes applied for about 30 jobs, but many employers did not understand how a blind person could work as a lawyer. He gained a position as a clerical assistant with the NSW Public Service, and two years later became a legal officer at the Department of Consumer Affairs. He became a conciliator in 1983, first at the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board and then at the WA Equal Opportunity Commission.

Innes worked for Qantas (1993–1995), initially managing its Disability Services Project, and then fulfilling the role of the company's Equal Employment Opportunity Officer. He then moved to Westpac, where he was Manager of Disability Projects (1995–1997).

He was a Hearing Commissioner with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1994–2001). In this role, he heard the cases of Finney v Hills Grammar School,^[8] and Purvis v NSW Department of Education,^[9] which resulted in the landmark decisions that the schools in question had discriminated against a child on the basis of their disability (either refusing enrolment, or excluding the child) in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.

Innes then became the Deputy Disability Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission from 1999 to 2005. As a tribunal member, he maintained a high resolution rate of complaints using conciliation for tribunals including the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal (1996–2005); the NSW Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal (1996–2005); and the Social Security Appeals Tribunal.

Throughout his early career, Innes held leadership positions in disability advocacy organisations. He was the first Chair of Disabled Peoples International (Australia) which became People with Disability Australia^[10] (1983–1987), and Chair of Royal Blind Society (1995–2004) and was the first Chair of Australia's national blindness agency, Vision Australia^[11] (2004–2005). He was the Chair of the Commonwealth Disability Advisory Council of Australia^[12] 1989–1993, which achieved passage by government of the Disability Discrimination Act in 1992, and which developed a plan to improve transport accessibility (which later became the Accessible Transport Standards^[13]). He was also Deputy Chair of the Australian Disability Consultative Council This council was replaced by the National People with Disabilities and Carer Council, which has is now replaced with Disability and Carers Industry Advisory Council^[14] 1995–1996, and Chair of World Blind Union (Asia Pacific Region) 2002–2005. He has been a board member of the NSW Disability Discrimination Legal Centre;^[15] Life Without Barriers;,^[16] Livable Housing Australia^[17] and is a board member of disability employment service, Joblife Employment.^[18]

Later career

Innes was appointed Australia's Disability Discrimination Commissioner in December 2005. During that time, he also served as Australia's Human Rights Commissioner (2005–2009) and as Race Discrimination Commissioner (2009–2011). As Commissioner, Innes contributed to human rights reform initiatives. He participated in the drafting of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities^[19] and its ratification by Australia. He also played an instrumental role in the Same Sex: Same Entitlements^[20] enquiry, which resulted in the removal of discrimination across Australian federal law.

Innes also contributed to the development of the National Disability Strategy and the Disability (Access to Premises – buildings) Standards 2010,^[21] as well as to the establishment of Livable Housing Australia.^[17] In his role as Human Rights Commissioner, he undertook three annual inspections of Australia's Immigration Detention facilities.

As a human rights advocate, in his personal capacity as well as professionally, Innes has achieved a number of reforms for people with disability. In 2013 acting in a personal capacity, he won a case in the Federal Magistrates Court against RailCorp^[22] (which delivers train services in NSW). The magistrate found RailCorp had discriminated against blind and visually impaired passengers by refusing to commit to a program of improving station announcements on Sydney trains so that passengers would know where to get off. Innes won the case and $10,000 damages, after RailCorp spent more than $400,000 on its unsuccessful defence. Also in 2013, Innes initiated an online petition calling on department store Myer to increase its employment of people with disability to 10 per cent of its workforce. This action was in response to a negative statement by Myer's CEO about the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Innes' petition gained 35,000 signatures within a few days.

Innes has been an active advocate for the implementation of cinema captioning and audio descriptions in Australia.

He is known for his speeches,^[23] and his erudite opinion pieces^[24] published in mainstream Australian media. He embraces communications technologies and platforms, and is a regular user of Twitter^[25] for timely media commentary.

In December 2022, Innes was installed as the chancellor of Central Queensland University.^[26] He is the first university chancellor in Australia to identify as having a disability.^[27]

Notable achievements

• Passing of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992^[28][29]
• Passing of the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities^[19]
• Passing of the UN Optional Protocol on Rights of Persons with Disabilities^[30]

Honours

Innes was made a Member of the Order of Australia 1995^[31] for service to the community, particularly as an adviser on disability anti-discrimination policy. He was also shortlisted for Australian of the Year in 2004.

Academic

• Fellow, Australian Institute of Company Directors
• Adjunct Professor, University of Sydney
• Honorary Doctor of the University, University of Canberra, 2014, in recognition of his work as a human rights activist.
• Honorary Doctor of Social Sciences, RMIT University, 2016, in recognition of his national contribution to public service and advocacy of human rights, particularly for people with disabilities.
• Honorary Doctorate, University of New South Wales, 2017

Other awards

• Outstanding Supporter Award, 2008 – Gay & Lesbian Rights Lobby
• Outstanding Service Award, 1976–2005 – Vision Australia
• David Blyth Award, 1999 – Blind Citizens Australia
• Civic Medallion, 1992 – City of Perth, Western Australia

Personal life

Innes is married to Maureen Shelley. He has an adult son and daughter. He enjoys cricket and sailing.