‘Cycle of segregation’ must be ended sooner: Greens senator Jordon Steele-John

A decades-long plan to close segregated schools in Australia is “wildly inadequate”, and will subject many to “lonely” and “abusive” conditions, a Senator has said.

A 28-year plan to scrap special schools that split disability royal commissioners earlier this week is “wildly inadequate” and the current school system perpetuates a “cycle of segregation”, Greens disability spokesman Senator Jordon Steele-John has said.

The division among six commissioners over the future of special schools was one of the most controversial outcomes of findings into the landmark final report of the Disability Royal Commission which was handed down on Friday.

“30 years is wildly inadequate,” senator Steele-John said on the ABC’s Sunday political program Insiders.

“To put that in perspective, that would mean that a disabled child born today would be likely to see their child educated in a separated setting and that is lonely, that is abusive, that is unacceptable.”

Senator Jordon Steele-John said the recommendation to phase out special schools over 28 years was ‘wildly inadequate’. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Three of the commissioners called for a phase out of special schools by 2051 and a ban on new enrolments from 2032.

But without consensus among commissioners, state and federal governments are left without clear authority over future reform directions.

Senator Steele-John said the Greens would push a seven-year timeline for the closure of segregated educational facilities.

“What the Greens have been advocating for, in collaboration with the disability sector, has been a managed transition that completes by 2030,” he said.

“That’s perfectly possible … if we work together to transform the classroom, to acknowledge that the education system in the mainstream often doesn’t meet the needs of disabled people.

“But we can make it so, we can do this together by providing additional funding for teacher resources, and making sure that families and administrators are brought along in this transition.”

Disability royal commissioners were split over a recommendations to scrap special schools. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Senator Steele-John said current disability support systems perpetuated segregation and needed to be reformed as soon as possible,

“A disabled child will start education in a segregated school and then move through to a segregated workplace where they are paid, sometimes $2 an hour and will be forced to be housed in an institutional group home setting where they are again segregated,” he said.

“The result of that cycle of segregation is abuse, it is neglect and it is early death … We must break that cycle by transitioning away from those segregated settings and ending them now.”

He added that the government needed to go beyond establishing a taskforce to respond to the royal commission’s 222 recommendations and appoint a federal disability minister.

The final report of the royal commission into violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability made 222 recommendations to state and federal governments. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

Greens call for abolition of group homes

Senator Steele-John also called for the phase out of group homes which provide accommodation for people with a disability.

Four of the six commissioners favoured a phase of group homes over 15 years, but Steele-John said a timeline by the end of the decade was more appropriate.

“I think it is very possible to achieve that transition by 2030,” he told ABC.

“What we need to see is engagement from state and federal governments in building diverse housing options for disabled people and recognising as well that disabled people are often trapped in cycles of poverty and financial poverty

“If we address these things with urgency, we can pull that off and we must. There really needs to be an acknowledgment that the only appropriate response to this report is action. There can be no more dither or delay or let’s set up a task force that’s interdepartmental and wait and see.”

The royal commission’s findings were made public on Friday following four-and-a-half years of reports, submissions and testimony from people with disability, their families, friends and other stakeholders. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Disability rights overhaul needed

The WA Greens senator also echoed calls from the royal commission to update existing discrimination legislation and enact a Disability Right Act that should reflect the principles laid out in the United Nations on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

“I think what the disability community need to see from a Disability Rights Act is a comprehensive piece of legislation aimed at upholding our rights as articulated under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled People in every setting and context in which we exist,” senator Steele-John said.

“It needs to be comprehensive covering public and private services, and it needs to form the basis then for a disability commission which will enable us to take complaints around ableism, around segregation, around abuse, to that commission and have those complaints investigated and consequences enforced.