Disabled experience violence every 10 minutes inquiry told

Someone with profound or severe disability experiences physical or sexual violence every 10 minutes, the disability inquiry is told.

Ronald Sackville is chairman of the disability inquiry. Picture: John Feder.

A new disability royal commission has warned large NDIS providers to expect notices to arrive shortly, ordering them to hand over all records of incidents of violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation of people with disability.

On the first sitting day of the new Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability in Brisbane on Monday, Senior Counsel Assisting Rebecca Treston said the plight of people with disability demanded a response, and work had already commenced to gather information about existing complaints and investigations.

“Almost one in five Australians have a disability,” Ms Treston told the commission in her opening address. “People with disability experience high rates of violence. Every 10 minutes someone with profound or severe disability experiences physical or sexual violence.”

She said a person with disability was twice as likely to be unemployed as someone without disability. And their median weekly income was less than half of a person with no disability, leading to social and economic exclusion.

The big NDIS providers were in the commission’s sights, Ms Treston said.

“Last week the commission wrote to a substantial number of the largest NDIS providers,” she said. “(We) put them on notice that the commission will shortly issue them with formal notices to produce documents or give information about …. complaints, investigations and reporting of incidents of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability in connection with (their) services, and policies and procedures to identify and manage any such incidents.”

Opening the commission, chairman Ronald Sackville said he and his five fellow commissioners had a complex and formidable task ahead to come to grips with the level of abuse, neglect and violence against people with disability and to determine a path forward.

“We are deeply conscious of the magnitude and complexity of the task ahead of us. It is truly formidable,” Mr Sackville said.

“We are conscious that the disability community and their supporters, as well as the wider Australian community, have extremely high expectations of this royal commission. People want and expect real change. We have to ensure that unheard voices are finally heard.”

The first public sitting was ceremonial, with no evidence or testimony. Lasting around 90 minutes, it marked the formal start of a long process. The commissioners are due to provide an interim report in October next year, and a final report in April 2022.

Mr Sackville used his opening remarks to address the calls of some disability advocates for two of the six commissioners to stand down due to conflicts of interest. Commissioners John Ryan and Barbara Bennett were both former bureaucrats who oversaw parts of the disability system, and Mr Ryan was a former NSW opposition spokesman for the sector.

“Under no circumstances will a commissioner participate in a hearing or in deliberations concerning matters that might bear in any way on that commissioner’s past conduct or the discharge of his or her responsibilities in a previous role,” Mr Sackville said.

He acknowledged the “special responsibility” to expose the nature and extent of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with disability.

“The evidence is overwhelming that first nations people have substantially higher levels of disability than non-indigenous people,” he said.

“The available evidence also demonstrates that the prevalence of abuse experienced by first nations people with disability is substantially greater than that experienced by non-indigenous people with disability.”

Fellow commissioner Andrea Mason agreed. “Having a disability makes them part of a marginalised group within a marginalised group,” she said.

Another commissioner, Alastair McEwin, said Australians living with disability had for too long been denied the right to make their own decisions with appropriate support.

“For far too long people with disability have been denied the dignity of risk and the freedom to choose how to live their own lives with independence,” Mr McEwin said.

“Our society cannot be allowed to protect people with disability to the extent that they cannot choose to live their own lives as they wish and to experience the consequences of those choices.”

He paid tribute to the hard work of the disability community in establishing the royal commission. ‘The royal commission came about through many years of advocacy by people with disability and their allies. We pay tribute to their efforts to shine a spotlight on this issue.”