Governments urged to fund disability reform

Governments must back up their coming response to the recommendations of the disability royal commission with adequate funding, advocates say.

Disability advocates are anxiously awaiting the response from federal and state governments to the disability royal commission’s final report. The governments are expected to announce their response shortly

Federal and state governments must back up their coming response to the recommendations of the disability royal commission with enough funding to end the violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability, advocates say.

With federal and state governments expected to formally respond to the commission’s final report shortly, the disability community is on tenterhooks about which of the 222 recommen­dations will be supported.

“We want a genuine acknowledgment of our suffering,” People with Disability Australia president Marayke Jonkers said.

“That means a commitment to creating the society we want to live in, not the society we haven’t had the chance to live in yet.

People with Disability Australia president Marayke Jonkers. Picture: Patrick Woods.

“It is our hope that (governments have developed) co-­ordinated and fully funded action plans that deliver real progress to our full inclusion,” she said.

The royal commission into violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability ran for more than four years at a cost of $600m, with more than 10,000 people providing input.

Its final report published last September called for a complete overhaul of the nation’s disability system, which will affect the 5.5 million Australians living with a disability.

It proposed new laws to prevent discrimination, a new federal disability inclusion minister and a new federal watchdog to oversee the rights of disabled people, including the 600,000 participants in the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

It also outlined reforms in the health, education, housing, employment and legal systems to protect the human rights of ­people with disability and ensure they enjoyed greater safety and inclusion in society.

“People with disability are being hurt and harmed at much higher rates than other Australians, by people and places meant to keep us safe,” Disability Advocacy Network Australia deputy chief executive El Gibbs said.

“The disability royal commission spent 4½ years hearing about the worst times in our lives, with stories from people with disability filling three volumes of the final report. The scale of this violence and abuse against us deserves a response of the same size and urgency from all levels of government,” Ms Gibbs said.

The commission’s final report was not unanimous, with the six commissioners divided on key ­issues, including the future of special schools, group homes and models of disability employment.

Despite the split, some were getting on with changes, with not-for-profit provider Aruma saying it was already moving to end segregated living by investing in smaller purpose-built, family-style homes. It has also started to phase out what the commission called “sheltered workshops” paying low hourly rates.

Aruma chief executive Martin Laverty said the barriers in the sector were created by governments. “State governments still own many of the ‘past their use-by date’ group homes we work from, but have no plans for their refresh,” he said. “The main barrier to fixing supported employment wages is the failure of the Disability Support Pension to incentivise supported employment, but there is no federal government plan to (adjust this).”