New disability employment centre of excellence taking shape

The design of a new disability employment centre of excellence will be critical in improving outcomes, the Albanese government says.

A new disability employment centre of excellence will be created to improve the job prospects of people with disability.

A new “one-stop shop” to help overcome barriers to employing people with disability is closer to being realised after the Albanese government published an options paper on a new Disability Employment Centre of Excellence.

The paper proposes the new centre, an election commitment, will support research into driving better employment outcomes for the nation’s 4.4 million people with disability.

Part of its ambit could be to develop training for employment service providers in the sector and address the shortage in regional, rural and remote areas, the paper suggests. It could also commission and publish research into employment strategies for people with disability and guide practice.

The issues paper notes there are around 2.2 million Australians of working age with a disability, almost half of whom are not currently in the labour force, as well as 2.65 million unpaid carers, many not working or working less than they want to.

“The unemployment rate for people with disability has not shifted in more than two decades and people with disability face a rate of unemployment three times that of people without disability,” the report notes.

“In addition to this, people with disability face increased rates of discrimination, with nearly half (45.2 per cent) of all employed people with disability reporting they had experienced unfair treatment or discrimination from their employer due to their disability in the past 12 months.”

The government said it recognised the need to improve the quality of employment support services, especially in the wake of the disability royal commission’s final report that called out the issue for action.

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth called on interested groups, including people with disability, employers and disability employment services, to offer feedback on the design of the new centre for excellence, saying “it is clear more needs to be done to support people with disability into meaningful, appropriately paid work”.

A Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

“This new Centre of Excellence is all about addressing barriers and finding a better approach to disability employment through collaboration, co-operation and information sharing,” she said.

The government has allocated $1.1m to developing the centre, which is due to be operational by July next year. Feedback is open until November 10.

The disability royal commission, which reported last month after more than four years of hearings, concluded mainstream systems must be reformed to remove the barriers to people with disability access employment.