Royal commission split on future of special schools, group homes and workshops for the disabled

The future of special schools, group homes and disability workplaces will need to be decided by the federal government after a landmark royal commission failed to reach consensus on whether separated settings for Australians with a disability amounted to “segregation” and should be abolished.

After 4½ years of hearings, the disability royal commission’s six commissioners were split over the key question of segregation but united in calling for a major legal overhaul to protect the rights of 4.4 million Australians with disabilities, including a new Australian Disability Rights Act and prohibiting restrictive practices such as the seclusion of children.

Disability royal commission chairman Ronald Sackville (right) and commissioners (from left to right) John Ryan, Alastair McEwin, Andrea Mason, Dr Rhonda Galbally and Barbara Bennett hand their final report to Governor-General David Hurley (second from right) at Government House in Canberra on Thursday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said on Friday she would establish a Commonwealth taskforce to work through 222 recommendations as she tabled the 12-volume final report of the $599 million Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.

“The message of this report is clear: we do need to do better. Over the past four years, the outpouring of experiences of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation have shocked Australians,” she said.

But Rishworth said the government would be left to examine the crucial questions around separated schools, housing and workplaces. “The commissioners brought different perspectives. That’s not unusual in a royal commission ... That is something that becomes the role of government through consultation with people [with] disability.”

While Rishworth said the taskforce would take its time to respond and provide a progress report early next year, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten flagged he would more immediately move to address 44 recommendations directed at the National Disability Insurance Scheme’s safety regulator, which was condemned as opaque and inconsistent.

“This will be used to powerfully inform pretty urgent action we want to take to make sure the Quality and Safeguards Commission is actually keeping people safe,” Shorten said.

Disability royal commission chair Ronald Sackville said in his foreword to the report that there were several policy issues which needed to be addressed by governments, institutions and “the community as a whole” to achieve the vision of an inclusive society and stop the horror stories of abuse, neglect and exploitation that were aired in the commission’s 154 days of hearings.

Change would involve major reform of mainstream education, employment and housing systems.

The commissioners said schools needed to provide more support for children with a disability, the open labour market should be more accessible, and a greater range of accommodation should be available for people with a disability.

Specifically, governments needed to develop a “national road map to inclusive education” that outlined targets for students with a disability; people working in disability enterprises should be paid at least 50 per cent of the minimum wage, moving to the full minimum wage by 2034; and there should be more support for people with a disability to live in individualised housing rather than group homes.

But there was dissent over the philosophical question of segregation and whether specialised settings should be phased out over time.

Commissioners Barbara Bennett, Dr Rhonda Galbally and Alastair McEwin said the deliberate and systemic separation of people based on disability constituted segregation and was incompatible with inclusion. “[They] believe it is unconscionable that segregation on the basis of disability remains a policy default in Australia in the 21st century,” the report said.

They said group homes should be phased out within 15 years and special schools abolished within 28 years.

Children and Young People with Disability Australia, which supports getting rid of segregated schooling, said the timeline was “not ambitious enough”.

“The three-three split between commissioners highlights a clear need for a more profound national conversation on the subject,” the peak body for young people with a disability said. Down Syndrome Australia was also disappointed by the different views among commissioners.

Sackville and commissioner John Ryan diverged, saying separate settings did not need to – and should not – involve people with a disability being isolated from their peers or the general community. They did not think the term “segregation” was always warranted.

“The choices are not between wholly separated and wholly inclusive settings but are more nuanced, requiring consideration of the specific circumstances in which the physical separation of people with disability takes place,” was their view.

Commissioner Andrea Mason advocated considering the issue on a case-by-case basis.

However, the commissioners agreed on most of the report’s recommendations. They said an Australian Disability Rights Act should articulate the rights of people with a disability and ensure there were effective remedies when those rights were breached.

A new independent statutory body, the National Disability Commission, should monitor outcomes for people with a disability, while there should also be a dedicated federal minister and department devoted wholly to disability inclusion.

States and territories should make laws to reduce the use of restrictive practices – such as chemical restraints and seclusion – with the aim of eliminating them from health services, schools and prisons.

The non-therapeutic sterilisation of women and girls with a disability should be banned under law, unless there was a threat to the person’s life or they had given their free and informed consent.

The royal commission also focused on the criminal justice system, where it said people with a disability were significantly overrepresented, including in the youth justice system.

“Children with disability in youth detention have complex needs and are likely to have experienced multiple trauma,” the report said.

“The over-representation of First Nations people with cognitive disability in custody, particularly in youth detention, is a largely hidden national crisis.”

The commissioners said solitary confinement of children – which involves locking them in cells for 22 hours or more each day – had been used in most state and territory juvenile detention centres and must be prohibited. They also backed raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 nationwide.

During the commission’s final hearing this month, Sackville said significant change would depend upon “the responses of government, of businesses and, equally important, the wider Australian community”.

“The abuses exposed by the royal commission demand an urgent and comprehensive response from all Australian governments. I cannot claim that the final report covers every conceivable issue,” he said. “But we have attempted to provide a blueprint across a range of areas.”

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