Governments response to disability royal commission falls short, advocates say

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Disability advocates say the federal government's response to the four-year long Disability Royal Commission falls well short of what's needed.

Transcript

00:00This is the government's initial response that it's put out this morning.

00:05Now, there are 222 recommendations that the Disability Royal Commission handed down in

00:11its final report.

00:12Let me give you a bit of a breakdown of those figures.

00:14So 172 are recommendations that fall within the federal government's remit and the remit

00:21of both the federal and then the state and territory governments.

00:24So let's talk about those.

00:2613 of them were accepted in full.

00:30Then 117 were accepted in principle.

00:33Now what that means is that the intention and the idea has been accepted.

00:38The way that it will be implemented might be slightly different to the way that the

00:42Royal Commission perhaps recommended or intended.

00:45So obviously further kind of consultation needing to be happening there.

00:49Now some of the things that have been accepted, for example, some small legislative changes,

00:56for example, updating the Australian Disability Strategy.

00:59Now that's a 10-year strategy that basically outlines key indicators of how you kind of

01:05set out measuring performance and outlining, you know, positive indicators for people with

01:11disability across the country.

01:12So an update to that.

01:14When we talk about the recommendations that were accepted in principle, it's an update

01:19to the Disability Discrimination Act.

01:21Now that is something that the disability community itself has been calling for for

01:26a very long time.

01:28It's one that hasn't been updated in more than a decade.

01:31So they're definitely welcoming that in principle acceptance of that and obviously hoping that

01:37that will come to fruition.

01:39And then there are some recommendations that are going to need further consideration as

01:44the government puts it.

01:45So there are things like the phasing out of group homes, which the Royal Commission

01:50recommended should happen within 15 years.

01:53There's going to be further consideration around that.

01:56The phasing out of segregated employment, so what some would call sheltered workshops

02:01where about 20,000 people, for example, with intellectual disability are working in those

02:07earning about $2 to $4 an hour.

02:09So the phasing out of those by 2034 also needs further consideration.

02:15Some people have said it really does fall short and particularly it isn't as comprehensive

02:21or the scale isn't big enough or impactful enough when you think about the scale of the

02:26abuse that is continuing to happen, but also the abuse of the stories that people shared.

02:33So it's just not on par with the scale that we heard.

02:37So then Naz, what happens now?

02:40It'll be really interesting to see what happens now.

02:41I mean, let's acknowledge that this was a huge body of work, 12 volumes, 222 recommendations.

02:48The government has said today that it will provide six monthly sort of progress reports

02:53and that'll be really important because in a sense I guess the community will be very

02:58interested to continue receiving those reports to in a sense keep the government accountable.

03:04That is the way that the community will be able to make sure of what recommendations

03:08are actually being put in place, how they're being put in place, and to ensure most critically

03:13that the voice of the community is at the centre of all of that, but really in the end

03:18what the disability community wants is for violence and abuse to end because it wants

03:23everyone to know that it is not a thing of the past, it is still happening to many people

03:29and this is what the Royal Commission was set up to do, it was to stop that.

03:34For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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