Open Letter to Prime Minister & National Cabinet
Dear Prime Minister, Hon Anthony Albanese MP and Opposition Leader, Hon Peter Dutton MP,
We write to you, as Australians from all walks of life and all sides of the political spectrum. We include not only a diverse range of organisations that represent the interests of people with disability and their supporters but also individuals, including Australian Honours recipients, Commissioners, Advisory members, academics, community leaders and other eminent individuals.
We are from diverse backgrounds but united in our concern and position regarding the Final Report of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.
After four-and-a-half years of harrowing evidence regarding the abuse and violence experienced by people with disability, we are concerned that as few as 13 of the 222 recommendations have been fully accepted by the Commonwealth Government. State and Territory Government responses have been similarly disappointing. As a matter of priority and urgency, the Commonwealth Government must confirm bipartisan support and progress key recommendations — especially within Volume 7 of the Final Report (regarding education, employment, and housing) and within Volume 4 (regarding the human rights of people with disability) — to enable an integrated ecosystem and an inclusive society throughout all of Australia, across all levels of government.
We – as organisations and as individuals – all understand that the shocking wrongs that the Disability Royal Commission (‘DRC’) exposed will continue without Government’s bipartisan support and dedicated leadership and commitment to the necessary actions to end them.
As demonstrated by the Final Report of the Royal Commission, our compliance with the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (‘CRPD’) and our standing with the international community are currently at risk. Meeting our compliance obligations is vital, because CRPD obligations are a key guardrail for us creating a genuinely inclusive society for people with disability that supports the prevention of abuse, exploitation, and violence against disabled people. This is why we are calling on the Australian Government – at all levels – to urgently action transformational progress and genuine co-design with disabled people and the disability community.
DRC Recommendation 5.6, one of the recommendations that the Australian Government has not yet accepted, calls for the establishment of a dedicated Minister for Disability and a dedicated Department of Disability Equality & Inclusion that is staffed by and for people with disability.
The impending retirement of Minister Shorten as the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (‘NDIS’) presents a critical opportunity for the Government to actualise a dynamic and positive response to the DRC report – by ensuring that Minister Shorten’s successor is not just a Minister for the NDIS but is also a dedicated Minister for Disability: a Minister for the interests of all disabled people, dedicated to working for them, regardless of whether they are a NDIS participant.
This dedicated Minister for Disability, focused on fostering an inclusive Australia where opportunity and entitlement to equality exists for all people with disability to live alongside people without disability, would then take in hand the governmental response to the DRC, to effect transformational reforms with disabled people.
This dedicated Minister for Disability must then, through their leadership of a new Commonwealth Department by and for disabled people, work shoulder-to-shoulder with the states & territories – to ensure that all Australian Governments meet their CRPD obligations.
Furthermore, the evidence is overwhelming: centring people with disability in all relevant decision-making processes and progressing their inclusion across all areas of life leads to better outcomes for all. The exclusion of people with disability from governance and decision-making places them at much higher risk of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. This societal segregation of disabled people curtails their socio-economic participation and undermines the efficacy of any policies and services meant to support them as equal members of the Australian community.
We urge you to implement DRC Recommendation 5.6 so that Minister Shorten’s successor can also begin the pivotal work of establishing a dedicated and effective Department of Disability Equality & Inclusion which must, in turn, begin the important work of progressing and implementing DRC recommendations. Implementing the remaining DRC recommendations, including those in Volume 4 and Volume 7, would not only improve laws, policies, structures and practices to ensure a more inclusive and just society but also ensure our compliance with the CRPD and other international laws by implementing the recommendations of the 2019 Concluding Observations of the United Nations CRPD Committee.
This is a crucial opportunity to make meaningful and transformational changes to enable impactful social and economic participation. This not only provides for the important upholding of our nation’s values of fair and equal opportunity for all – but a reinforced commitment with our international obligations under the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (‘CRPD’). Without a dedicated Minister and Department for disabled people covering both the NDIS and the wider government ecosystem regarding disability supports outside the NDIS, further neglect, abuse and deaths of people with disability will be inevitable.
Indeed, without a dedicated Minister and Department by and for disabled people, institutionalised ableism will continue to silence the voices of victim-survivors from intersectional backgrounds – such as CALD/CARM women with disability and LGBTQIA+ people from First Nations communities.
We call on you both, as major parties, and all levels of Australian Government – Commonwealth, State and Territory and local – to demonstrate your leadership and commit to this urgent, necessary reform.
Representation matters.
Co-signed by 19 individuals and 72 organisations