Key Points to Consider Making in Submissions to the National Disability Strategy Consultation
1. The development of a National Disability Strategy is welcomed
We welcome the Government decision to commence development of a National Disability Strategy.
We note that people with disability continue to face discrimination and significant systemic barriers to full inclusion and participation in Australian communities and the social, economic and cultural life of the nation.
2. The National Disability Strategy should be based on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
We strongly endorse the Government decision to base the National Disability Strategy on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The speedy ratification of the Convention in July this year was welcomed by disability and human rights organisations. We note that ratification of the Convention does not mean that Australia already fully complies with it in practice.
The UN Convention provides a clear framework for the changes that are needed to make sure that the human rights for people with disability in Australia are protected, respected and fulfilled. It also gives us the opportunity to improve our knowledge about how well the rights of people with disability are respected in Australia.
Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Australia must ensure that the civil and political rights of people with disability are immediately respected, protected and fulfilled. We are aware that there is substantial work to be done in this area.
There is also a great deal of work that needs to be done to ensure that the economic, social and cultural rights of people with disability are respected, protected and fulfilled.
The National Disability Strategy gives us the opportunity to translate the UN Convention into an action plan relevant to Australia.
Work on doing this has already commenced. This year the Human Rights Indicators for People with Disability resource, developed by Queensland Advocacy Incorporated, was developed through an extensive process of research and consultation.
This resource provides a valuable starting point for turning the UN Convention into strategies that can to developed, adopted and monitored in Australia.
3. The National Disability Strategy should involve States and Territory governments, with Commonwealth leadership
We note that the Commonwealth Government is committed to developing the National Disability Strategy in co-operation with State and Territory Governments and will work with them to develop a monitoring and reporting framework.
Many areas of policy, programs, services, law and regulation relevant to the rights of people with disability are administered partly or wholly by State and Territory Governments. However, the Commonwealth Government is responsible for ensuring Australia’s compliance with its international responsibilities, and so has a particular opportunity and responsibility to provide leadership in all areas of the implementation of the Convention.
This includes:
• assisting State and Territory Governments to develop strategies to ensure that they fully respect, protect and fulfil the rights of people with disability as recognised in the Convention; and,
• ensuring accountability and effectiveness through development of monitoring and reporting arrangements for these strategies.
We recommend the following strategies be pursued by the Commonwealth.
1. To ensure that the needs of people with disability are considered in relation to all mainstream policy areas, and to promote Commonwealth-State/Territory co-operation, the National Disability Strategy should require each Ministerial Council to conduct an audit of Convention compliance and to develop an action plan to progress all issues identified.
2. Priority should be given to assessing the compliance against the Convention of all National frameworks and strategies, for example, the National Community Crime Prevention Programme and the National Council to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children.
3. The National Disability Strategy should include a commitment to achieving equitable outcomes for priority population groups including women with disability, Aboriginal people with disability and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds with disability.
4. The National Disability Strategy should include significantly enhanced resourcing for disability representative and legal and advocacy organisations to participate in the development and monitoring of implementation actions
5. The National Disability Strategy should include a commitment for each Commonwealth Department and agency to develop a disability strategy based on the Convention that addresses each Department and agency’s specific responsibilities and also those issues that common to all agencies, including:
6. The National Disability Strategy should also include the same commitment from each State and Territory on behalf of its Departments and agencies.
7. The National Disability Strategy should establish a body with responsibility for ensuring co-ordination within Government. The role of this body would be to work in consultation with disability representative, legal and advocacy organisations and advisory bodies to:
• Identify actions needed under the Convention that are cross-departmental;
• Promote information about effective strategies across jurisdictions and to local government, the private sector and other organisations;
• Co-ordinate the development of Australia’s initial comprehensive report on its compliance with the Convention (due by August 2010); and,
• Co-ordinate an ongoing process of feedback between reporting under the Convention and the further development of the National Disability Strategy and measures for implementation of the Strategy in all areas.
4. Immediate goals and medium term strategy and reporting
We recommend that the National Disability Strategy is developed using a staged and reflective process, with the Strategy updated and revised as we learn more about Australia’s compliance with the Convention.
As the matters covered by the Convention (and therefore the National Disability Strategy) are broad, it is unlikely that even with the extensive consultations being undertaken we will know by early 2009 everything we need to know in order to develop comprehensive strategies for implementation of the Convention. This is particularly the case in relation to the development of indicators and targets for full and (where relevant) interim compliance with the Convention and the measures to need to be adopted to achieve these targets.
Moreover, a number of relevant policy and program reviews of critical importance are currently being undertaken by the Federal Government that will not report for some months. This includes the tax system review chaired by Dr Ken Henry and the pensions and welfare review chaired by Dr Jeff Harmer. In other areas covered by the Convention, it appears that broad policy and programme reviews will be needed.
Notwithstanding this, a National Disability Strategy that is finalised in early 2009 can contain meaningful commitments, including:
• The adoption of the strategies outlined in section 3 above and
• A commitment to address any and all measures identified in the course of the current consultation process that are required by the Convention and are capable of immediate action.