Disability Rights update: December 2008

Other recent editions: October 2008 |August 2008 | June 2008 | April 2008 | February 2008 . Material from older editions is incorporated in HREOC's annual reports available online.

About this update

This Update from Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes is a slightly edited version of his regular disability rights project report for meetings of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. It is published as close as possible to Commission meetings, which are generally held 6 to 8 weeks apart. Events are notified first in the What´s New section of the Disability Rights home page, so check there if you want to keep fully up to date.

You can subscribe to our email list to be notified when new editions of this update are issued and when other major developments occur, by sending a blank message to join-drupdate@list.humanrights.gov.au

Your comments on any project or issue are welcome, preferably sent by e-mail. Contact us at: disabdis@humanrights.gov.au , or by mail to Disability Rights Unit, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 1042.

National Disability Strategy

See also the Commission's submission and the NDS consultation home page

The Commission's submission in response to the Government's discussion paper on a National Disability Strategy is now available on our website. In November we also auspiced a workshop for disability representative, advisory and advocacy organisations to assist them in formulating their responses to the discussion paper and to ensure that the Commission's position on the National Disability Strategy is informed by community perspectives.

Convention on Human Rights and Disability

For more in this area see our Convention page.

The Government has released a National Interest Analysis supporting ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention, which would permit recourse by Australians to the complaint procedure under the Convention where domestic remedies have been exhausted.

Amendments to the DDA

For more information see the parliamentary home page for the Bill

The Bill for amendments to the DDA to implement the reforms recommended by the Productivity Commission almost three years ago, and a number of associated reforms, was tabled on 3 December, the International Day of People with Disability. The Bill contains a number of substantial improvements to the legislation. We have been discussing with the Attorney-General's Department possibilities for some further refinements including in the definitions of discrimination.

Access to Premises

For more in this area see our access to premises page .

Draft Premises Standards were tabled by the Attorney General on 2 December and referred to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee with a request that the committee consult on the draft and report in the first half of 2009.

The tabling of this draft marks a significant development, after more than 10 years work on this issue, towards harmonisation of building and development law and disability discrimination law so as to secure better and more widespread provision of access as well as clarity of responsibilities for industry. We are hopeful the Premises Standards will be finalised before the end of next year, although at this stage we do not know what form the consultation by the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee will take or the timetable for consultation.

We have developed a brief guide to the history and purpose of the Premises Standards and intend over the next few weeks to consult with key stakeholders on questions arising from the draft with a view to developing a web based Frequently asked Questions resource.

National Inquiry into Employment and Disability

National Mental Health and Disability Employment Strategy : We have continued to engage with Government regarding potential solutions for consideration in the National Mental Health and Disability Employment Strategy. The Strategy, which was expected to be launched by the end of 2008, is still under development and will now be launched next year (no date has been finalised).

We also met with the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations to discuss the review of Disability Employment Services. A new model for disability employment services has just been released for final consultation and we will be analysing this new model closely against the recommendations in our Inquiry report. Importantly it is proposed that all job seekers with disability will have access to a place in an agency to help them find a job (this service is currently capped with long wait lists and has been a long standing issue). The final model will be a critical component of the National Mental Health and Disability Employment Strategy.

Employment of people with disability in the Australian Public Service (APS) : The recently released State of the Service Report indicates a further decline in the rate of employment of people with disability in the public sector. I recently met with the Public Service Commissioner, Lynelle Briggs, to discuss my recent public statements and correspondence with the Minister for Employment Participation, the Hon Brendan O'Connor, and Special Minister of State, Cabinet Secretary and Vice-President of the Executive Council, Senator the Hon John Faulkner, regarding the need for Government to implement new measures and lead by example on employment of people with disability.

Employment for Indigenous people with disability : The draft report outlining issues and barriers to employment for Indigenous people with disability is currently being finalised.

Occupational health and safety and employees with disability: The resource for employers A Manager's Guide to Working with Employees with Mental Illness is close to completion. The second draft has been circulated to the OHS and Employees with Disability Working Group (co-hosted by the Commission and the Office of the Australian Safety and Compensation Council) for final comments and approval. The second draft contains a number of substantial revisions in response to comments from the working group to the initial draft. The Guide is being developed with a view that the resource will receive endorsement by the Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities.

The Working Group has also finalised a draft proposal to be submitted to Government advocating the benefits to be gained by the appointment of Diversity Field Officers to various industry groups and associations across Australia . The draft proposal has been discussed with Government for consideration in the National Mental Health and Disability Employment Strategy. The Working Group and many employers have identified Diversity Field Officers as potentially playing a critical role in the provision of services and advice to employers to assist employers to hire and retain people with disability.

Australian Fair Pay Commission: I have written to the Professor Ian Harper, Chairman of the Australian Fair Pay Commission, requesting consideration of a minimum weekly wage for employees with disability working in Business Services which is equivalent to the guaranteed minimum weekly wage received by employees with disability working in open employment. We have also continued to participate as members of the AFPC's Disability Roundtable in relation to: examination of wage assessment tools under consideration by the AFPC; and development of the research agenda in the business services sector.

Audio description, captioning and media access

For more in this area see our captioning and media access page.

Discussions continue with the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy over the Departmental Investigation into Media Access. Commissioner Innes met with the Minister to discuss the investigation and outline his views on possible outcomes.

Meetings have also been planned with Screen Australia to discuss their initiatives in the area of film and DVD access.

We have worked on additional material for a draft Quality Guideline on captioning and hope to discuss with stakeholders in the near future.

Accessible public transport

For more in this area see our transport page.

Five year review of standards : We are still awaiting finalisation of the report of the initial five year review of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport which is to be submitted to the Attorney and the Minister for Infrastructure.

Aviation issues: The Department of Infrastructure is still to set a date for the first meeting of the Aviation Access working group but the Government's commitment to this work has been reaffirmed in the National Aviation Policy green paper released in November.

Bus stops: Work is almost complete on a draft guideline on accessible bus stops to assist those responsible for bus stops under the Transport Standards. The draft will be made available in early 2009 for public comment.

Web accessibility

The Commission's WebWatch initiative regarding accessibility of government web sites has led to positive discussions with a number of Commonwealth Departments on strategies for improving accessibility. We will be discussing issues in this area further with the Australian Government Information Management Office shortly.

Exemptions

For more in this area see our exemptions page.

Action plans

There has been a steady flow of Action Plans submitted to the Commission recently and the Commissioner has participated in the launch of a number, notably the City of Sydney Inclusion Plan .

International co-operation

We have been successful in securing funding (subject to a minor modification to our proposal) to build the capacity of national Disabled People's Organisation's (DPO's) in 9 Pacific countries. The aim of the capacity building program is to enable each DPO to more effectively engage and advise Government and the public sector on appropriate responses to deal with the myriad issues facing people with disability, including ratification and implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Person's with Disabilities. This funding is provided through AusAID's Pacific Governance Support Program 2008-2009.

The Australian Government has also recently launched its disability strategy for Australia 's aid program (AusAID) Development for All: Towards disability inclusive Australian aid program 2009-2014. We attended this launch and note the significance of this Strategy in focussing Australia 's aid work on people with disability in developing countries. I have raised concerns however, through correspondence with the Hon. Bob McMullan, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, and meetings with AusAID, that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was not optimally used as the basis for AusAID's Strategy. The Strategy barely refers to the Convention. I noted that the Convention could have been used as a means to: assist and encourage recipient countries to ratify and implement the Convention (and thus bring about significant long-term change); and to frame all recipient country and AusAID work from a rights-based perspective.

Submissions: We also contributed to the Commission's submission Human rights mechanisms and the Asia Pacific Region to the Human Rights Sub-Committee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade in relation to: people with disability in the Asia-Pacific region and associated issues; the Commission's work to date; and the importance of strategies to strengthen the protection of people with disability in the Asia-Pacific Region.

Indigenous people with disability

Preliminary research and scoping work is continuing on the proposed cross unit (SJU and DRU) project examining the impact of hearing impairment and deafness in Indigenous communities.

Violence against women

We have continued to raise concerns with the National Council to Reduce Violence Against Women and Children about the lack of representation of women with disability on the Council. We are concerned the absence of the perspective that a woman with disability would bring to the Council may impact on the development of the final plan in improving prevention of and responses to violence and abuse against women and girls with disability.

We have also continued to engage with the Council and provide information as requested, including attending a recent meeting to outline the Commission's activities in relation to violence and abuse (for example: raising public awareness, education, prosecution etc).

Recent meetings / speeches / media

As at 8 December 2008

Human Rights Commissioner and Commissioner responsible for Disability Discrimination, Graeme Innes

Date	Event
10 Nov	Minister Shorten re housing accessibility, Canberra
12 – 18 Nov	Interviews re immigration and disability
13 Nov	Diversity at Work awards, Melbourne
26 Nov	Minister Conroy re media access issues, Canberra
27 Nov	Media release on immigration and disability
2 Dec	City of Sydney Action Plan launch
3 Dec	International Day address, High Court, Canberra
3 Dec	Aust Public Service Commissioner, Canberra
4 Dec	AusAID re disability strategy, Sydney

Disability rights policy staff

13 Nov	Disability Rights Taskforce workshop on the Convention and National Disability Strategy, Sydney (Mr Mason, Ms Ricci)
21 Nov	NSW DDLC forum on the Convention, Sydney (Mr Mason)
26 Nov	Diversity Council forum on the Convention, Sydney (Mr Mason)

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