Comment: specific to Remote areas

Disability Rights Unit - HREOC. disabdis@humanrights.gov.au

Comment is made specific to Remote areas and, in some things, specific to indigenous persons.

Defining 'remote' as those regions where the nearest Capital city is a thousands plus kilometre away … and / or, where the largest population centres have only thousands of occupants and are hundreds of kilometres away.

TRANSPORT These comments apply to individuals who have a disability and to people who should be providing a service or supports, including family, carers and service providers. " No Public Transport " No transport " Lack of personal funds to purchase a vehicle " Lack of funds to apply appropriate modification " Lack of funds to fuel, repair and maintain a vehicle " Lack of appropriate licensing facilities (Driver's Licence) " Cost of insurances etc

PARTICIPATION " Consistent segregated experiences in early life deprive individuals of opportunity to engage in general or typical school, community and social role modelling and learning. " The typical environment may be a poor modelling opportunity for individuals (communities of mass un-employment, alcoholism, different moral and social standards which are not acceptable to the wider general community) " Individuals subject to physical, emotional, sexual and social abuse.

PERSONAL SUPPORT " Only one agency in the region with enough funding to provide supports and they are system driven (not flexible or individually focused, will not provide within the environment of what is seen as another organisation or departments responsibility). " No ability to employ their own supports - funded by some external mechanism / lack of personal money to pay for support. " Agency personnel do not have expertise in providing support appropriate to a learning or educational environment … no willingness to provide training … no willingness to accept PD supplied by another body.

EDUCATION " Consistent segregation and integration (part time segregation) contribute to a lack of opportunities to access School Based VET and work experience programs as well as the fundamentals of education and social interactions. " Only one High School in the region which is (mostly) accessible / all others are two story with no lifts or ramps (many examples of inaccessibility … this is just one) " Consistent under-education of people who have a disability in K-12 and Post Compulsory Education and Training and VET opportunities. " Poor efforts in adapting the learning environments to accommodate learning needs / physical access / racial and cultural matters and disability. " Poor efforts in ensuring that the multi-layer disability / disadvantage (ie: the individual has a disability, lives in an isolated community in a remote area, is from a non-white culture, is female etc) are addressed. " Lack of Disability Liaison Officers or similar, lack of equipment and resources, lack of access to the disability support funding. " Organisation does not even have a Disability Service / Action Plan … only one reference to equity and access in the Strategic Plan … no EEO or Access & Equity Committee … no policy or guidelines nor procedural documentation to guide staff. o The previous two points clearly mean that there is inadequate information on reasonable accommodation etc happening. " Dearth of adequately trained and prepared teachers and lecturers in remote areas, and the inability to attract and retain qualified staff. The above statement is true of all professionals ie: health, personal support personnel / attendant care, disability service personnel / interpreters, mental health and counselling services etc.

ENVIRONMENT " Poor infrastructure. Lack of power, water, appropriate buildings etc etc " Poor accessibility of buildings including signs, paving and pathways etc. " Poor accessibility in the community (ie: sand, dirt, rock paths) for mobility.

EMPLOYMENT SPECIFIC ISSUES " Region has high skill requirements in resource industry .. consistently used as a way to screen out individuals with a disability - no willingness to adjust or create roles suitable (ie; a Person Friday to undertake the shredding filing etc in office) " Lack of flexibility in hours and shift work. o 12 hour working day with a shift pattern of 2 weeks on (ie: 14 days of work) 1 week off (7 days not working). " Workforce has a high 'safety' requirement - used a reason to screen out individuals who have a disability … perception of high risk. (Occ Health & Safety requirements used as the excuse) " Hospitality and Tourism industry is 2nd largest employer group .. will not accept individuals who have a disability because they don't "look or act right" (direct quote from an employer). " Ongoing push for higher and higher 'productivity' " High level of un-employed amongst the family of resource industry workers = huge competition for jobs in the community. " No employment opportunities at all in communities. " One community has a large tourism outlet / members of other tribes may not work there nor provide artefacts for sale. " Hugely complex industrial relations system, no personnel in the region who have the role of supporting or advocating for individuals (even the Disability Employment Agency will not help if family can not understand the terms, conditions and entitlements of employment) … State Government IR system has failed miserably in its half hearted attempts to bring reasonable standards in employment and fair treatment of workers about in the region (not a good move politically to upset the corporations I guess - nor the local political cronies who have a grip on all the locally owned support businesses). " Employers view workplace modifications as an imposition on their time / productivity / workplace / bottom line. " Many employment agencies, private ones will not attempt to place people, government funded ones try to get registration and refer jobs however that is frequently inappropriate attempted placement and is also not backed with support and training. " The region has two DEA's, one of which is acting more as a labour hire company with the manager's family doing the work not the job seekers.

SUPPORTED WAGES " Employers view the process and extra paperwork as burdensome. " Individual work contracts are seen as easier by employers / little ability for individuals to be fairly represented.

INCOME SUPPORT / COSTS " Very very high cost of living in the region (Centrelink's remote area allowance inadequate) " EVERY aspect of life is expensive and limited in choices. o Limited choice in accommodation (either must live with family in a company house or private house … not many public housing places here) o No choice of providers for shopping (ie: one general store, one fuel outlet etc) o High cost of medical access (lack of Bulk-billing, high cost of pharmaceuticals, high cost of continence aids etc etc etc. o Only one real choice of RTO (private trainers are all subcontracted to the major resource companies who will not employ from the target group .. or local people in general) " Inadequacy of the DSP, Remote Area Allowance, Education Entry Payment, Employment Entry Payment (also paid inappropriately) for this region. " People fearful of losing their extra benefits (ie: Health Card) due to costs … not wishing to enter the workforce / or work more than 8 hours (while they are not enough, people rely on them to get by).

All the legislation and programs are good however, there is NO REAL MECHANISM of checking that they are being complied with. One organisation just managed to be refunded even though their AQTF was deficient in various aspects, including disability.

Symptomatic of this entire series of dot point comments if written into an example might allude to a place where hypothetically there is only one person working in a .5 FTE position with a disability focus in the entire Post Compulsory Education sector within a region which is larger than the state of Victoria, and, that person has no ability to do more than inform and suggest.

If one were to have such an example; I would think that any reasonable person might question the motives, interest, willingness etc of everyone from the Ministers and Departments, to the organisations individually and collectively charged with providing the 'services', to the individuals who are actually supposedly entitled to a non-discriminatory 'go' at education … what is going on?