Advocacy groups for culturally diverse and First Nations people with disability have welcomed the launch of a new national strategy aiming to change community attitudes and improve housing, safety, and employment outcomes.
Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031, launched on Friday on International Day of People with Disability, sets out a framework for governments and stakeholders to improve the lives of the millions of people with disability in Australia over the next ten years.
The federal government has put $250 million in funding behind it and launched a new initiative to improve employment opportunities for people with a disability.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 47.8 per cent of people with disability in 2018 were employed compared to 80.3 per cent of people without.
Advocacy groups have also voiced concern about poor rates of pay for people with disability in the past.
Other funding initiatives by the government include $81.2 million for the Disability Gateway information portal, $40 million to expand a major database, $12.5 million to “to translate research into policy and implement a national disability research agenda”, and $9.9 million to improve individual advocacy services.
National Ethnic Disability Alliance policy and project officer Dominic Hong Duc Golding welcomed the refreshed strategy, and said he hoped it would lead to better outcomes for people with disability from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.
“Many people from CALD backgrounds with disability still do not know their rights. They still face discrimination in the workplace, and aspects of racism and ableism in the education and justice systems,” he said.
Mr Golding said the last national strategy did not consider immigration as an area of concern for people with disability.
He said too many people from CALD backgrounds still did not have or Disability Support Pension, and some migrants have been discriminated against .
“I hope there will be an emphasis on intersectionality [in the next decade] because people with disability are diverse. And that means disability policy, programs and services should be too,” Mr Golding said.
Research shows people with disability face higher rates of violence, poverty, sexual abuse, and exploitation than people without.
The rates are often higher again for Indigenous people with disability.
First Peoples Disability Network Australia CEO Damian Griffis said the new strategy would provide “a critical part of the infrastructure required to realise the rights of First Nations people with disability”.
“As a nation, we have much work to do to properly address the disadvantage experienced by First Nations people with disability, and that will require a deeper understanding of the impacts of poverty, dispossession and the lack of accessible support and resources available to our community,” he said.
The new strategy was developed in consultation with community members and stakeholders.
The government has been accused in recent years of making changes to disability services without adequately consulting people from the community, particularly with the now-canned independent assessment reforms to the NDIS.
An advisory council – which includes members from groups representing First Nations people and those from CALD backgrounds – has been established to support the new strategy’s implementation.
“The advisory council gives people with disability a permanent role in helping to guide the strategy over the next decade,” said Disability Discrimination Commissioner Ben Gauntlett, who is heading the council.
“The success of the strategy requires a whole-of-community response and only by having the public, businesses and governments working together can we ensure all aspects of Australian life are inclusive and accessible.”
Mr Griffis said it was critical that the council had Indigenous representation.
“With First Nations people with disability leading the coordination and implementation of the framework provided by Australian Disability Strategy, Closing the Gap and FPDNs National Footprint, and with genuine partnerships across all sectors, we should be able to begin the critical work that is needed.”
