TRANSCRIPT
After four years of hearings and evidence given by almost 10,000 Australians in public testimonies, written submissions and private sessions, the Disability Royal Commission has tabled its final report. The first of its 13 volumes, over 5000 pages in total, has been released on Friday (September 29}, providing an executive summary of the commission's 222 recommendations.
For disability advocates who give evidence to the commission, like Carolyn Frohmader, CEO of Women with Disabilities Australia, it was a day of "mixed emotions".
“I need to digest everything. I'm nervous, but hopeful. Now that the final report is out, in a way our work starts now because we need to ensure that the recommendations are implemented. We don't want this to be a royal commission report that ends up going nowhere.”
The report has acknowledged the high levels of violence and abuse, neglect and exploitation experienced by people living with disability in Australia, and called for "significant change".
Among the key reforms it proposes are the establishment of a new Disability Rights Act and anti-vilification protections, as well as improved and more culturally safe access to disability support for First Nations people and diverse Australians.
CEO of the First Peoples Disability Network Damian Griffis, who also gave evidence to the commission, says that engagement with First Nations people by the commission has been "strong".
“We often say it's difficult to think of any more disadvantaged Australians than First Nations people with disability. And we've been thinking for a very long time about what the policy responses can be, what the service responses can be. And having that opportunity was certainly helpful. We certainly have had very strong engagement with the Commission and with a number of the commissioners, and we were encouraged by the fact that there was a First Nations commissioner in Commissioner Andrea Mason.”
Of the 222 recommendations made by the seven commissioners, 99 are Commonwealth-only, 67 are joint state, territory and Commonwealth and 55 cover individual states and territories.
Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth responded to the report with an acknowledgement of past failings and the promise to set up a new Commonwealth Disability Royal Commission task force.
“The message of this report is clear - we do need to do better. Over the past four years, the outpouring of experiences of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation have shocked Australians. Around 55% of people with disability aged between 18 and 64 have been physically or sexually abused since the age of 15. This is significantly higher than adults without disability in that age group. But, of course, these are not just statistics. They are the experiences of real people.”
Since 2019, the Disability Royal Commission's hearings have brought to light harrowing accounts of neglect and mistreatment.
Ms Frohmader says that for the many women that Women with Disabilities Australia has supported while they were giving evidence on traumatic events, it is a relief that the inquiry is over.
“Women who had been in institutional settings, their entire life. Women who had, for example, been subjected to forced contraception for 45 years of their, you know, 5050 year life being told it was the flu injection. We facilitated women in those types of settings, you know, graphic, highly graphic stuff, stories of lifetimes of sexual violence and yet, having absolutely no access to justice, because they had an intellectual disability.”
The commission has its heart a commitment to understand intersectionality and listen to the perspectives of culturally diverse Australians.
It also heard about the unique marginalisation that people from First Nations people with disability face, and the difficulty of accessing support in remote communities.
Mr Griffis says that understanding of First Nations perspectives on disability is key to realising the inclusive Australia the report sets as its goal.
“In traditional language, we have no comparable word for disability. And that's actually a wonderful thing. Notions of labeling people, particularly around disability, is a Western construct. We've always been a community which has come as you are. And we've had long evidence over many, many thousands of years of First Nations people with disability being valued members of their community. We actually say we're thought leaders on on inclusion, and we want to share that experience and that knowledge with the rest of Australia.”
The commission has called on the government to provide a written response to its recommendations by March next year.
Minister for the National Disability Insurance Bill Shorten scheme defended the government against criticism that it was not acting fast enough to protect people with disability from further harm.
“This royal commission is genuinely a historical moment and it does remind Australians that for too many people with disability they're subject to violence, abuse, exploitation, neglect and exclusion. It takes time and I think it would do a disservice to the 9,000 stories, to the use of taxpayer money, to the hard work of the royal commission if we simply glibly did a tick-and-flick exercise in a very short time and that's absolutely what Minister Rishworth said Labor will not do."
The commissioners have recommended immediate action to make sure restrictive practices in disability support, such as physical restraints or seclusion, are not used to punish or threaten.
Ms Frohmader says that these and other recommendations, including an end to the segregation of children with disability in schools, and a phasing out of group homes, need to be enacted as a matter of urgency.
“We are a wealthy country, there's absolutely no excuse that we are still seeing practices, like forced sterilization for contraception, people with disability being segregated into special schools, group homes. It's just not acceptable.”
The Royal Commission has also recommended the establishment of a First Nations Disability Forum, greater investment in the First Nations disability workforce
After over four years of hearings, which many say were decades overdue, Mr Griffis says that for First Nations people with disability these changes come soon enough.
“The establishment of a First Nations Disability Forum is a good concept, a really critical one, because in a lot ways we're starting from, very much a baseline in terms of an appropriate response for First Nations people with disability. The recommendation is that that should be started by March next year, and we're absolutely keen to get started on that as soon as possible.”
