Nick Collyer, Author at Queensland Advocacy Incorporated

Results: QAI Serco-run NDIS call-centre survey

In 2018, the NDIA decided to outsource the operation and staffing of the NDIS call-centre. The contract went to the private multinational Serco, which has government outsourced contracts here and in the Americas, the Middle East, UK & Europe and in other Asia-Pacific countries, and delivers services in justice, immigration detention, defence, transport, health and ‘citizen services’. In Australia, Serco Asia-Pacific runs prisons, including Australia’s largest, in Grafton, and runs immigration detention centres, including Christmas Island.

When Serco won the contract, many people with disability were concerned, and still are, that it would be a step away from the vision for ‘choice and control’ given that the primary goal of for-profit enterprises is to satisfy their investors, and of for-profit employees primarily to satisfy their employers. People with disability would struggle to compete with those interests. They were concerned that Serco, like other third-party providers, would fail to uphold the values, objectives and principles underpinning the NDIS.

At the time, Serco Asia-Pacific had no proven expertise in the provision of services to Australians with disability, yet they were given the ‘frontline’ NDIS service. Serco is the wrong fit for the NDIS; they are the wrong message and image for the national program that is the jewel in the crown of Australia’s National Disability Strategy. Serco is a symbol of human rights restriction, not promotion.

QAI conducted a survey of people’s experiences with the SERCO-managed NDIS Call-Centre. Using the ‘Survey Monkey’ platform, and receiving 67 responses, the survey ran through July 2018 – April 2019 . You can see the responses to our survey by opening this submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs’ Inquiry on the impact of changes to service delivery models on the administration and running of government programs.

Register for Jobs at the Disability Royal Commission’s Engagement Branch in Brisbane

Applications received will be directed to the appropriate area of the Commission. The Engagement branch (based in Bris) will be looking to fill roles that are non-legal, but people with legal backgrounds are often well suited. If that is of interest, applicants can select Engagement as one of the work areas of interest.

https://disability.royalcommission.gov.au/about/Pages/Employment.aspx

https://recruitment.ag.gov.au/jobs/vacancies/2914895647464098~1/edit

https://recruitment.ag.gov.au/jobs/vacancies/2914895404334499~1/edit

Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation within the Disability Sector

The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has announced a three-year $527 million royal commission that will examine violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation within the disability sector. Former Federal Court Judge Ronald Sackville AO QC will lead the Royal Commission. The supporting Commissioners will be –

Barbara Bennett PSM
Dr Rhonda Galbally AC
Andrea Mason OAM
Honourable John Ryan AM, and
Alistair McEwin

The Commission will be based in Brisbane.

Former Federal Court judge Ronald Sackville AO, QC will lead the commission, supported by five commissioners.

Easy to read fact sheet about the Royal Commission

Easy to read Terms of Reference of the Royal Commission.

The Terms of Reference say what, why and how the Royal Commission will investigate.

Election sweetener short-changes people with disability

4 April 2019

Media Release

The disability advocacy sector has welcomed the commitment of funding for the Disability Royal Commission in the federal budget. QAI commends Greens Senators Rachel Siewert and Jordan Steele-Johns, and the many, many other disability advocates who convinced the Federal Government to commit to a Disability Royal Commission. We also commend Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenburg for allocating $527 billion towards it, the biggest allocation ever to a royal commission in this country.
It needs to be big because of the scale of abuse and the enormous number of victims in a country where 18.5% of the population has a disability, and more than 1.2 million people have severe or profound activity limitations.
While welcoming news of funding for the Royal Commission, QAI is appalled that the ‘surplus’ behind the Treasurer’s vote-buying tax cuts comes almost entirely from people with disability. That money has been earmarked for the NDIS. It was quarantined, ready and available, we thought, to pay for supports for the hundreds of thousands of Australians who have disabilities – people who have for years gone without basic personal care, without employment, or access to public transport, and without so many other things that the rest of us take for granted.
“Scott Morrison boasts about a surplus, but $1.6 billion of that surplus comes from the short-changing of people with disability through the NDIS underspend. The government is trying to sweeten its image off the backs of people with disability,” said QAI Director Michelle O’Flynn.

Media contact: Michelle O’Flynn 0481 381 528;
Office: 38444200

Information provided in this release is not intended to constitute legal advice and should not be construed as such. You should obtain your own legal advice before applying any information provided in this release to specific issues or situations.

Royal Commission TORs

QAI’s comments on the Draft Terms of Reference for a Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability

Letter to Department of Social Services re draft TORs for disability RC 20190325

Ministerial back-flip on disability pension a lifesaver

QAI Media release

December 2018

Ministerial backflip on pension is a lifesaver for people with disability.

The Australian Federation of Disability Organizations (AFDO), the Disability Advocacy Network of Australia (DANA) and QAI went to Canberra last week to convince federal politicians to oppose the 2019 budget measure. Their work, with support from many others, has saved lives. Department of Social Services Minister Fletcher has reversed the policy measure in response. Essential income support to people with disabilities who exit prison will be available to them still.

Prisoners with disabilities who exit jail ordinarily move straight back onto the Disability Support Pension (DSP) if they serve less than two years in prison, but the Federal Government planned to change that by reducing the suspension time to 13 weeks. DSS would have implemented the budget measure from 1 January 2019.

People with intellectual disability are imprisoned at about five times the rate of the general population in Australia and their socioeconomic circumstances after release from prison are more indicative of re-offending than the prison term itself.¹ Making people reapply for the DSP is the same as taking income support away, and the consequences are devastating.

Research tells us that the first six weeks out of prison are the hardest: a place to live, food, and finding work depend on getting income support. The suicide rate of released prisoners spikes around six weeks. Access to an income, and the related ability to obtain appropriate housing and necessities has a direct impact on whether a person re-offender, breaches parole or self-harms.

Graph showing the over representation of people with intellectual disabilities in Queensland justice system

Inquiry into imprisonment and recidivism – Queensland Productivity Commission

The Queensland Government asked the Queensland Productivity Commission to determine how government resources and policies may be best used to reduce imprisonment and recidivism to improve outcomes for the community.

QAI had a lot to say about this, having published editions of Disabled Justice in 2007 and 2014. Ten percent of prisoners in this state have intellectual disability. That’s five times the rate of the general population. Up to 30% of prisoners have some form of disability. Recidivism of Queensland prisoners who have intellectual disabilities is twice that of other prisoners: general recidivism is 38%, but 68% of prisoners with intellectual disability return to jail.

QAI’s submission to the Queensland Productivity Commission

Circular chart about the importance of the separation of powers

Protecting Queenslanders: QAI submission is critical of Queensland bill that would give the Premier power to make decisions on monitoring of people with disability convicted of sexual offences

The QAI submission to the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee Inquiry into the Bill 2018 (‘the Bill’) opposes the Bill in general, and is critical of a number of provisions in the Bill proposed by Mr David Janetzki MP, the Member for Toowoomba South. In particular, QAI opposes the provision that would give the Premier power to make decisions on monitoring of people with disability convicted of sexual offences.

QAI told the Committee that the Bill:

.. [p]otentially departs from fundamental legislative principles because it mandates administrative rather than judicial power to review indeterminate supervision, undermining the separation of powers and the necessary checks and balances critical to the effective operation of our Westminster-based political system.

QAI’s Dr Nick Collyer appeared at the Committee’s public hearing, stating in his evidence to the Committee that:

For the vast majority of victims of sexual abuse, it is not about the stranger hiding in the dark alleyway or the paedophile in the playground. Most sexual assaults and rapes are committed by someone the victim knows. Among victims aged 18 to 19, two-thirds had a prior relationship with the offender. Most child sexual abuse is committed by men—90 per cent—and by persons known to the child—70 to 90 per cent—with family members constituting one-third to one-half of the perpetrators against girls and 10 to 20 per cent of the perpetrators against boys. According to one study, one in six Australian women were physically or sexually abused by the age of 15, one in three Australian women have experienced physical violence since the age of 15 and on average one Australian woman is murdered per week by her current or her former partner.

Full Hansard transcript

QAI’s Dr Collyer on Parliament TV

The Committee’s reporting due date is Tuesday, 19 March 2019.