disability Archives - Queensland Advocacy Incorporated

Emma Phillips at lectern giving presentation

Emma Phillips Gave a Presentation on the Human Rights Act Qld and Disability

Emma Phillips, QAI’s Deputy director and Principal Solicitor, gave a presentation on February 7^th to the Australian Lawyer’s Alliance called “Righting inhuman wrongs – How the new Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld) can assist clients with disability and mental illness”.

You can view the slides from Emma’s presentation here.

Criminal Code (Child Sexual Offences Reform) Submission

QAI made a submission in regards to the Criminal Code (Child Sexual Offences Reform) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill.

Here is an excerpt from the submission of our recommendations:

Recommendations

QAI supports the measures in the Bill.
The State Government must do more to ensure that people with intellectual disability who have committed very minor sexual offences get better support in the community rather than detention.
Take steps to improve the supports, particularly behaviour supports, available to people with intellectual disability who have been convicted of child sexual offences.

You can read the full submission here.

Inquiry into Adequacy of Newstart Submission

QAI made a submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs on the Inquiry into the Adequacy of Newstart.

Here is an excerpt from the submission of our recommendations:

Key Recommendations

Many Australians, including many Australians with disability, have inadequate financial means to support an acceptable standard of living. This has significant ill effects on their physical and mental health, ability to engage in socially, in education and work, and for some, their ability to raise and nurture children. This is an important issue that requires redress.
Budget standards, such as those developed by the Social Policy Research Centre of the University of New South Wales, should be used to inform the minimum levels of income support payments.
An individual approach should be taken to determining housing support for people with disability, to support independent living in the community.
Urgent measures are required to address unemployment and under-employment of people with disability. The Government should implement measures to assist people living in poverty, to ensure poverty ceases to be a barrier to entry to the workforce.
All workers, including workers with disability, should be paid at a rate equal or greater to the minimum award wage for the particular industry in which the worker is engaged. The supported wage system, and specialist disability employment enterprises, must be abolished.
The current Disability Employment Services (DES) model should be replaced by appropriate, individually-tailored, continuing support for people with disability within the workplace.
No one should be penalised for fluctuations in their income. The interface between income support and payment of wages must be transparent and easily understood to ensure that there are no financial disincentives for working, whether actual or perceived.
The government should maintain the distinction between pensions and allowances. Persons with disability should not be transitioned to Newstart Allowance as a budget-saving measure. The rates of pensions and allowances should be increased in accordance with current research and international best practice.
Students with disability must be provided with improved inclusive educational supports.
Independent expert evidence should inform decision-making around income support payments.

You can read the full submission here.

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

Upwards reaching arms labelled with key tenants of human rights. Prosperity, equality, freedom, justice and hope.

Reshaping the Disability Services Act Submission by QAI

Key Recommendations for the New Disability Services Act (‘The Act’)

The Act should include a preface that places strong emphasis on the shared responsibility across agencies and the community to uphold the rights of people with a disability.
The Act should require government departments and statutory bodies to align with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and uphold the rights of people with disability, for example, in developing disability inclusion action plans with measureable goals, KPIs and outcomes.
Rather than state only high-level principles, the Act should set out guidelines and procedures that activate established principles.
The Act must identify clearly the role and relationship between the state government particularly the Department of Communities and Disability Services and the National Disability Insurance Agency (‘NDIA’).
The Act should promote a strong person-centred approach, such as that found in the Victorian Disability Services Act 2006; set out the responsibilities of departments and agencies to provide person-centred services; and, embed the rights of people with disability to have access to services and to be involved in service planning.
The Act should set out best practice consultation and/or, co-design with people with disability.
The Act should outline a mechanism to ensure accessible procurement by government agencies.
The Act must stipulate ongoing data collection and analysis by all agencies with responsibilities under the Act.
The Act should require that it first should be reviewed after three years, then every five years thereafter. Reports of these reviews should be tabled in State Parliament.
The Act should appoint a Disability Commissioner, with key powers and responsibilities set out below at #10.
The Disability Commissioner will adopt the disability-relevant functions and powers of the Public Advocate as set out in the Guardianship and Administration Act 2000 (Qld), but with broader scope to promote and defend the rights of people with disability, particularly those who do not have NDIS Plans.
The Act should include provision for people with cognitive impairment, providing recognition of their specific rights and needs, as does section 6 of Victoria’s Disability Act 2006.
The Act should mandate ‘no card no start’, except where people with disability are selfmanaging their supports and services. In that instance, sole traders and unregistered providers should be able to work while awaiting screening, but only if safeguards are implemented, including risk management plans and supervision by a screened NDIS worker.
The roles and responsibilities of the Disability Advisory Councils should be reviewed and invigorated. The Act should outline the function, terms of recruitment, membership and the terms of review of the Councils OR
The Disability Advisory Councils should be convened by and linked to an agency with expanded authority, such as the Disability Commissioner, as outlined below.
The Act should establish a right to advocacy support and the state government should continue to fund it.
Click here to read the full submission

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.

MEDIA RELEASE – Human Rights Bill supported as offering welcome protection for vulnerable Queenslanders

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26 November 2018

For immediate release

Human Rights Bill supported as offering welcome protection for vulnerable Queenslanders

Leading disability advocacy organisation Queensland Advocacy Incorporated (QAI) strongly supports the introduction of a Human Rights Act in Queensland. In QAI’s submission, provided to the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee (Committee) today, we confirm our support for the passage of the Human Rights Bill and call upon the Committee to recommend accordingly.

QAI Director Michelle O’Flynn noted the important protections that this Bill includes for people with disability in Queensland. ‘We are particularly excited by the inclusion of the economic, social and cultural rights to education and health in the Bill’, Ms O’Flynn said today. ‘These are fundamental human rights that are not equitably enjoyed by people with disability and mental illness in Queensland.’

While strongly supporting the inclusion of the right to education, Ms O’Flynn notes that QAI’s submission is proposing that this right is differently framed. ‘There is now a wealth of research supporting the benefits of an inclusive approach to education for all students and it is the approach that has been committed to at an international level and by both state and federal government. It is important that the drafting of this clause reflects this commitment and requires commitment to it.’

QAI is hopeful that the Committee will recommend strengthening the Bill by including an independent cause of action and a broad range of remedies for breaches of the Act to ensure that the human rights are enforceable and meaningful. QAI also makes submissions calling for recognition of the right to reasonable adjustments to ensure people with disability can enjoy equitable access justice. QAI also emphasises the importance of not limiting the Act in any way in its application, to ensure it offers full protection to all Queenslanders, particularly the most vulnerable, including children and prisoners.

‘On balance, while we note that this Bill is not perfect and that human rights legislation will never be a panacea, we are thrilled by the proposed introduction of this legislation and strongly support its passage at the earliest opportunity,’ Ms O’Flynn said. ‘We are also very hopeful that this Bill will garner bi-partisan support. Human rights belong to us all – they are above politics.’

Queensland Advocacy Incorporated (QAI) is an independent, community-based systems and individual advocacy organisation and a community legal service for people with disability. Our mission is to promote, protect and defend, through systems and individual advocacy, the fundamental needs and rights and lives of the most vulnerable people with disability in Queensland.

For more information, please visit the campaign website: humanrights4qld.com.au.

Media contact: Michelle O’Flynn and Emma Phillips: (07) 3844 4200