Disability Rights update: June2008

Other recent editions:April 2008 | February 2008; November 2007; September 2007; July 2007 . Material from older editions is incorporated in HREOC's annual reports available online.

About this update

This Update from Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes is a slightly edited version of his regular disability rights project report for meetings of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. It is published as close as possible to Commission meetings, which are generally held 6 to 8 weeks apart. Events are notified first in the What´s New section of the Disability Rights home page, so check there if you want to keep fully up to date.

You can subscribe to our email list to be notified when new editions of this update are issued and when other major developments occur, by sending a blank message to join-drupdate@list.humanrights.gov.au

Your comments on any project or issue are welcome, preferably sent by e-mail. Contact us at: disabdis@humanrights.gov.au , or by mail to Disability Rights Unit, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 1042.

National Disability Strategy

We have been involved in initial consultations which have been commenced by the Government towards a National Disability Strategy. There are very welcome indications that the proposed Strategy will (1) be framed around the Convention and (2) include State and Territory levels of government rather than only covering the Commonwealth's own activities. Also very welcome news is that Claire Thorn, head of Victoria's Office of Disability, and Maurice Corcoran, currently Manager of Disability Inclusion for the South Australian Government, have been seconded to lead initial work towards the Strategy. These are outstanding appointments and we look forward to working with them to further the rights of people with disability in Australia .

Convention on Human Rights and Disability

For more in this area see our Convention page.

Commissioner Innes has continued to provide briefings for relevant Ministers with a view to promoting speedy ratification of the Convention, including with a view to securing Australian inclusion in the selection of the international Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Amendments to the DDA

It now appears doubtful that we will see introduction as hoped in the Winter parliamentary session of amendments to the DDA to implement the reforms recommended by the Productivity Commission, including express provision for a duty to make reasonable adjustments, and a number of associated reforms. We are assured however that drafting work is now progressing, and that there will be consultation as soon as possible (including with HREOC) on a draft Bill. Having regard to the decision by Attorneys-General to pursue harmonisation of Australian discrimination laws, policy, legal and complaints staff have been undertaking some consideration of best practice elements of other discrimination laws which might be taken into account in DDA reform.

Access to Premises

For more in this area see our access to premises page .

Resources on accessible design : A new edition of “The good, the bad and the ugly” is now available. Nearly 1000 CDs have been distributed since the end of April in addition to use of the web based version. Staff from the DRU have been promoting the resource at a number of building industry conferences and workshops including the NSW Local Government and Shires Association, Master Builders Association and the Tasmanian Local Government Association.

As a result of feedback from these conferences we will be convening a meeting of professional associations in the design, construction and certification areas to discuss ongoing resource and training needs.

Universal housing : Staff from the DRU have been participating in an Industry Reference Group established by the Australian Network for Universal Housing Design and the Independent Living Centre of NSW (ILC NSW). These organisations recently received funding from the Federal Department of Health and Ageing, Office for an Ageing Australia, to develop a National website hub for information on Ageless and Universal Design.

National Inquiry into Employment and Disability

National Mental Health and Disability Employment Strategy : We have continued to engage with Government and stakeholders following the Government's announcement to develop a National Mental Health and Disability Employment Strategy. The Government is currently consulting with the disability sector, employers, employment service providers, amongst other stakeholders, to learn more about the barriers to employment and potential solutions for people with disability wishing to enter or remain in employment. This information is being collected via written submissions and through public consultations and will complement the work already undertaken by HREOC in the National Inquiry into Employment and Disability. HREOC's report from that Inquiry is referenced as a source document in the Government's discussion paper. In addition to contributions as a member of the Government's National Mental Health and Disability Employment Strategy Advisory Committee, Commissioner Innes recently met with the Minister for Employment Participation, the Hon Brendan O'Connor MP, to discuss the upcoming development phase of the Strategy and critical solutions as identified during HREOC's National Inquiry. We also attended the community consultation forum held by Minister O'Connor in May in Sydney .

There is growing acceptance of the need for a ‘whole of life' approach to tackling employment for people with disability and the necessity for the Strategy to include policies and programs across Commonwealth, State and Territory government portfolios - as outlined in Recommendation 30 of the final report of HREOC's National Inquiry. Strong support for this approach was also received at the one-day disability workshop at ACOSS's Social Inclusion conference held in Melbourne in April, where Commissioner Innes led discussion of potential strategies to implement the goals of the social inclusion agenda, which includes employment of people with disability.

Employment related inquiries : The Government has also announced a number of other employment-related inquiries and reviews to which we are responding in relation to people with disability, including the Inquiry into Paid Maternity, Paternity and Parental Leave.

Employment for Indigenous people with disability : Research and consultation with critical stakeholders regarding scoping of issues and barriers to employment for Indigenous people with disability, is well underway. This work is due to be completed by the end of June and will inform the ongoing work of both DRU and SJU.

Occupational Health and Safety and employees with disability: Work is progressing on the development of new fact sheets for employers, industry associations, service providers and people with disability and the development of guidance material for employers regarding accommodating people with mental illness in the workplace.

Fair pay issues : We have continued to participate in the Australian Fair Pay Commission's Disability Roundtable discussions concerning the approval of 10 new wage assessment tools for use by Business Services. We have continued to raise our concerns with the accreditation process, the number of tools and lack of process to ensure consistency across wage assessment tools. We are also currently involved in discussions with the Australian Fair Pay Commission regarding the AFPC's research agenda and consideration of recommendations made by HREOC in recent submissions.

Mental Health and Human Rights

For more in this area see our mental health page

For many people with mental illness, access to a range of treatment and support services is vital not only to remain as healthy as possible but also to ensure the protection of many human rights, including living with dignity, the ability to live as independently as possible and the opportunity to participate in the social and economic life of the community. As a result of the meeting held in late March with critical stakeholders to examine a human-rights based approach to the delivery of services for people with mental illness in Australia , a document is being developed by the group to the drive the reform of service delivery. The document outlines key principles and recommendations to protect the rights of people with mental illness and guide the reform and delivery of services to the community.

With regard to the protection of rights people in the criminal justice system in particular, I recently wrote to the NSW Attorney General and Minister for Justice raising health and safety concerns for the forensic patients during temporary accommodation arrangements at the new Long Bay Prison Hospital while awaiting transfer to the new Long Bay Forensic Hospital later this year.

Audio description, captioning and media access

For more in this area see our captioning and media access page.

The Government has now released a Discussion Paper on Access to Electronic Media for the Hearing Impaired and Vision Impaired. This Discussion Paper summarises the various technical methods of providing media access (captioning and audio description) in the area of TV, DVD, Cinema and internet download.

Submissions on the Discussion Paper are due by 13 June and I will be holding a number of meetings with the disability community and media related associations to encourage debate and the development of ideas to achieve progress in this area.

The Commission has also received an application for a Temporary Exemption on behalf of a number of free to air TV broadcasters as noted in the Temporary Exemption part of this report.

Accessible public transport

For more in this area see our transport page.

Five year review of standards : The report of the initial five year review of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport is currently being finalised for submission to the Attorney and the Minister for Infrastructure.

Aviation issues: A very effective forum on aviation access issues was co-chaired In April by Commissioner Innes and Parliamentary Secretary for Disability Bill Shorten. Actions arising include:

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government being requested to convene an ongoing forum to facilitate co-operative work between industry, relevant government Departments and agencies, and representatives of people with disability; and convene discussions specifically on access issues at airports
HREOC and CASA have commenced work towards a jointly convened working group on the interaction between safety requirements and independent travel.

Exemptions: We will be undertaking further consultations with interested parties before making recommendations on the exemption application from the Queensland and Western Australian Taxi Councils. The application from Regional Express (REX) has remained pending awaiting a response from REX (received in late May) to issues raised in public submissions on the application. A recommendation on an application from Buchan Bus ‘n Freight will be submitted to the Commission following consideration of any submissions received.

Exemptions

For more in this area see our exemptions page.

In addition to exemption applications regarding public transport servifes as noted above, an application has been received from Free TV Australia on behalf of the major commercial and public free to air television broadcasters, in effect seeking a 6 month extension of the existing exemption in this area pursuant to which captioning levels measured over a broadcast day from 6am to midnight were required to reach 70% by the end of the exemption period. The applicants seek permission to mantain those levels pending further progress in the investigation of captioning and other media acess requirements being conducted by the Department of Broadband, Coumminications and the Digital Economy. Submissions have been requested by 10 June.

Action plans

We have provided input to the development of guidance material and reviews of progress in the development of Action Plans to a number of organisations including the Municipal Association of Victoria, NSW State Government and the Community Legal Centres network.

International co-operation

As part of our work towards ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, our own work plan which is framed according to the Convention. Article 32 of the Convention on International co-operation which states “parties shall take effective measures including …. (b) facilitating and supporting capacity-building, including through the exchange and sharing of information, experiences, training programmes and best practices”, Through the Asia Pacific Forum we recently had the opportunity to assist in the provision of training to delegates attending the three-day Pacific Disability Forum meeting in Samoa. Specifically, the workshop at this meeting was designed to assist disability advocates from 12 Pacific Island countries to lobby their Governments to sign and ratify the Convention. Ratification of international human rights treaties in the Pacific is very low in general and, at the time the training commenced, Australia , New Zealand and Vanuatu were the only countries in the Pacific region which had signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Training was also provided to women with disability attending the two-day National Women's Forum of the Pacific Disability Forum. This workshop focussed on the international frameworks for empowering women and women with disability in the Pacific in particular.

Recent meetings / speeches / media

Human Rights Commissioner and Commissioner responsible for Disability Discrimination, Graeme Innes

Date	Event
7 April	Aviation Access forum, Sydney
10 April	International Braille Conference, Melbourne
10 April	ACOSS conference, Melbourne
11 April	Sky news re aviation access
14 April	Meeting with FreeTV Australia
15 April	National Disability Strategy Forum, Melbourne
17 April	Nick Rushworth, Brain Injury Australia , Melbourne
21 April	Independent cinema reps re captioning, Sydney
22 April	Angela Kerins, Irish Equality Authority
23 April	Kelvin Thomson MP, Chair, Standing Committee on Treaties, re Disability Convention, Melbourne
24 April	ABC radio re accessible voting
29 April	Weekend Australian re employment and mental illness
30 April	Consumer Telecommunications conference opening, Sydney
5 May	SBS Radio re disability Convention
6 May	Free TV Australia re captioning
8 May	4RPH re media access
13 May	Minister Ludwig, Canberra
15 May	Joseph Mangano, US Interagency Council on Homelessness, Canberra ,
16 May	MDAA re disability and emerging communities, Sydney
20 May	ACE, AFDO re employment issues, Sydney
20 May	Claire Thorn, Sydney re National Disability Strategy
21 May	Frances Davies, Helen Bedford, FAHCSIA, Sydney

DRU staff

Date	Event
1 April	Australian Fair Pay Commission Disability Roundtable Meeting, Melbourne (Ms Ricci)
2, 8 and 10 April	Local Government and Shires Association workshops in Sydney and Gosford (Mr Small)
11 April	Guide Dogs / Syd. CC workshop on access (Mr Small)
20-27 April	Pacific Disability Forum, Samoa (Ms Ricci)
28 April	2007 Safe Work Australia Awards, Canberra (Ms Ricci)
29 April	Workshop with MAV and Office for Disability Victoria (Mr Small)
8 May	Industry Reference Group on housing (Mr Small)
10 May	Master Builders Association Tasmania Conference paper (Mr Small)

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