Australian Federation of Disability Organisations

Maurice Corcoran represented AFDO at the 15th Attorney-General's (AG) NGO forum on Friday 15 June 2007 at Old Parliament house.

The Agenda included a welcome from Philippa Lynch, First Assistant Secretary, Information Law and Human Rights Division who gave an overview of the day.

This was followed by an update from the AG's Human Rights Branch by Peter Arnaudo and Geoff Skillen gave an update on International Law.

Presentations were made by the Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock, Susan Roberts from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), and Emergency Management Australia on the National forum on Emergency Warnings to the Community.

During the discussion Maurice Corcoran on behalf of AFDO, asked a number of questions.

In particular he asked about the long delay in progressing the Access to Premises Standard and the impact of this i.e. uncertainty for people with disabilities and owners of buildings.

The Attorney-General responded that they were about to convene a small
high-level group to work through some of the more contentious issues with the aim of trying to resolve as many as possible. They are hopeful that this process will commence in the next few months.

Questions were also asked about the lack of appropriate monitoring and reporting of the existing Standards for Transport and Education. The questions were raised in the context of lodgement of complaints where the test is whether operators are complying with the standards however, where there is no monitoring of this, it becomes near impossible to get accurate information about progress against compliance schedule.

Concerns were also expressed regarding complaints not being conciliated via HREOC. Respondents to complaints are growing in confidence that complainants are unlikely to take their complaints further i.e. to the Federal Court because of the costs and the risks of costs being awarded against complainants. The AG agreed to look into this, especially in cases of public interest.

This forum is a regular event to which AFDO sends a representative.