National Policy Officer - Leah Hobson

Since the last newsletter there has been much more work done on the draft Access to Premises Standard. So much work, in fact, that I’ve written a separate article on the progress over the past few months. The next little while will be important in making sure that the Standards go through as quickly as possible, while balancing that with ensuring that they are as comprehensive as possible.

Independent Disability Equipment Program

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) has begun conducting face to face consultations as a follow up to its call for written submissions to a feasibility study which would look at establishing an independent disability equipment program for telecommunications customers with disability.

DBCDE have advised that written submissions should be made public on their website within several weeks, and the final report on the project will be going to the Minister in December.

Accessible Voting for Homeless People Collaboration

Saint Mary’s House of Welcome, a drop-in centre for people who are homeless in Melbourne, has begun work with a group of social work students to assess the needs of voters experiencing homelessness. This includes examining the accessibility needs of voters with a range disabilities at State and Federal levels. AFDO has been providing support to advise the project team on a fortnightly basis.

Social Inclusion Indicators

The Federal government’s Social Inclusion Board has recently released a document on Social Inclusion Indicators which can be used to determine the efficacy of the government’s social inclusion agenda. Although this document examines some socially excluded groups which include high numbers of people with disability – such as the aged population, people in public housing and people on welfare payments – it does not address disability directly. AFDO will be providing feedback to the Social Inclusion Board that disability issues are an important indicator of social inclusion and should be examined.

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities - Frank Hall-Bentick

On the 13 December 2006 the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was approved by the United Nations General Assembly in New York after five years and 8 Adhoc meetings involving delegations from Countries, Disabled Peoples Organisations and Human Rights Groups. The Convention was opened for signature on 30 March 2007 at which time the Australian Government among 84 other countries signed indicating we intended to ratify the Convention at a later time.

The United Nations Convention Website states, “The Convention marks a "paradigm shift" in attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities. It takes to a new height the movement from viewing persons with disabilities as "objects" of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing persons with disabilities as "subjects" with rights, who are capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent as well as being active members of society.”

“The Convention is intended as a human rights instrument with an explicit, social development dimension. It adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. It clarifies and qualifies how all categories of rights apply to persons with disabilities and identifies areas where adaptations have to be made for persons with disabilities to effectively exercise their rights and areas where their rights have been violated, and where protection of rights must be reinforced.”

In January 2008 the Federal Government funded consultations regarding ratification and the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCT) held a formal inquiry and recommended Australia ratify. On the 17 July 2008 Australia ratified the Convention at the United Nations. Later that year in November the 1st Conference of State Parties elected the Committee of Experts to oversee the implementation of the Convention. Professor Ron McCallum AO from Sydney was elected as one of these independent experts.

On 23 February this year JSCT held a hearing for their Inquiry into ratifying the Optional Protocol for the Convention and the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO) was requested to speak for the Australian Disability community. This Optional Protocol gives authority to the Committee of Experts to be referred complaints by groups and individuals and to undertake inquiries. Optional Protocols are separated from the main Convention as some countries regard external inquiries as a violation of their national sovereignty and refuse to sign main convention. On 30 July 2009 the Australian Government announced they will ratify the Optional Protocol.

Recently the Australian Government announced they will be preparing a report for the United Nations on how they are implementing the Convention to be submitted by the 10 May 2010. They are requesting ideas of what the report should cover by Monday 14 September 2009 crpdreport@ag.gov.au . Later there will be a formal period of public consultation on the draft report. Information on this consultation processes is available at the Attorney-General's Department website, www.ag.gov.au/humanrights