Analysing the recommendations on a Disability Rights Act

One of the recommendations from the Disability Royal Commission that’s received a lot of attention sits in Volume 4: their recommendation that Australia should legislate a Disability Rights Act. This act would implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) into Australian law and require government and people acting on behalf of government to uphold disability rights when they make decisions about a person with disability.

It’s important to know that just because Australia has signed the CRPD, it doesn’t necessarily mean that all the rights included are things that the government automatically provides for or protects.

Some of the ways that the treaty is implemented in Australia is the NDIS Act (which provides services for some people with a disability to participate in the community) and the Disability Discrimination Act (which makes some actions of discrimination against a person with a disability illegal), and some state and territory laws, such as the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act in Victoria.

But, overall, the DRC thinks that CRPD rights aren’t integrated enough into everyday government laws, policies and practices and can go further.

Australia still has many laws on the books that are discriminatory, such as those about fitness to stand trial and those under guardianship or administration orders. When someone does complain about a human rights breach there’s very little power to fix the problem – most complaints can’t force a government to change their behaviour or a department to stop an act of discrimination or receive compensation for the harm that they’ve suffered because of a breach.

The DRC has proposed a Disability Rights Act (or from here the ‘DRA’) to address these issues. The idea is that the DRA will sit above other laws and make sure that government agencies or other decision-makers must comply with:

• non-discrimination and equality for people with disability before the law;
• equal recognition of people with disability before the law;
• the right for people with disability to live free from exploitation, violence and abuse;
• the right for people with disability to have liberty and security of person;
• the right for people with disability to have equitable access to health services;

Read more here

Amoscare is your NDIS Registered Provider in Shepparton