Conference of States Parties
to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Australian national statement
Statement by Dr Nick Hartland
Group Manager, Disability and Carers
Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
Mr Chairman, since Australia’s ratification of the Disabilities Convention three years ago, Australia has made significant strides in improving outcomes for persons with disabilities.
In March this year the Australian Government officially launched its first ever National Disability Strategy. The strategy was developed, and will be implemented, in consultation with persons with disability along with their families, carers and other key stakeholders. The strategy outlines a ten-year national policy framework to improve the lives of persons with disability, promote participation, and create a more inclusive society. It is also an important mechanism to ensure that the principles underpinning the Convention are incorporated into domestic policies and programs and will contribute to meeting Australia’s reporting responsibilities under the Convention.
The strategy will guide cohesive public policy-making across all levels of Australian government and aims to bring about comprehensive change not just in specialist disability support services, but in all mainstream services and programs. This represents a real shift in thinking for public policy-making in Australia. This year the strategy’s focus is on building the foundation for enhanced implementation of the Convention which will involve engaging mainstream areas such as housing, education and health.
In February 2010, as part of the development of this strategy, the Australian Government commissioned its Productivity Commission to undertake a public inquiry to examine a range of approaches for providing long-term care and support for persons with disabilities. The role of Australia’s Productivity Commission is to help governments make better policies in the long-term interest of the Australian community and is the Australian Government's independent research and advisory body on economic, social and environmental issues affecting the welfare of Australians.
The Productivity Commission’s final report, released in August, recommended that a National Disability Insurance Scheme and a National Injury Insurance Scheme be created to provide all Australians with insurance for the costs of support if they or a family member acquire a significant disability.
The recommendations of the report would involve Australia funding and delivering care and support services to people with disability and their families in a fundamentally different way. The Council of Australian Governments – which is the peak intergovernmental body in Australia, charged with harmonising policy-making across all levels of Australian government - has agreed to progress quickly foundation reforms for a national Disability Insurance Scheme and to work together to consider the Productivity Commission’s recommendations.
The reforms contemplated as a part of the National Disability Insurance Scheme would aid in fulfilling the Convention’s focus on choice, participation, social inclusion, independence and the provision of an adequate standard of living. I hope this overview of Australia’s recent disability reform agenda assists the States Parties in understanding Australia’s aspirations to create disability policy based on social inclusion.
Australia’s commitment to upholding and advocating the rights of persons with disabilities extends beyond our borders. Australia is internationally recognised as a leading donor in the field of disability and development and is committed to ensuring that our aid is inclusive of, and accessible, to persons with disabilities in line with Article 32 of the Convention. Australia expects to spend over $140 million on developing and implementing this strategy to 2015. This includes around $80 million for improving the quality of life of persons with disabilities and over $66 million for preventing avoidable blindness.
Australia’s work on disability-inclusive development is guided by our world-class strategy, “Development for All: Towards a Disability-Inclusive Australian Aid Program”. The Convention provides the guiding framework for the Development for All strategy. Developed following an extensive consultation process, the strategy employs a twin-track approach: both to mainstream disability inclusive processes throughout Australia’s aid program as well as to support necessary disability specific activities. This work has been given further momentum recently with the Australian Government releasing a new framework for Australia’s aid program which includes “enhancing the lives of people with disabilities” as one of the aid program’s ten key development objectives.
Two years into the implementation of this “development for all” strategy, there are strong signs that our approach is working. Persons with disabilities are benefiting from improved access to education and scholarship programs, and from more accessible public infrastructure. Australia is also supporting research on disability and development, the capacity building of disabled persons’ organisations (DPOs) as well as assisting partner countries in Asia and the Pacific to ratify and implement the Convention - in particular Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Timor Leste and Cambodia.
I am pleased to announce today funding of $1.2 million dollars to the Disability Rights Fund and $900,000 to the Pacific regional DPO, the Pacific Disability Forum, to support the important work of DPOs in advocating for signing and ratifying of the Convention, and help ensure its implementation. Australia is also looking to support practical initiatives focused on the protection, access and inclusion of refugees and displaced populations with disabilities in humanitarian crises – following on from the discussion at last year’s Conference of States Parties on this vital issue.
We look forward to participating in a constructive discussion at this Conference on how to better implement the Convention and ensure its objectives are fully realised to benefit all persons with disabilities.