Media Release

10 June 2021 

The United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) is an international human rights treaty of the United Nations intended to protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities.[1]
 
Earlier this year, the UN CRPD made a finding that Australia breached the human rights of Grainne Sherlock, a woman with disability, wanting to migrate to Australia.
 

20 May 2021

Virgin Australia’s chief executive, Jayne Hrdlicka, recently called for international borders to be reopened “even if some people may die.” The Head of Virgin Australia also said, “if vaccination levels were high enough and vulnerable people were protected, the federal government should take the risk of opening its international borders sooner than June 2022.”
 

12 May 2021

National Ethnic Disability Alliance CEO, Dwayne Cranfield has welcomed the additional $2.3 billion investment into the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan announced by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in his third federal budget yesterday. 
 
Mr Cranfield is however doubtful whether the budget will be doing enough for people with disability and people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.
 
 
1. Big win - Mental Health

29 April 2021

People with disability face restricted access to participation in all aspects of life as a direct result of inaccessibility of the built environment.

DPO Australia supports the current Disability (Access to Premises – Building) legislation, which sets the standard for the accessibility of the built environment in Australia.

Disability advocates today delivered new NDIS Minister Linda Reynolds a formal ‘terms of engagement’ in a bid to reset relations between the NDIA and people with disability, their families and community.

Australia’s major disability representative and disabled persons organisations have been increasingly concerned that the NDIS is changing in order to slash costs – rather than continue the investment in individualised services and supports for people with disability.

We welcome reports that NDIS Minister Linda Reynolds will pause a plan to force people with disability to submit to compulsory assessments to access support, but want to see much more detail about what that means for the future of the NDIS.

There has been widespread opposition to the proposed model from people with disability, our families and community, and it is heartening the new Minister has listened to those concerns.

People with disability, their families and the organisations that represent them are all worried about changes the Australian Government wants to make to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

19 March 2021

As at 30 June 2019, there were over 7.5 million migrants living in Australia: migrants, refugees and people born oversees account for 29.7% of the population. [1]

Australia is hence, a rich, diverse country and migrants and refugees contribute positively to Australia’s economic, social and cultural settings.
 

People with disability and our rights and advocacy organisations are fighting to end the segregation of people with disability in Australian education, housing and workplaces.

We urge the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (Disability Royal Commission) to recognise that segregation of people with disabilities is discrimination and a breach of our human rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (which Australia has signed).

04 February 2021

In 2020, a landmark federal court ruling found that it was possible for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants to “use NDIS funds to access specialised sex worker services if it was deemed reasonable and necessary.”