Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability

Here's why we need a disability rights act – not just a disability discrimination one

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Wednesday, October 4, 2023
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The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability has shared its final report.

Key Points: 
  • The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability has shared its final report.
  • In this series, we unpack what the commission’s 222 recommendations could mean for a more inclusive Australia.

Conventions, rights and Australian law

    • Australia is a signatory to the seven core International Human Rights treaties and has ratified them all (meaning we’ve voluntarily accepted legal obligations under international law).
    • The seven treaties include the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability, signed in 2007.

The difference between discrimination and rights

    • In its final report, the disability royal commission affirmed a commitment to make the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities a reality in Australian law.
    • A disability rights act would enshrine in law the ability to make proactive, positive actions to ensure inclusion, support and long term structural changes.
    • A rights act would additionally support First Nation peoples with disability giving them additional protection that is culturally sensitive, as stated in the Royal Commission Report.

Reasonable adjustment versus undue burden

    • This interpretation has been criticised because reasonable adjustment is intended to mean what is reasonable for the person faced with the barrier.
    • But it’s usually interpreted as meaning what’s reasonable for the provider – say, a school, employer, accommodation or service organisation.
    • If a business, school system or care provide did not offer inclusive supports and adjustment, they would need to prove it was an undue burden on them.

Why a disability rights act is important

    • A disability rights act would enshrine the requirement for people with a disability to be at the centre of any changes being made.
    • There also needs to be agreement across all sectors as to what constitutes disability for a rights act to be implemented.
    • A disability rights act would create a societal climate of positive action, to remove barriers before complaint, and for all aspects of society to promote meaningful equality and actively eliminate discrimination.

A flow-on effect to all the recommendations

    • In their final education recommendations, a key division emerged among the commissioners.
    • Three of the commissioners said all children with a disability should be taught in mainstream settings and segregated settings should be closed.

The disability royal commission heard horrific stories of harm – now we must move towards repair

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 3, 2023
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The final report of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability follows years of advocacy from the disability community.

Key Points: 
  • The final report of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability follows years of advocacy from the disability community.
  • The final report recommends disability service providers offer redress to people with disability who experience harm while receiving their services.
  • Read more:
    Disability royal commissioners disagreed over phasing out 'special schools' – that leaves segregation on the table

What do ‘institutionalisation’ and ‘segregation’ mean?

    • All people with disability have the human right to live independently in the community regardless of how high their support needs are.
    • In 20th century Australia, people with disability were institutionalised in many large residential settings.
    • People with disability remain traumatised by their experiences, yet governments and charities have not been called to account.
    • Read more:
      The disability royal commission recommendations could fix some of the worst living conditions – but that's just the start

Problems today

    • Today, many people – especially those with intellectual disability – live in group homes where segregation, social isolation, violence and lack of choice in their daily lives are a common reality.
    • The disability royal commission heard how group homes replicate the harm of large residential settings, with operators failing to prevent violence and avoiding accountability.

Recognising wrongs

    • Reparations are actions to recognise and respond to systemic wrongs.
    • They might involve compensation, restitution (such as returning money or property) or rehabilitation (health or legal services).
    • Reparations can seek satisfaction (with apologies and memorials) and guarantees something won’t happen again via law reform or human rights education.

What do people with disability want?

    • It is time to work with people with disability towards a national apology from the government.
    • In 2021, the Council for Intellectual Disability demanded withdrawal of an application for tourist re-zoning of Peat Island (the site of a disability institution for 99 years) and for memorialisation and truth-telling.
    • We found people with intellectual disability support the wider community learning more of what was experienced in these places.
    • Read more:
      'Don't shove us off like we're rubbish': what people with intellectual disability told us about their local community

A way forward

    • The disability royal commission has highlighted systemic violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation in today’s Australia.
    • Reparations are one way to do this.
    • Jack Kelly has contributed to projects that have been funded by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).

Disability royal commissioners disagreed over phasing out 'special schools' – that leaves segregation on the table

Retrieved on: 
Monday, October 2, 2023
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In its 32 hearings and nearly 8,000 submissions, people with disability shared difficult stories of personal and systemic violence.

Key Points: 
  • In its 32 hearings and nearly 8,000 submissions, people with disability shared difficult stories of personal and systemic violence.
  • Read more:
    The disability royal commission recommendations could fix some of the worst living conditions – but that's just the start

Split on segregation

    • Many disability advocacy organisations hoped the commission report would call for an end to segregation of people with disability across education, housing and employment.
    • Yet the final report found the commissioners split on this issue.
    • Commissioners Barbara Bennett, Rhonda Galbally and Alastair McEwin believe “the deliberate and systematic separation of people based on disability constitutes segregation”.
    • Two contrasting sets of education recommendations emerged from this split.

Why inclusive education is important

    • Education is not just about academic outcomes and future employment.
    • But they lack insight into the importance of inclusive education in achieving all of these goals.
    • But the lack of a firm commitment to a fully inclusive education system denies the opportunity for all young people to grow and understand their diversity of experiences.

Why some see segregated education as necessary

    • Not everyone within the disability community sees segregated education as problematic.
    • There are a number of reasons why special settings for students with disability have been established and chosen by families and students.
    • Schools are under-resourced and teachers in mainstream settings are often undertrained for working with students with disability in inclusive ways.

Where to next?

    • And this may set up the next generation of disabled children and young people for a life of being excluded from mainstream society.
    • Read more:
      Why do students with disability go to 'special schools' when research tells us they do better in the mainstream system?

The disability royal commission recommendations could fix some of the worst living conditions – but that's just the start

Retrieved on: 
Friday, September 29, 2023
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After more than four years and many traumatic stories, the disability royal commission’s final report was released this morning.

Key Points: 
  • After more than four years and many traumatic stories, the disability royal commission’s final report was released this morning.
  • The scope of the A$600 million disability royal commission included school, work, housing, hospitals and the criminal justice system.
  • The recommendations include the introduction of an Australian disability rights act, a new disability government portfolio, a minister for disability inclusion, and a department of disability equality and inclusion.

A long time coming

    • People with disability have long experienced violence, abuse and neglect at much higher rates than the rest of the community.
    • The commission heard that some 17,000 people with disability living in group homes are at significant risk.

The problem with group homes

    • All the commissioners agreed major improvements are needed when it comes to group homes.
    • There is little evidence to indicate group home are cost effective, provide quality support or deliver good outcomes for people living there.
    • Many group homes in Australia fail to keep people safe and deny their basic rights.

Inclusive housing recommendations

    • The commission began its housing recommendations by acknowledging people with disability are “conspicuously absent” from national housing and homelessness policy frameworks.
    • The commission listed 11 recommendations for more inclusive housing.
    • Implementing the recommendations to make mainstream services more inclusive will help keep people living in disability housing safe.

Minimum standards

    • The commission also recommended the introduction of minimum service standards, monitoring and oversight for boarding houses around Australia.
    • Given the evidence about the impact of unsuitable housing on the lives of people with disability, the commission’s recommendation for national minimum accessibility standards in all new housing as soon as possible is critical too.
    • The New South Wales and Western Australia governments have not yet committed to implement mandatory accessible design standards.

What’s next?

    • Some of the most marginalised people in Australia were heard for the first time during the disability royal commission.
    • This needs to be balanced with adding layers of regulation that will do little to improve the lives of people with disability.
    • But the final report is momentous and the current NDIS review (due to report in October) will add to this momentum.

The disability royal commission delivers its findings today. We must all listen to end violence, abuse and neglect

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, September 27, 2023
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Many people are waiting keenly to hear how the recommendations can make a difference to the lives of people with disability.

Key Points: 
  • Many people are waiting keenly to hear how the recommendations can make a difference to the lives of people with disability.
  • While we wait for the report to be made public, we can learn from how government action from the previous child abuse royal commission helped improve people’s lives.

What was involved

    • Over four and half years, it held hearings, heard stories from witnesses, received submissions and conducted research.
    • High rates of violence and harm against people with disability have not improved very much over many decades.
    • Making changes to specialist systems such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) – currently under review – will help those involved.

Ableism and ‘othering’

    • People with disability are often treated in ways that are not acceptable for any member of society.
    • An example of these types of discrimination is when a waiter asks a carer what a person with disability wants, instead of asking the person themselves.
    • Or when a person with disability is expected to live with strangers who hit them, because that is the only housing available.
    • Read more:
      Ableism and disablism – how to spot them and how we can all do better

      You might think excluding people in these ways does not happen anymore or does not matter.

What we hope the commission will recommend

    • The disability royal commission listened to people with disability, family members and organisations about what they want to happen.
    • A consistent view is that it is not enough to focus on stopping violent acts where they are happening now.


    The disability royal commission recommendations and government responses should follow the example set by the child abuse commission. The need for a voice, compliance and quality standards remains relevant to people affected by disability policy. And the responsibility for real change stretches beyond government. Change happens when the responsibility to listen and act is taken up by all organisations, communities and members of the public.

What happens next

    • Immediate action, as we saw in the child abuse commission, will demonstrate priority for the rights of people with disability.
    • Everyone’s contribution to changing attitudes, building belonging and recognising people’s shared humanity is needed to defeat exclusion and prevent violence.
    • Poet Andy Jackson recited his work Listen at the disability royal commission’s ceremonial closing sitting two weeks ago.

Ableism and disablism – how to spot them and how we can all do better

Retrieved on: 
Sunday, May 14, 2023
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Australian audiences are tuning in to watch TV shows featuring people with disability: You Can’t Ask That, Love on the Spectrum and Employable Me.

Key Points: 
  • Australian audiences are tuning in to watch TV shows featuring people with disability: You Can’t Ask That, Love on the Spectrum and Employable Me.
  • The Disability Pride movement is gaining momentum and people with disability are becoming part of the diversity conversation.

Two types of discrimination

    • Ableism and disablism both refer to types of disability discrimination.
    • The nuance between the two words can cause confusion but are important for acknowledging, detecting, and dismantling the types of barriers people with disability encounter.
    • Ableism is discrimination that favours “able-bodied” people, or people without disability.

Ingrained and everywhere

    • Indeed, ableism and disablism can be so ingrained in our daily lives that most people are unaware of them.
    • Both forms of discrimination can be subtle and insidious, making them difficult to detect and address.
    • Although the process of forcing people into these options no longer occurs in such blatantly disrespectful ways, the result is the same.
    • Subtle ableism manifests in the use of well-intended “empathetic” comments, like “I can’t imagine losing my eyesight.

Challenging but worth it

    • A broad spectrum of challenges is at play: confronting and disrupting the status quo, valuing diverse types of knowledge and experience and acknowledging the unconscious biases we all have.
    • The emphasis on co-design and engagement with people with disability is increasingly prevalent.
    • However, it is critical to conduct co-design in ways that are not tokenistic and don’t merely validate current practice.

‘Not yet disabled’

    • Disability has been called the world’s largest minority and is a group any person can join at any time in their life.
    • As advocate Sinead Burke from Tilting the Lens says in British Vogue’s May issue,
      Accessibility and disability inclusion is everyone’s responsibility and opportunity.
    • Read more:
      Inclusion means everyone: 5 disability attitude shifts to end violence, abuse and neglect

      Angel Dixon is affiliated with Attitude Foundation.

NDIS cost scrutiny is intensifying again – the past shows this can harm health and wellbeing for people with disability

Retrieved on: 
Monday, May 1, 2023
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Many had felt buoyed by reassurances from Bill Shorten, minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), at the National Press Club the previous week that a reboot would ensure the scheme was “here to stay”.

Key Points: 
  • Many had felt buoyed by reassurances from Bill Shorten, minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), at the National Press Club the previous week that a reboot would ensure the scheme was “here to stay”.
  • Our recent research shows people’s wellbeing deteriorates when their supports are threatened.
  • Read more:
    Health and housing measures announced ahead of budget, and NDIS costs in first ministers' sights

Enormous investment

    • Similarly, spending on the Disability Support Pension, which provides required income support for people with long-term disability, is at $18.3 billion per year.
    • In total, these two schemes amount to a $47.5 billion a year investment into the wellbeing of Australians with disability and their families.
    • People on the Disability Support Pension have also experienced the threat of losing support.
    • Read more:
      The NDIS is set for a reboot but we also need to reform disability services outside the scheme

What we looked at

    • To investigate this, we looked at several types of medications and found that the group that includes antidepressants was the only one that increased for those targeted by the review.
    • The increase was not driven by the few who stopped getting disability support, but by those who still received the Disability Support Pension after the review.
    • These financial costs do not account for the additional time contacting Centrelink, finding healthcare professionals, attending visits and appealing the process.

Caution ahead

    • Medical Disability Support Pension reviews were eventually stopped and planned NDIS independent assessments were abandoned.
    • She has previously received funding from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Department of Social Services (DSS).
    • Anne Kavanagh receives funding from the National Health Medical Research Council, the Australian Research Council and the Victorian and Commonwealth governments.

The NDIS is set for a reboot but we also need to reform disability services outside the scheme

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
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NDIS Minister Bill Shorten yesterday announced a “reboot” of Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme and six major areas of reform.

Key Points: 
  • NDIS Minister Bill Shorten yesterday announced a “reboot” of Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme and six major areas of reform.
  • Getting the NDIS back on track, Shorten said, will require reform across all disability services.

Tackling bed block

    • Delayed discharge means a person is medically fit to be discharged from hospital but they cannot return home safely as appropriate supports are not in place.
    • This is a better outcome for the people involved and is estimated to have saved the health system A$550 million.

6 ways to reboot the NDIS

    • Around $10 billion of NDIS funding goes into these services each year and supports around 30,000 people with significant disabilities to live independently.
    • Yet too often, they don’t support participants and families in the ways that they want.
    • 6) Increase community and mainstream supports so people who aren’t eligible for the NDIS can access other services.
    • Read more:
      Everyone is talking about the NDIS – we spoke to participants and asked them how to fix it

More to disability care than the NDIS


    The NDIS was never designed to be accessed by all people with disability. The initial scheme design supported participants via a tiered system:
    • It will involve more than just changes to the NDIS – we need a rethink of all disability services.
    • And this can’t be done without people with disability who need to play a strong role in designing this new scheme.
    • Read more:
      What the NDIS needs to do to rebuild trust, in the words of the people who use it

Healthcare Management Solutions, LLC (HMS) Commemorates Its 20-Year Anniversary with $20,000 Total in Charitable Donations

Retrieved on: 
Monday, August 8, 2022
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FAIRMONT, W.Va., Aug. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- As Healthcare Management Solutions, LLC (HMS) turns 20 this year, the company has chosen to donate a total of $20,000 — $1,000 each — to 20 amazing charitable organizations that likewise help vulnerable populations who are in need. Thanks to these nonprofits, seniors, veterans, at-risk women and families, plus youth and adults facing homelessness and mental-health challenges — and even defenseless animals — have access to vital support and assistance.

Key Points: 
  • FAIRMONT, W.Va., Aug. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- As Healthcare Management Solutions, LLC (HMS) turns 20 this year, the company has chosen to donate a total of $20,000 $1,000 each to 20 amazing charitable organizations that likewise help vulnerable populations who are in need.
  • "These charitable donations not only amplify the spirit of our work protecting vulnerable populations, they also help make our local communities safer, stronger, and healthier."
  • Health Access works to eliminate disparities for those who lack access to basic healthcare.
  • With no facility or paid staff, all funds go to veterinary care, food, and medications for the animals.

Pasado's Safe Haven Waives Adoption Fees for World Farm Animals Day

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, September 30, 2021
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SULTAN, Wash., Sept. 30, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- In honor of World Farm Animals Day on Oct. 2, Pasado's Safe Haven is waiving adoption fees for goats, sheep, pigs, alpacas, turkeys, geese, ducks and more.

Key Points: 
  • SULTAN, Wash., Sept. 30, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- In honor of World Farm Animals Day on Oct. 2, Pasado's Safe Haven is waiving adoption fees for goats, sheep, pigs, alpacas, turkeys, geese, ducks and more.
  • "There's no better time to bring one home than on World Farm Animals Day."
  • Many of the farm animals at Pasado's Safe Haven were abandoned after they'd been purchased or adopted as babies and outgrew their "cuteness."
  • A few of the farm animals available at Pasado's Safe Haven include:
    These sweet sheep arrived at Pasado's Safe Haven emaciated and full of internal parasites due to severe neglect before they were seized from their owner.