The state’s public advocate is calling for all prisoners to be routinely checked for all cognitive impairments, including acquired brain injuries and intellectual disabilities, when they enter jail. Colleen Pearce heads the independent body the Victorian government set up to protect the rights of people with a disability. She said it was critical to identify … Continued
Non-government schools will emerge as the big winners from the Council of Australian Governments meeting on national funding reform, to be held in Canberra on April 19. Which is ironic, seeing that the greatest need is in the public system. Few schools serving the poorest communities in Australia are non-government. About 80 per cent of … Continued
Parents of women with severe disabilities are being forced to take their daughters overseas for hysterectomies after their requests for the procedure were denied in Australia, a leading endocrinologist has told an inquiry into involuntary sterilisation. John Carter, the father of a 31-year-old daughter with a moderately severe intellectual disability, said laws on sterilisation can … Continued
Legislation setting up the National Disability Insurance Scheme has cleared its final parliamentary hurdle on Thursday, sparking a rare congratulations for the government from the opposition benches. Coalition MPs warmly praised the government and Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin after the House of Representatives on Thursday accepted amendments the Senate made on Wednesday. Ms Macklin … Continued
People with disability are more than twice as likely to be in living poverty than other people in our country, says ACOSS’s Cassandra Goldie. More than 600,000 Australians with a disability are living below the poverty line according to new figures from peak welfare group, Australian Council of Social Service. The figures, released on Friday, … Continued
A voucher system making funding for disabled students portable between schools would not guarantee a quality education, advocates warn. The Victorian government has proposed a voucher system for disadvantaged students, known as a ”pupil premium”, where the money would follow the child to the school of their choice. It is part of a $400 million … Continued
An intellectually disabled man was left in prison for more than a year for a crime he could not have understood, largely because accommodation could not be found for him. County Court Judge Mark Taft called Ross Cunningham’s 371 days on remand an ”embarrassment to the administration of criminal justice” in a ruling on Friday … Continued
Parents of women with intellectual disabilities are going straight for sterilisation procedures rather than ”existing and viable options” to help control menstruation and contraception, a national Senate inquiry has heard. Associate Professor Sonia Grover, a gynaecologist at the Royal Children’s Hospital, told the hearing she was horrified when she received ”straight-out” requests for hysterectomies. She … Continued
The recent removal of a child from a young mother with a disability, reported in (the) Saturday Age, is heart-wrenching and disturbing and leaves me and those involved in the case in emotional turmoil. Goodness knows, then, how the poor mother, ”Rebecca”, is coping, let alone her child. It appears, however, that the removal of … Continued
It is more than three months since Rebecca’s child was taken from her, but the pain is still raw and the decision still impossible for the grieving young mother to fully comprehend. She had fought hard during the court hearing to keep the little girl who had been the centre of her world for eight … Continued
Disabled Victorians will not be guaranteed the protection they need under draft laws for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the Victorian government has warned. Prime Minister Julia Gillard had said few actions in public life had given her greater pleasure than introducing the disability scheme on Thursday. ”The scheme is ambitious, and necessarily so,” she … Continued
When Jenny Macklin stepped up to the podium at the National Press Club last month to talk up the country’s first national disability insurance scheme, an elephant lurked ominously at the back of the room. The Minister for Disability Reform spoke with genuine passion and excitement about a looming revolution, telling her audience the scheme … Continued
There are 410,000 families in Australia for which the introduction of the national disability insurance scheme legislation in Federal Parliament this week will represent a monumental day in their often difficult lives. It is an idea whose time has come, and this legislation should be supported across the house. It is not a time for … Continued
Up to 10 people die violently or through neglect each year in state-monitored homes designed to protect the mentally ill, disabled and elderly, while many vulnerable residents have been sexually assaulted and abused. In the most extreme case this year, a 66-year-old schizophrenic manwas charged with murder over the death of his room-mate at Bellden … Continued
If you have an obvious disability, you’ve probably got used to people’s awkwardness, as they struggle with what to say, how to act, where to look. Often pre-conceived ideas or prejudices about difference have developed without them even realising. A Victorian initiative wants to help confront this awkwardness early on, at school. The Young Ambassadors … Continued