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Wage theft and poor pay among workers with disabilities, royal commission hears

Posted December 11, 2020

The 9th hearing of the Disability Royal Commission has heard evidence today of widespread wage theft among firms that hire workers with disabilities. Employers avoid paying even the minimum wage to workers on the assumption, the Commission was told, that additional income from the Disability Support Pension provides sufficient support. But experts warn the majority of bosses neglect workers’ basic rights, leaving workers with little option but to leave their job, entrenching them in unemployment.

Entrepreneurial spirit built of necessity for people with disability

Posted November 13, 2020

Finding a job can be difficult, and if you have a disability it’s even harder because of persistent workplace discrimination. But people with a disability are increasingly taking control of their own lives, building their entrepreneurial skills and establishing their own enterprises.

The age of truth-telling’: Disabled Indigenous people urged to speak out

Posted June 12, 2020

Celebrating his 10th “truly free” day of freedom since he was 16, Indigenous man Daryl Carr, 35, who has a mild intellectual disability, had a single message. “I don’t want to see the mob go through what I went through,” said Mr Carr, a Wiradjuri man who has spent most of his life behind bars. He was released from prison in late May after a NSW Supreme Court judge found that Mr Carr had been cruelly detained on a five-year extended supervision order for 11 years, sometimes for “minor breaches”.

People with disability turn to entrepreneurship

Posted June 5, 2020

Lead researcher Professor Simon Darcy said this was because people with disability felt they had no choice but to start their own business in order to work, setting their own flexible hours and working conditions was attractive, and it was an opportunity to give back to their community in some way.

‘We must act now’: Barriers uncovered for young people with disability

Posted May 25, 2020

The Mission Australia Youth Survey has taken a disability lens to its data for the first time Young people with disability are more likely to report poor mental health and are twice as likely to have been bullied in the past year than young people without disability, according to data analysis from Mission Australia. 

Victoria eyes revamp of prisoner mental health services

Posted November 28, 2019

The Victorian government has admitted it needs to overhaul the way prisoners with mental illnesses and cognitive impairments are treated, concerned they are over-represented in jail, suffer more in custody and are more likely to reoffend on release.

Melbourne carer jailed for sexual assaults

Posted November 19, 2019

A Melbourne disability carer sexually assaulted two intellectually disabled women in his care within an hour, telling one of them not to say anything or he would lose his job.