People with disability – from recipients to full and active participants:

In this submission, PIAC commends the Federal Government on this development and encourages it to work with all levels of government across Australia. PIAC also supports the use of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability as a framing document for the strategy. PIAC’s response then focuses on the need to shift the focus away from people with disability as recipients of care and support to people with disability as active and contributing participants in all aspects of Australian society. PIAC urges the Federal Government to develop tools to effectively analyse the impact of all laws and programs on participation and to ensure mechanisms are in place to enable people with disability to be partners with government in the future. PIAC also urges Government to ensure that, wherever possible, complaints mechanisms, licensing and compliance is mainstreamed and that the Australian Human Rights Commission and appropriate advocacy bodies be given standing to be complainants or notifiers in respect of systemic wrongs against people with disability.