�鶹��ý - Disability rights

Two year anniversary to mark no Government action - Sydney Road Accessible Tram Stops Now Rally

Darren Saffin — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 00:58:51 +0000

On Saturday 28 June at 11am, the Sydney Road Accessible Tram Stops Now campaign will commemorate two years of Government inaction regarding accessible tram stops along Sydney Road before the construction of the second section of Sky Rail level crossing removals on the Upfield train line.

This is the anniversary no one wanted to have.

Two years of inaction and Government double speak that amount to nothing while residents are left not knowing how they will be able to live their lives when the Upfield train line is closed.

Vale Rochelle Porteous, community fighter to the end

Hall Greenland — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 09:30:00 +1100

Rochelle Porteous, an indefatigable campaigner, suddenly died earlier this year. Hall Greenland writes about her activism, noting many of her greatest victories came while she was in a minority on Leichhardt Council.

Video: Jordon Steele-John on Labor's changes to the NDIS

Jordon Steele-John — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 12:30:00 +1000

Suzanne James speaks to WA Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John about changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme which passed in August.

Video: Labor's NDIS bill and its rotten response to the royal commission

Suzanne James — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 11:00:00 +1000

Suzanne James talks to WA Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John about the Albanese government’s betrayal of the disability community by ignoring the bulk of the royal commission’s recommendations while defunding the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

Disability Pride Festival

Nova Sobieralski — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 05:13:39 +0000

Disability Pride is coming to Boorloo/Perth, Western Australia this July 2024!

Disability Pride is about celebrating the lives, identity, and culture of our disabled community.

This is a grassroots festival, brought to you by disabled volunteers. This event is for everyone with a disability (inclusive of mental ill-health, chronic illness, neurodivergent, undiagnosed, self-identifying, d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing and every other disability!) and allies, to celebrate our community.

Qld gov’t referred to UN Committee Against Torture for suspending human rights law

Sonia Hickey — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 14:00:00 +1000

Labor has been reported to the United Nations Committee Against Torture over its decision to “suspend” its human rights act to detain children in adult watch houses. Sonia Hickey reports.

Disability activists blockade Sydney Road, call for accessible tram stops

Darren Saffin — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 15:45:00 +1000

Sydney Road was blocked by campaigners calling for accessible tram stops before any more level crossing removal works are undertaken on the Upfield line. Darren Saffin reports.

Labor’s budget is an attack on NDIS, Medicare

Graham Matthews — Thu, 11 May 2023 15:30:00 +1000

Labor’s threat to slash-and-burn NDIS funding gives the lie to Jim Chalmers’ claim that the budget would offer “more help for some of the most vulnerable in our community”, argues Graham Matthews.

A materialist framework for understanding disability

Nova Sobieralski — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 17:15:00 +1100

Nova Sobieralski reviews Michael Oliver's The Politics of Disablement — considered a paradigm defining work for the sociological study of disability.

Sydney’s second Disability Pride Festival kicks off

Kerry Smith — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 15:45:00 +1100

The Inner West Disability Pride Fest returns to Newtown, reports Kerry Smith.

The hidden cost of council amalgamation: a diversity perspective

Bernadette Smith — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:00:00 +1100

Without sufficient regulations, independent oversight or practical compliance measures to protect people’s rights and safety, the elderly and disabled are in danger of being injured or forced out of overcrowded, outsourced council-owned facilities. Bernadette Smith reports.

Wheelchair users take action for access to trams

Chloe DS — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 15:00:00 +1000

Trains have been made accessible for wheelchair users, but trams have not. Chloe DS and Chris Peterson report on the campaign to rectify this.

Disdain for disability added to list of crimes against refugees

Janet Parker — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 12:30:00 +1000

Denying permanent residency to a 6-year-old Australian-born child because he has cerebral palsy shows this government's complete and utter political and moral bankruptcy, writes Janet Parker.

Government slugs disabled to bolster bottom line

Graham Matthews — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 12:00:00 +1000

The federal Coalition government announced a planned budget surplus for 2019-20 on April 2. Disgracefully, again, one of the most important areas of “savings” was the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

The planned surplus relies on “a $3 billion underspend in the National Disability Insurance Scheme, after a $3.4 billion underspend in the current financial year,” according to the ABC’s Laura Tingle.

Disability rights rally in Sydney

Kerry Smith — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 14:15:00 +1100

Disability rights activists rallied in Sydney on February 24. Advocates protested the NSW government’s refusal to properly fund disability services.

NDIS is also making life harder for disability workers

Janine Brown — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 10:30:00 +1100

I am employed as a disability support worker by a council and, since the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), I will soon lose my job. This is my story.

The reality of NDIS: greater need, fewer resources

Graham Matthews — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 13:00:00 +1000

Minister for Families and Social Services Paul Fletcher announced on September 26 that the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) had reached the milestone of registering its 200,000^th participant. That same day, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the final figures for the 2017-18 federal budget showed the budget deficit had been reduced to $10.1 billion, with "the single biggest saving [being] the lower than expected numbers of participants entering the NDIS.”

Despite assurances, NDIS funding under threat

Topia Ryan-Jones — Fri, 18 May 2018 15:30:00 +1000

In delivering his third federal budget speech on May 8, federal Treasurer Scott Morrison claimed his government would guarantee the essential services Australians rely on. Presumably this included the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

However, Morrison only mentioned the NDIS once in his half-hour budget speech, and that was 25 minutes in. He said, “every dollar and every cent committed to delivering the National Disability Insurance Scheme remains in place and always will,” before quickly moving on to "stopping the boats", "terrorism" and border security.

Funding deficit sinks disability insurance program, says survivor

Graham Matthews — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 15:00:00 +1100

I have been a “participant” in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) since July 2017.

In November 2016 I contracted pneumonia. After 24 hours of sickness and high temperatures my partner took me to hospital, where I was diagnosed as being in septic shock. Unfortunately, the medicines used to raise my catastrophically low blood pressure led to my lower legs and fingers becoming gangrenous.

WA activists demand details on national disability scheme

Janet Parker — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 11:00:00 +1100

The dual trial of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in Western Australia has ended with a bilateral agreement signed on February 1 by the WA state and federal governments.

The WA model got the guernsey and will be locally run and administered. Starting in July, it will be rolled out to an estimated 39,000 people over the next three years. WA will pay all the administration and operating costs but governance responsibilities will be shared nationally.

Britain: Welfare cuts leave disabled ‘unable to live’

Zoe Streatfield — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 11:00:00 +1100

The Conservative party government’s plan to slash unemployment benefits for disabled people making new claims could leave some unable to afford the essentials of life, opponents warned on February 2.

Under government plans, from April new claimants assessed as fit for work will have their benefits cut by £29.05 to £73.10 a week, the same rate as the jobseeker’s allowance. The government claims the changes will help halve the “disability employment gap” and save the Treasury an estimated £1 billion by 2020-21.

Ecuador: Left-wing disability activist to run for president on ruling party ticket

TeleSUR English — Sun, 02 Oct 2016 11:00:00 +1100

Ecuador’s ruling party, the leftist Pais Alliance of President Rafael Correa, has elected disability rights activist Lenin Moreno to be its next candidate for president during its October 1 congress, TeleSUR English said. Presidential elections are scheduled for February 19 next year.

Autistic activists demand acceptance and rights

Helen Said — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 11:00:00 +1100

World Autism Awareness Day will be held on April 2 and members of the autistic self-advocacy movement are campaigning for basic services and social acceptance.

Britain: Thousands die within a year of being declared 'fit to work'

Tony Iltis — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 10:00:00 +1000

Photo: dpac.uk.net. Campaigners warned on August 27 that reports that 2380 people died within months of being branded “fit for work” under the British government's new welfare laws grossly underestimate the true impact of invasive government assessments into the lives of severely ill and disabled people.

I’m in my 20s but had to spend four months in aged care because there was 'nowhere else to go'

Kirrilly Hayward — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 11:00:00 +1100

People with a disability or a mental illness and their families have not had sufficient access to the services, programs and funding necessary for fully independent inclusion in society. For a person with a disability to participate in the community, in many circumstances, equipment and organisational assistance is needed.

Gov’t axes funding for disability peak bodies

Janet Parker — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 11:00:00 +1100

Under the cover of Christmas, 10 peak representative bodies of people with disability were defunded by the federal government. Hang on, how does that work? Is this government not rolling out the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) that seeks to consult widely with people with disabilities and their advocates? Is this not the promise of a new arena of flexibility and choice, a “consumer-led” initiative that puts disability rights and voice front and centre?

WA disability services privatise group homes

mel_b — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 10:00:00 +1000

The Disability Services Commission (DSC) in Western Australia announced last October that it planned to privatise 60% of its accommodation and early childhood intervention services, relinquish its status as a registered training organisation and dismantle its learning and development arm. At the same time it abolished its Community Development Directorate, dissolved its Post School Options section and made its staff in the Community and Family Living team redundant.

PSA campaigns against privatisation of NSW disability services

Jim McIlroy — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 10:00:00 +1000

The NSW Public Service Association (PSA) has launched a campaign against the state government's total privatisation of disability services, being imposed as part of the implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in NSW. The campaign is being supported by the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, and is seeking broader community backing.

Letters: Blind workers in too hard basket

Jay Fletcher — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 10:00:00 +1000

I disagree with a few points in the article “Blind workers fight for jobs at Vision Australia”. There are lots of parts of welfare to work which are not great but there is a particular part which helps people with disabilities be able to compete on the labour market or become self employed more easily.

The billions that could be spent better

Peter Boyle — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:00:00 +1000

The federal Labor government had a rare win when it wedged Tony Abbott and the Liberal opposition into supporting its plan to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) through an increase in the Medicare levy. But will this be enough to stop Abbott from winning the next election? If the bookies know their business, few are game to put money on this. An ALP win is at its longest odds since Sportsbet opened betting on the election result.