Recommendation 7.32 – End segregated employment by 2034

What has been achieved to date

All governments remain committed to considering this recommendation further.

The Australian Government is leading engagement with the disability community and stakeholders on the future priorities for supported employment. Consultations in 2023 informed the design of initiatives that are now underway to ensure that people with disability with high support needs can achieve their employment goals in a range of settings. These include:

• A Structural Adjustment Fund to create more employment pathways for people with high support needs;
• A Disability Employment Advocacy and Information program that will offer advocacy support and information to build their understanding about their employment rights and options;
• WorkAbility Expos to provide people with high support needs, and their families and carers, with information on a range of employment supports, and provide an opportunity to connect with new employers.

In November 2024, the Disability Reform Ministerial Council endorsed the updated Commonwealth, State and Territory Supported Employment Plan. Ministers also noted the Supported Employment Plan 2024 Progress Report, which outlined the significant amount of work underway across all levels of government to support the evolution of the supported employment sector in alignment with the Guiding Principles for the Future of Supported Employment.

The Commonwealth Department of Social Services (the department) has commenced consultations on the way forward for supported and open employment, including seeking views on increasing inclusive employment, raising subminimum wages, and ending segregated employment. Consultations were open from 25 March 2025 to 22 June 2025, with disability community and stakeholders invited to make submissions in response to a discussion paper.

The department has also begun an evaluation of employment supports available for people with high support needs.

The department is implementing the new specialist disability employment program, Inclusive Employment Australia, in November 2025. The Inclusive Employment Australia program will extend eligibility to these services to people with less than 8 hours work capacity, to seek open employment job opportunities.

What the Disability Royal Commission said in the final report

a) Commissioners Bennett, Galbally, Mason and McEwin recommend the Australian Government Department of Social Services should develop and implement a National Inclusive Employment Roadmap to transform Australian Disability Enterprises (ADEs) and eliminate subminimum wages for people with disability by 2034.

b) The National Inclusive Employment Roadmap should be centred on the following principles:

• equal access for people with disability to all opportunities for employment, starting with the Australian Public Service and state and territory public services
• increased availability of jobs for people with disability, especially in:
  • Australian and state and territory public services supported by the payment of full minimum wages to all employees, consistent with the public sector acting as a model employer. This recommendation would operate in advance of Recommendation 7.31 to raise all subminimum wages to the full minimum wage by 2034
  • non-government organisations that receive government grants
  • private companies that receive government procurement contracts
• availability of evidence-based supports to facilitate job readiness, participation and ongoing development, particularly for people with intellectual disability
• better pathways to work for people with disability
• as set out in Recommendation 7.31, lifting wages to 50 per cent of the minimum wage, with all people with disability moving to the full minimum wage by 2034 (noting our expectation that the public sector, as a model employer, will pay full minimum wages to employees with disability before that time)
• governance and accountability for system change.

c) The National Inclusive Employment Roadmap should address:

• the reform of ADEs to operate in accordance with the social firm model, providing open workplaces in which employees with disability can receive support in an integrated setting to undertake work tasks, develop skills and transition to further open employment
• the establishment of a grant-based Structural Adjustment Fund to support increases in the minimum wage and achieve transformation targets in ADEs
• support for people with disability to transition to open employment through programs such as the School Leaver Employment Supports program.

d) To support the National Inclusive Employment Roadmap as ADEs transform into social firms, government procurement rules should also be amended to give preference to enterprises that can demonstrate they provide employment opportunities to people with disability in open, inclusive and accessible settings and pay employees with disability at least the full minimum wage at the time of the procurement process (this recommendation would operate in advance of the general recommendation to raise all subminimum wages to the full minimum wage by 2034).

e) The implementation of the National Inclusive Employment Roadmap should be monitored by the Disability Reform Ministerial Council.

Joint Government response July 2024

Supported employment refers to jobs where people with high employment support needs can receive extra support while they are at work.

In Australia, around 160 Australian Disability Enterprises (ADEs), registered as NDIS providers, provide supported employment for approximately 16,000 people with disability. While ADEs currently play an important role in providing employment opportunities for people with disability, they are not, and should not, be the only employment option for people with high employment support needs.  

In October 2022, Disability Ministers convened a supported employment roundtable with people with disability, family representatives, ADE representatives, peak bodies and other sector experts. Attendees developed a set of guiding principles for the future of supported employment. The principles aim to ensure people with high support needs have informed choice and control, real options for employment and a range of support to meet their employment goals.

To ensure the guiding principles are brought to life, Disability Ministers agreed a national Supported Employment Plan in November 2023. The plan is focused on providing people with informed choice and control about their employment, as well as genuine opportunities to work in a wider range of settings, be it in an ADE, social enterprise, in open employment or in their own business. 
The Australian Government and state and territory governments acknowledge the significant community interest, and diversity of views, around the Disability Royal Commission’s recommendations on supported employment.

Commissioners Bennett, Galbally, Mason and McEwin recommend the Australian Government develop a National Inclusive Employment Roadmap to transform ADEs and end segregated employment by 2034. While the Chair and Commissioner Ryan have no issue with the implementation of a plan to guide changes that should occur in the operation of ADEs and similar workplaces, they do not describe this process as ending segregated employment. The Chair and Commissioner Ryan do not consider every workplace established exclusively for people with disability should be characterised as segregated in the pejorative sense in which the word is typically understood. They consider workplaces exclusively for people with disability may have a continuing, albeit diminishing, role in providing employment opportunities, especially for people with intellectual or cognitive disability.

The Australian Government will undertake consultation to further consider views and implications associated with this recommendation and then determine next steps. Disability Ministers will also update the Supported Employment Plan in 2024.

More recommendations

View progress on other recommendations made by the Royal Commission.