Volume 5
5.2 Review and update of Australia's Disability Strategy
Australia’s Disability Strategy (ADS) is Australia’s national disability policy framework.
It sets out a plan for continuing to improve the lives of people with disability in Australia over the next ten years.
Recommendation 5.2 said all governments should review and update Australia’s Disability Strategy.
All governments have now completed this review.
The review looked at:
- Issues raised in the Disability Royal Commission,
- Feedback from the first 3 years of the strategy,
- How well ADS was being implemented.
The review included:
- Input from the ADS advisory council,
- Public consultations,
- Focussed engagement with Disability Representative Organisations.
Improvements were made following the review.
The review included:
- Better coordination across all governments,
- Active engagement of people with disability,
- New Targeted Action Plans,
- More accessible communication formats,
- More transparency of reporting
- A stronger focus on housing and homelessness
5.7 Focal points across jurisdictions to implement the CRPD
In Australia, all levels of government work to implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
The CRPD is an international human rights treaty designed to protect the rights of people with disability.
The Australian Government has 2 departments, the Attorney General’s Department and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing which act as the ‘Joint Focal Point’ for anything relating to the implementation of the CRPD.
The Attorney General’s Department is responsible for reporting to the United Nations on how Australia is putting the CRPD into action, and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing is responsible for Australia’s disability policy.
Royal Commission recommendation 5.7 said all states and territory governments should also have focal points.
The Australian Government and state and territory governments are working together to share information and to create guidance material which will help the process of nominating CRPD ‘focal points’ in states and territories.
Focal points in all levels of government will help coordinate action and meet CRPD requirements.
This recommendation is in progress.