Disability abuse royal commission rejected
- Details
- Category: Royal Commissions
- Created: Monday, 29 May 2017 22:46
- Written by AAP
The Turnbull government has flatly rejected fresh calls from Labor for a royal commission into violence and abuse against people with disabilities.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten pitched the inquiry during question time in parliament on Monday, saying 90 per cent of women with intellectual disabilities had been sexually assaulted, and children with disabilities were at least three times more likely to experience abuse than other kids.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who discussed the request with Mr Shorten last week, said such incidents of violence and abuse occurred almost entirely in institutions under the watch of state and territory governments.
"Accordingly, I will be raising this at the COAG meeting next week, when I meet with state and territory chief ministers," Mr Turnbull told MPs.
Social Services Minister Christian Porter said all states and territories had agreed the best path forward was to establish a formal quality assurance framework for disability services on behalf of the commonwealth.
"We have a not particularly good system ... they are heavily dependent on a patchwork of systems that vary from state to state, and the level of consistency changes," he told MPs
"That (framework) will be a very significant structural reform to this area, and the solution is action, not more inquiry."
The national disability insurance scheme quality and safeguards commission, to be established early next year, will register and oversee providers, respond to complaints and reports of abuse or neglect, and provide advice on issues such as eliminating the use of physical restraints.
Carers Australia says establishing the commission and a code of conduct will provide eligible participants considerable protections.
But the advocacy the group warns such protections will only go part of the way to address the physical and psychological abuse, humiliation and neglect people with disabilities are subjected to.
"As other royal commissions have demonstrated, it is only by shining a spotlight on the extent of the problem and harm caused to individuals that the issues and the will to address them come to the forefront of public awareness," Carers Australia chief Ara Cresswell said.
Source : http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/05/29/disability-abuse-royal-commission-rejected?cx_navSource=related-side-cx#cxrecs_s
