Advocates calls for a disability minister for the upcoming election

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Dozens of advocates and mental health groups have written an open letter calling for the creation of a disability minister and portfolio at the next election.  It was one of the key recommendations in the disability royal commission's final report which was handed down last year.

Transcript

00:00This letter has been written to the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, as well as the

00:06opposition leader, Peter Dutton, and it calls for, at the next election, whoever is in power,

00:13to basically set up a disability-specific ministry, including a specific disability

00:19minister. This letter has been signed by almost 65 groups across the disability and mental

00:26health space. Some of them include DeafBlind Australia, Down Syndrome Australia, and the

00:31Disability Advocacy Network Australia. So some major key players. And basically what

00:35they are calling for is, you know, with Bill Shorten, the current NDIS minister, stepping

00:40down, they say it's a perfect opportunity for someone to be established in a role like

00:47a disability minister, to kind of coordinate all things disability, not just the NDIS.

00:52Because we need to remember that while 5.5 million Australians live with disability,

00:57that's about 20% of our population, that when it comes to things like the NDIS, only 660,000

01:05of them are on the NDIS. Because remember, that's only for people with permanent and

01:09profound disability. So having an NDIS minister, while many in the community say it's great,

01:14it doesn't cover all things disability for all Australians with disability.

01:18Which is 5.5 million, a huge portion of the population. Naz, just how significant would

01:22a specific disability minister or a dedicated portfolio be for the community?

01:27Yeah, good question. So look, many people in the community have been calling for this

01:31for a very long time. And that was really supported by a key recommendation from the

01:37Disability Royal Commission last year. It handed down a report with 222 recommendations.

01:43And this was a key one to establish a disability portfolio with a dedicated minister. And really

01:49I think why the community wants this is so that they can see a coordinated approach to

01:55disability. They obviously want someone with lived experience in that role. Be interesting

01:59to see what happens as far as that. But really people, I guess, want to know that we have

02:06a disability minister for all Australians with disability, not just those on the NDIS.

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