National Human Rights Consultation Submission 

AGWW-7R46F8 

Organisation: Sout Australian Council on Intellectual Disability 
Submission Text: 

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Despite having DDA and the various Commonwealth and States
 
Disability Acts, the National Disability Agreement and the Eight Standards
 
of the National Disability Standards for Disability Services and where it
 
is stated..... Each National Standard is a statement of the results to be
 
achieved for each consumer from the
 
Implementation of that standard. Those standards are:
 
Service Access, Individual Needs, Decision Making and Choice, Privacy,
 
Dignity and Confidentiality, Participation and Integration, Valued Status,
 
Complaints and Disputes, Service Management.
 

 
To date due to the failure of all government to fund the huge unmet need
 
for disability and family carer supports and services, there has been very
 
little attention paid to meeting those standards. That this continues to be
 
so is a gross failure to meet the human rights of people with intellectual
 
disability and by association their families who provide the bulk of the
 
care to them.
 

 
It is not acceptable that people cannot get out of bed, take a shower or in
 
some instances are fed their meal in the bath or toilet because inadequate
 
funding has been made available for even the basic supports to these
 
people, let alone their right to live a meaningful and included life
 
similar to most of the rest of Australia.
 

 
That people with disability are paid a Disability Support Pension at the
 
same rate as the aged pension, indicates a total lack of comprehension
 
about the fact that the difference for a person with disability and an aged
 
person is that the aged person will die and is usually reliant on the
 
pension for a relatively short time, having in most cases had opportunity
 
to amass income and assets over their lifetime.
 

 
Persons born with disability have the whole of their life to live on the
 
same amount of money which is less the Henderson Poverty line.
 
Not to mention the added costs that a persons disability often has to fund.
 

 
For their Family carers who are usually their mothers who are also usually
 
sole parent carers due to marital breakdown because the overwhelming and
 
24/7 responsibility for their daughters/sons creates such stress that one
 
partner, usually the father leaves the relationship.
 

 
The remaining parent is then usually destined also to live the rest of
 
their life in abject poverty due to the failure of all governments to
 
adequately fund the supports and services for their daughters/sons and to
 
pay a decent income for the huge levels of support which they provide.
 

 
Similarly to the person who they support they are also expected to exist on
 
the same income support payment as an aged person without having the same
 
opportunities to amass income and assets.
 

 
The current support arrangements for people with disability and their
 
family carers fails their basic human right to live like most of the rest
 
of Australia.
 

 
The Human Rights for a person with intellectual disability and their family
 
carer is MUCH MORE than being able to have a "disability friendly"
 
worksite, it is much more than being able to get up stairs, use footpaths,
 
get into venues, it is much more than being able to go to work, school, and
 
partake in chosen community activities.
 

 
IT IS FIRSTLY ABOUT GETTING OUT OF BED, HAVING A SHOWER, A MEAL, AND A
 
DRINK IN A WAY IN WHICH SELF RESPECT IS SUPPORTED. IT’S ABOUT HAVING A
 
DECENT LIVING INCOME.......A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT IN THIS COUNTRY FOR MOST OF
 
its CITIZENS.
 

 
THEN COMES ALL THE OTHER STUFF!!! 

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