Productivity Commission

Disability Care and Support Inquiry

This Inquiry is of the utmost importance to the wellbeing of our population as a whole.

I wish to make the following observation for the Commission to consider; it concerns a matter that (as far as I know) is not quantifiable but is pivotal to the debate.  Discrimination is brought about by community norms and attitudes.  Governments by and large reflect those norms and attitudes.  Discrimination against people with disabilities is endemic in Australia.  Governments should counter this by skewing budget allocations more favourably towards the disabled, their carers and supporters.

As an example of the discrimination that I assert exists, the Commission need look no further than its own activities.  Readers of the Commission’s website will note that for this particular Inquiry, relevant publications and documents have been made available in some alternative formats, such as text, PDF, Auslan (for the deaf) and Daisy Text (for the vision impaired) formats.  This is laudable.

No other Commission Inquiries seem to have documents or publications available in alternative formats.  Why not?  It would seem that people with disabilities are being seen as not being particularly interested in or not capable of participating in the Commission’s work.

I would suggest that the Commission too simply mirrors the prevailing community attitude towards people with disabilities.