Submission to the Review of the Victorian Disability Act 2006 (the Act)
The CIJ recently made a submission to the Review of the Victorian Disability Act 2006 (the Act). The second stage of the Review is aimed at tackling inequality and promoting inclusion, following the transition to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
In our submission, the CIJ call on the Victorian Government in the Review of the Disability Act 2006 to take a lead in promoting and protecting the rights, dignity and needs of people with disability, including those who have been involved in the justice system. Our submission states that if the Act is to meaningfully promote equality for people with disability, it must work to reduce justice involvement, and promote equality for all people with disability, including those who have contact with the justice system.
In CIJ’s view the review of the Act should lead to the development of a legislative framework to drive the Victorian Public Sector to create accessible services for all people with disability, where those services respond to systemic barriers faced by people with disability and are informed by people with lived experience of disability and the systems that directly affect them.[1] This framework, properly implemented, should in turn promote the kind of longer-term change that will lead to equality and inclusion for all, and contribute to reducing the overrepresentation of people with disability in prisons and the Victorian criminal justice system.
[1] The Gender Equality Act 2020 (Vic) provides a model for this proposed legislative framework.