2 July, 2025
The Down Syndrome Australia Consortium (DSA Consortium) developed this submission about the future of employment for people with disability, in particular supported employment. Children and Young People with Disability Australia, Women with Disabilities Australia and People with Disability Australia have endorsed this submission.
In this submission, supported employment means places where people with disability work only with other people with disability. Sometimes these are called Australian Disability Enterprises (ADEs). Most people who work in supported employment are people with intellectual disability. The most common disability type for people in supported employment is Down syndrome. People with disability working in supported employment can be paid as little as $3.01 an hour.
Many people in our community work in supported employment because they can be safe, secure and feel understood. We know this is very important, especially for people with high support needs. We do not believe closing ADEs straight away is reasonable or safe.
We believe every person with intellectual disability has the right to access skilled support to explore open, inclusive employment, to work in a job that is right for them and be paid a fair wage for their work. Our goal is full social and economic inclusion of people with intellectual disability.
For this reason, we are asking the Government to make a 10-year Plan, called a Roadmap. The Roadmap will make a plan to gradually transition away from supported employment and the subminimum wage. It is important this is carefully planned and monitored so there are no unintended consequences.
To make sure people with intellectual disabiltiy are not left behind, we also need to change other systems and supports to work better:
- Improve services and supports for people with intellectual disability looking for a job or starting a job, like Disability Employment Services (DES)
- Fix the Disability Support Pension to encourage open employment
- Support and educate employers
- Make sure NDIS funds the right employment supports for as long as they are needed.