Review of Australia’s Disability Strategy – joint submission with Inclusion Australia
September 2024
We are pleased to provide this joint submission to the Review of Australia’s Disability Strategy (ADS) on behalf of Inclusion Australia and the Down Syndrome Australia consortium.
ADS currently does not contain clear or ambitious targets across a number of its Outcome Areas. In part, this should be addressed by the Disability Royal Commission’s Recommendation to strengthen the ADS Data Improvement Plan (Recommendations 5.2 and 12.7).
We believe implementing ADS requires the following:
- Meaningful inclusion of people with an intellectual disability in the governance, collection and interpretation of reporting and monitoring mechanisms.
- Clear and ambitious targets need to be set in relation to current baselines, so there are clear benchmarks to measure progress in different Outcome Areas.
- Evidence for good practices in international contexts should be considered, so approaches with a strong evidence base can be replicated locally.
We look forward to continuing to work with the Department of Social Services to ensure ADS reflects the Recommendations of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (the Disability Royal Commission).