Parties respond to key election issues impacting South Australians living with disability

10 March 2022 

JFA Purple Orange has today launched a webpage to inform voters in the South Australian election about some of the key issues that are important to the disability community in our state. We are calling on all parties and candidates to take the opportunity of a state election campaign to make genuine commitments to South Australians living with disability and their families through long-overdue policy changes and meaningful investments in services. 

“Every vote can influence change in our state, and it’s crucial that voters are well-informed about the things that matter to the disability community,” JFA Purple Orange CEO Robbi Williams said. “The information we are providing via our website addresses many of the policy issues that people living with disability tell us are really important to them.”  

We have developed a series of election papers focusing on some of the key policy questions that fall within the state jurisdiction. Each paper asks for a commitment to implement policy changes or invest in vital services that will improve the life chances of people living with disability. We sought responses to each from parties and candidates across the political spectrum and these have been collated and shared on the webpage.  

 

The topics covered are:  

• Accessible housing 
• Health services 
• Advocacy services 
• Accessible taxis 
• Inclusive education 
• Justice 
• Implementation of Disability Access and Inclusion Plans (DAIPs)  

 

You can view the papers and the responses we received in full on our website at https://purpleorange.org.au/news-resources/south-australia-state-election-party-commitments.  

“If implemented, these proposals will go a long way to improving the lives of people living with disability, giving them greater opportunities to choose how they live their lives as active, valued, and equal members of our communities,” Mr Williams said.  

“We are grateful for the responses that we have received from political parties and candidates, which will assist voters to make informed decisions. 

“For those parties who have not yet responded, we urge you to consider doing so before the election to ensure voters in your communities know the nature of your commitment to the disability community.”   

Earlier this month, JFA Purple Orange called for the immediate implementation of some of these commitments in response to the findings of an investigation by the Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner into the failings of a state-run government facility to adequately provide basic care to a man known as “Mr D”. The findings revealed “failings in hygiene, wound care and weight monitoring and how this led to a situation that should have been avoided.”1 

“The case of “Mr D’s” treatment is simply unacceptable,” Mr Williams said. “It’s important that steps are taken to get to the bottom of exactly what occurred given the conflicting accounts that are being aired in the media. The public needs to have confidence in the process and be assured that there is appropriate accountability and responsibility to fix the problems so this can’t happen again. 

“But we also need to focus on the bigger underlying policy failings, including insufficient capacity and poor outcomes in the health system, the lack of suitable accessible and affordable housing, the inadequate funding of independent advocacy services, and the need to ensure we have robust safeguarding measures in place across all facilities, services, providers, and other settings where people living with disability should be looked after properly and receive the same quality of care that all members of our community expect.”  

We call on whoever forms government after the election on 19 March to make addressing these issues a top priority. We must move from a complaints-based reactive system to investing in proactive solutions that prevent ongoing incidents of sub-standard care, mistreatment, neglect, and abuse of people living with disability, including by: 

• Funding meaningful measures to address the widespread barriers to safe access and inclusion across all South Australia’s hospitals and health services. 
• Co-designing and implementing a professional development training program to be rolled out across all hospitals, local health networks, and community, mental health, and transition services that includes a focus on eliminating discrimination, marginalisation, and abuse of people living with disability.   
• Mandating the accessibility standards in the National Construction Code 2022 in South Australia for all new residential builds in line with the commitments of other states and territories in order to significantly increase the availability of appropriate housing for people living with disability and reduce the reliance on so-called transition services between hospital and home. 
• Producing a long-term fully funded housing plan for South Australia to address the current housing crisis, including through investing significantly in new accessible affordable social housing to address the current shortfall.
• Significantly increase state funding to make independent advocacy services available to support all people living with disability in South Australia. 

   

Media enquiries: 

Robbi Williams 

Phone: (08) 8373 8302  

 

Additional quotes: 

Comments previously attributed to Robbi Williams, CEO of JFA Purple Orange, on the Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner’s report regarding the case of “Mr D”: 

“This incident reinforces the importance of investing in a proactive approach to addressing the needs of people living with disability in healthcare settings. 

“We cannot just rely on a complaints-based mechanism for identifying service problems and how they might be improved. We need systemic improvements to healthcare systems that will improve the safety and health outcomes of people living with disability, and where those improvements are planned in partnership with the disability community. 

“Healthcare services that are safe, accessible, inclusive, and responsive to the diverse needs of patients living with disability is imperative in addressing these unacceptable health outcomes. 

“Furthermore, the mere fact that the state government had to implement the T2H program highlights the desperate need to drastically increase South Australia’s accessible housing stock allowing people living with disability to find suitable affordable housing where they are in control of how their support happens and are part of their local neighbourhood instead of living in a facility.” 

 

Background information:  

In the lead up to the state election, JFA Purple Orange asked political parties and candidates to respond to the following questions: 

 

Advocacy   

Do you commit to significantly increasing state government investment in independent individual, systemic, and representative advocacy in South Australia?   

  

Transport   

Do you commit to investing in the transition of South Australia’s taxi fleet to fully accessible vehicles by 2032?   

  

Housing   

Do you commit to making the accessibility standards in the National Construction Code 2022 mandatory in South Australia?      

  

Health   

Do you commit to funding meaningful measures to address the widespread barriers to safe access and inclusion across all South Australia’s hospitals and health services so that people living with disability can access these essential services on an equal basis to all other members of the community?   

  

Education   

Do you commit to Inclusive Education in South Australia including through signing an Inclusive Education Policy Statement, developing an Inclusive Education Strategy, funding the implementation of Inclusive Education initiatives in schools, and not establishing any new special schools or units?   

  

Justice   

Do you commit to implementing all recommendations in the South Australian Law Reform Institute's report Providing a Voice to the Vulnerable: A Study of Communication Assistance in South Australia?   

  

DAIP implementation   

Do you commit to funding grants for the implementation of actions under Disability Access and Inclusion Plans (DAIPs) for both state agencies and local councils in South Australia?