That Australia provides sufficient resources to comprehensively implement the National Arts and Disability Strategy.
That Australia focuses on developing measures to facilitate social connections and friendship for people with disability through provision of disability supports that encourage participation in a wide range of recreation opportunities in line with aspirations and preferences of individuals with disability.
That Australia adequately supports the participation of people with disability in all aspects of the arts including professional development.
That Australia adequately supports the participation of people with disability in sports and recreation activities at both grass roots community and elite levels.
That Australia promotes good practice in accessible tourism.
That Australia develops comprehensive measures to address barriers to the specific cultural needs and life of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability and people with disability from non-English speaking backgrounds.
Although general information regarding people with disability is collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) more nationally consistent, disaggregated data needs to be collected and publically reported across all areas addressed by the CRPD in order for Article 31 to be properly implemented.
The lack of nationally consistent disaggregated data raises serious concerns about the ability of Australia to evaluate the implementation of the National Disability Strategy (NDS). The NDS relies heavily on data, primarily from the ABS for evaluating success in achieving outcomes.
Item A.3.2(h) of the Annex to the ‘Guidelines on treaty-specific documents to be submitted by Parties under Article 35 of the CRPD’652 specifies that statistical data regarding the realisation of each CRPD right should be recorded on an annual, comparative basis over the past four years. This has not occurred, or if it has, the data has not been released to the public, raising concerns under Article 31(3) of the CRPD.
The lack of disaggregated, consistent data was specifically referred to by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in relation to data on women with disability (see also Article 6) and children with disability (see also Article 7).653
A number of disability representative and advocacy organisations have expressed concerns about data disaggregation, thereby raising issues under Article 31(2) of the CRPD. For example, data about people with disability, or their families, from a non-English speaking background is limited.654 Similarly, despite domestic and family violence being an acknowledged problem for people with disability, particularly women with disability, the data collected by the ABS in the ‘Personal Safety Survey’ in 2005 did not include information pertaining to an individual’s disability status.
There are a number of areas where there is a complete lack of data. This includes the uptake and accessibility of health services to people with disability. For example, without the data to indicate whether women with disability are accessing health programs that provide mammograms to screen for breast cancer and pap smears to screen for cervical cancer, it is difficult to assess whether health services are being properly implemented to cater for both the general population and people with disability.655
There is no indication that the information gathered by Australia and the ABS is made accessible through Braille or Auslan formats or that the information is published in languages other than English. This raises concerns with regard to Article 31(3) of the CRPD and the commitment of Australia to ensuring accessibility to people with disability and others.
Copyright restrictions over data and reports generated by data collected by Australia have been used to prevent disability representative and advocacy organisations from making data publically available to people with disability. This also raises concerns with respect to Article 31(3).
Additionally, the ABS requires payment for disaggregation for particular datasets, which also raises concerns about public accessibility. This is particularly problematic in analysing the situation of specific groups of people with disability, such as women with disability, children with disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability and people with disability from non-English speaking backgrounds.
RECOMMENDATIONS Article 31
That Australia develops nationally consistent measures for the collection and public reporting of disaggregated data across the full range of obligations contained in the CRPD.
That all data be disaggregated by age, gender, place of residence, type of disability and cultural background.
That all data collected be available free of charge to people with disability through their representative and advocacy organisations.
Article 32 — International cooperation
STATUS IN AUSTRALIA
Australia’s Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) agency is AusAID. The key measures for implementing obligations under Article 32 are outlined in Development for All: Towards a disability-inclusive Australian aid program 2009-2014.656Development for All aims to change the way that Australian international development assistance addresses disability.
Improving the lives of people with disability became one of the ten core development objectives of Australia’s aid program in 2011, giving recognition to the fact that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will not be achieved without addressing the situation of people with disability.
Development for All and the inclusion of disability as a core development objective, have been widely welcomed and supported by disability inclusive development advocates and Disabled Peoples Organisations (DPOs) in Australia and recipient countries. However, Australia has only committed to increase its ODA to just 0.5 percent of Gross National Income (GNI) by 2015–16, while other donor countries intend to give 1 percent of GNI in ODA by 2015. Its commitment to provide $30.2 million over four years to support developing countries improve quality of life for people with disability,657 is a mere 0.02 percent of ODA in 2010–11.
People with disability have been appointed to the Disability Reference Group (DRG) to advise AusAID on the implementation of Development for All. This expertise and leadership from people with disability, including from a regional DPO has been significant in raising the profile of disability inclusive development. However, the DRG does not currently include a representative from a national DPO from recipient countries or from Australia.
Development for All has not resulted in people with disability being employed in key leadership and critical advice positions within AusAID.
Development for All outlines the need to partner with DPOs in recipient countries, but has failed to meaningfully engage with Australian DPOs who partner and work closely with DPOs in developing countries. This has an impact on the ability of Australian DPOs to strengthen advocacy to increase the priority on disability inclusive development.
