The full and universal inclusion of people with disability across all areas of society is a fundamental and universal human right.
Principles
The Greens NSW believe that:
1. Disability, visible or invisible, is a normal part of human experience.
2. The full inclusion of people with disability in society should be unremarkable, and segregation on the basis of disability should be dismantled.
3. All people have the fundamental right to agency, autonomy, privacy, safety, dignity and respect.
4. All people have the right to participate fully in every aspect of civil, political, social, economic and cultural life, regardless of their disability.
5. A healthy, functioning society minimises the impact of disability by embracing diversity and removing barriers to equitable access so that disabled people can maximise their participation.
6. Our society is greatly enhanced by the presence, contributions and insights of people with disability.
7. It is the duty of government to dismantle ableism across all aspects of society and ensure equitable access to all spaces and services.
8. It is a primary responsibility of government to ensure equality of opportunity for disabled people and to provide the funding to achieve equality of outcome in all areas of life.
9. The lived experience of people with disability is not homogenous, and there is diversity within the disability communities which should be recognised, respected and celebrated.
10. People with physical, intellectual, cognitive and/or psychosocial disability, and their families and carers, have the right to actively participate in all levels of policy, service planning, delivery and evaluation, including their own.
11. All forms of stigmatisation, harassment, abuse, discrimination, vilification, neglect and exploitation perpetrated against people with disability must be eliminated.
12. Carers play an important role in supporting disabled people and helping them to achieve a higher quality of life. Carers must be supported to ensure their health and well-being.
13. Government has a responsibility to address the significant, ongoing and systemic overrepresentation of people with disability in the justice system, and provide for their complex support needs.
14. An inclusive education system leads to an inclusive society.
Aims
The Greens NSW will work towards:
Support Services and Inclusion
15. Implementing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in full, and ensure that this extends across all levels of government.
16. Supporting a well-funded and resourced disability services sector to meet the needs of all people with disability, including through the direct provision of disability services by the government.
17. Funding adequate, accessible, efficient and equitable services that are individually-tailored, self-directed and age-appropriate for all disabled people.
18. Universal design in all new buildings and the retrofitting of existing buildings in accordance with at least the Livable Housing Design Gold Standards. This should include accessibility for physical disabilities, trauma-informed design, multi-sensory design for neurodivergent individuals and more.
19. Urgently expanding respite care services and facilities, in-home and emergency support and crisis accommodation.
Discrimination
20. Ensuring that the specific needs of all people with disability are met, recognising their diverse backgrounds.
21. The elimination of segregated education in all schools and educational facilities, and the implementation of system-wide inclusive education by no later than 2030. This must be supported by a comprehensive rights-based transition plan developed in consultation with the community. This will ensure that disabled students’ needs and rights will be met and protected in all stages of the transition to an inclusive education system that benefits all students.
22. Ensure that services and amenities do not discriminate on the basis of any intersecting identities.
23. Ensuring people with disability have access to health services of at least an equal standard to the rest of the community by accommodating physical, intellectual and communication needs during hospitalisation, rehabilitation and reintegration into the community.
24. Ensuring all community and frontline services are fully accessible, including domestic and family violence, homelessness and emergency crisis services.
25. Reform of NSW's Anti-Discrimination Act to include a positive duty to take measures to eliminate discrimination, across all aspects of society.
26. A public guardianship and trustee system that is nationally standardised, run on a not-for-profit basis, and with strong safeguards to protect the human rights and autonomy of disabled people.
27. The national implementation of a framework of supported decision-making to ensure equal recognition of disabled people as persons before the law and their ability to exercise legal capacity.
28. Regulating to eliminate the use of restrictive practices across all settings, including, but not limited to, physical restraints, confinement, and drugs to sedate people.
Justice System
29. Promoting the development of a NSW Disability Justice Strategy that focuses on ensuring:
29.1. Safety and freedom from violence for people with disability;
29.2. Effective access to justice for people with disabilities;
29.3. Non-discrimination;
29.4. Respect for inherent dignity and individual autonomy, including the freedom to make one's own decisions;
29.5. Full and effective participation and inclusion in the community.
30. Addressing ways in which the criminal justice system unfairly targets disabled people, from policing and courts, to prisons. Recognise that in most cases incarceration is not an appropriate response to offending by a person with a disability.
31. Ensuring the treatment of people with disability in prisons is respectful of their human rights and supports their needs. This must include providing access to appropriate rehabilitation and education options and confinement options that are not unduly restrictive.
32. Requiring adequate protection of people with disabilities via monitoring, investigative powers and enforcement.
33. Ensuring appropriate alternatives to the use of coercive measures, seclusion, and restraint within disability service provision and the justice system.
34. Ensuring paramedics or mental health trauma specialists should be the first responders to people experiencing serious mental health issues. Police should only be called as a last resort when community safety is genuinely threatened.
Last revised June 2024