Page 820 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 March 2019
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oversight of these services and hold the ACT government to account on issues affecting people experiencing vulnerability. If you experience discrimination because of your race or your disability you can also lodge a complaint with the ACT Human Rights and Discrimination Commissioner.
The ACT government’s official visitors for disability services provide an important role in undertaking visits to Canberrans living in disability accommodation or relying on services for day-to-day support. The official visitors consider complaints, visit and talk privately with people about the supports they are receiving and keep an eye out for systematic issues. They report directly to me, as Minister for Disability, and work closely with the Public Trustee and Guardian and the Human Rights Commission.
The official visitors, Ms Narelle Hargraves OAM and Ms Mary Durkin, have built relationships with Canberrans who need these services and they are on call to respond to anyone else who may need their services. The ACT government recently ran an awareness-raising campaign for the official visitors and in my regular meeting with Ms Hargraves and Ms Durkin they reported that the campaign is helping to raise their profile.
Individual advocacy plays a critical role in assisting individuals to navigate complex systems and sort out complaints and other problems. Equally, systemic advocacy plays an important role in shaping and improving legislation, policy and programs. The ACT government currently funds four systemic advocacy organisations: Women with Disabilities ACT, People with Disabilities ACT, Carers ACT and National Disability Services. All of these organisations have deep connections to the local community with hard work going over decades to know our community and whom to speak to when problems arise.
The government provides support to People with Disabilities ACT to operate as a peak advocacy organisation for people with disability in the ACT. The organisation takes a leadership role in our community and regularly runs consultations, prepares submissions for government consultation, holds events and forums and meets with MLAs and decision makers to represent the issues and priorities of the people with disability in the ACT. I recently met with People with Disabilities ACT, where we discussed ways to further raise the organisation’s profile, and I look forward to seeing how these efforts shape up over the next little while.
The ACT government also offers a range of disability and multicultural grants that have supported projects and programs to support CALD people living with disability. This includes grants such as the disability inclusion grants and the multicultural participation grants. Disability inclusion grants provide support to community organisations and small businesses to provide more accessible services. This could be additional training for staff or volunteers or making physical improvements to buildings.
Last year the grants supported the East African Community Association who received funding to undertake disability awareness training to increase awareness and advocacy of social inclusion within their community. This is a great example of a culturally and linguistically diverse community organisation taking the initiative to
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