Australian government disability policy - Essay Example

? Australian Government Disability Policy Australian government disability policy Introduction The latestresearch surveys conducted by global disability association illustrated that, out of the total current worlds’ population; approximately 10 percent are found to be disabled in one way or another. However, it is still contrastingly clear that, disabled persons form the minority on the society. Despite the fact that, communities have been sensitised to recognize the disabled like any other member of the society, persons with disability are still prone to subjection of acts of violence and rape. The offenders are likely to get a way scot free without legal intervention. This is the main reason as to why the federal Government of Australia has enacted the disability policy to ensure fairness and equal opportunities in all roles within the society. Integration of the disability policy Since it had been brought to the limelight that, people associated with disability are often assumed with a lot of neglect in most of the societal structure. The Australian Government, therefore, pushed for their recognition just as any other normal citizen in the federal republic. To start with, the Government enacted equalization of persons with disability act to drive a sense of equity in the delivery of services and equitable sharing of responsibility in favour of the disabled persons so that, they can enjoy the same kind of life associated with able members of the society. According to this act, the federal government has put in place mandatory policy to all the institutions offering any form of employments both at private and state level to empower and exercise right of the disabled person (Paun 2006). This authority has been designed to be far much felt both in rural and urban areas where the disabled human resource who are otherwise recognised as to able are differently given equal opportunities to ascertain productive employment with respect to the labor market. The basic advantage of this policy is to avert any form of discrimination of persons perceived to be disabled and no obstacles should be brought in their way while pursuing employment. Besides, the Australian federal Government has ensured harmony and integration of disabled persons into open employment. It has offered support which is being driven through different kinds of measures such as offering vocational training for persons considered to have severe physical problems and disadvantaged from joining higher levels of education. With respect to vocational training, talent development and a skilled perfection is made as a way of making them to achieve equal status like the other members of the society (Paun 2006). Some amongst the advantages of this policy is that, the state provides a lot of incentives to the disabled through what is called the quota schemes. Such invectives come in terms of reserved openings and employment opportunities which are specifically meant for the disabled. Besides, they are given fair opportunities in accessing loans at affordable interest rates and grants with sufficient settlement duration of repayment, and this makes them feel the advantage of entrepreneurship. However, for this not to be visualized as undue advantage to the rest of the society, strategies can be put in place to disburse incentives to a group or combination of both able and disabled persons so as to avert unfairness or biasness. Moreover, the government is very much considerate and has subsidised the tax collected from such persons and has instead facilitated compliance in terms of offering contracts besides funding and other technical assistance to the institutions that has put in recognition to employ persons with disabilities. This acts as an additional support in generation of returns helping in the collective support in building of the society in all aspects of personalities (Vosko 2006). The Australian National council, a body, which supports the awareness of persons with disability, has ensured that, the disabled persons get access to competitive roles in the government jobs. Their pursuant has seen the state workers and employers’ authorities in the government sectors cooperating with organisation of persons with disability to facilitate offering of training for the employed disabled persons by either advancing flexible hours, provision of part time duties, job rotation and on job attendance. There should be adequate linkage of employment between the people and the issues of disability. Moreover, the main source of barrier deterring disabled persons from securing job opportunities should also be addressed within this policy Substantially policy has targeted disabled persons to get job opportunities in a transparent labor market where as for individuals that are incapable of accessing open job markets, different alternative forms of employed are to be offered. However, this has been met with a lot of obstacles by the Australian National council of the disabled. Basic reason is that, the quality and the deliverability of such programs must be accessed to determine their level of relevance in accordance to the provision of opportunities to the persons with disability since people are disabled differently. Additionally, such acts have proven rigid and difficult to incorporate in the state program plan because it is very difficult know the exact number of the disabled persons since some are kept off the limelight by relatives and friends to avoid stigmatization (Varavikova and Tulchinsky 2009). Demerits attributed by the disability policy The fairness and equitable resources sharing disability policy enacted by the Australian Government has recommendable achievement to the disabled persons themselves and to the society as a whole. However, its existence has been met with numerous considerable obstacles. For instance, the policy has not clearly indicated the exact roles bearing in mind that, disability comes up in different forms making it very difficult to plan, integrate and formulate a good working strategy. In this case, the government should provide appropriate assessment tools that would help to determine the employment opportunities that would be beneficial to the disabled persons (Blask, Welsh and Wiener 2010). With respect to exercising authority and rights of the disabled persons at institutions or work, it has proven very difficult when it comes to physical work since the productivity of a normal person is presumed to be higher in contrast to persons with disability begging the question to whether indeed there is fairness. The labor unions and other lobby groups who work for the rights of the disabled persons and who fought the for the disability equity act which explains that, it is illegal to ask about the health or disability during recruitment has proven a disgrace to most of the organisations. Therefore, it results to potential loss after a person has been recruited making it difficult to be withdrawn even when it is realised the person is less potential for such tasks. Since this is seen as a misguided imposition of law to the employers, The National council of disability should access the health statuses of the disabled person and certify them with health compliance certificate making it easier to ascertain the health background of such individuals during employment (Blask, Welsh and Wiener 2010). Key policy actors The fundamental purpose of the Australian Government in regard to this policy is to help the persons with disability to overcome stigmatization, misguided thoughts and societal intimidation that, they are incapable of delivering goals effectively and helps in building a better society. In order to effectively achieve the desired goals of this policy, The Government has involved the local community to support Australian National council of disabilities in the support of this policy development. As a way of mainstreaming this policy between the year 2001 and 2010, the National Council enacted a number of projects, which targeted issues aimed at improving disability awareness and gathering information that would help sensitise the public about their importance in the society. As a way of ensuring that, this legislation becomes effective, the government has involved disabled persons in the policy making process. This has enabled cooperate decision making process where as the authorities concerned, the NGO and administrative members of the society get to disclose the relevant needs of the disabled persons in the society (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2012). Labor union, which also falls amongst the key disability policy makers in Australia have been mandated in ensuring that, workers practice the policy of fairness in the recruitment process of the disabled persons. Hypothetically, this has been met with a lot of difficulties since the range of disability is adverse and cannot be specified and budgeted for (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2012). Scope of the government accountability towards this disability It has been brought to the public attention that, the Australian Government has made the recommendable effort in ensuring that, the disabled members of the society receives fair treatment and recognition as normal members of the society. In the recent past, the government has laid out charges including the introduction of psychological test for individuals as a way of ensuring those offending the disabled person cannot claim that, they were out of mind. But, the national council of people with disability carried out a research and found out that, this brought very minimal effort in curbing the hostility experienced by persons with disability in the employment institutions (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2012). Another concern is based on the benefits received inform of subsidies and grants. Despite the government effort to offer sustainable fund to the disabled persons, majorly still claims that, still a big number has not benefited from this fund. Besides, disabled persons have still laid out reports that, some of them have been barred from the support by unknown person wanting to know about their credibility towards such benefits. For this scope, it cannot just be assumed that, the government has not made an attempt, but the focus must still be addressed as little number benefits scroungers with respect to making this effort a radical reform. Annual survey carried out on 800 persons indicated that, the government review on the disability benefit fund has triggered unexpected discrimination at job place where 40 percent agreed that, the experience was positive during the recruitment process while 60 percent were discriminated while undergoing the work routine (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2012). Conclusion The understanding of disability has been brought about by all aspects surrounding us driven by the policy and legislation, which has been put in place by the governments. Such policy determines attitudes and social values creating awareness that, disabled persons are just like any other member of the society. Categorically, the policy should also address disability in long term levels such as, physical, sensory, or intellectual impairment. This is because any barrier inflicted by attitudes and environment may actually cause hindrances and societal ineffective participation towards the disabled persons. To the dissatisfaction, the policy addresses some features which may be detrimental to the disabled persons. For instance, it overlooked the employment based on physical nature other than professionalism. Therefore, they require fair treatment and equitable share of all private and public resources. (Nussbaum 2006) . Bibliography: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare., 2012. Disability Support Services .Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Blask, B., Welsh, R. and Wiener, W., 2010. Foundations of Orientation and Mobility. New York: AFB Press. Nussbaum, M., 2006. Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press: Harvard University Press. Paun, M., 2006. A Constant Burden: The Reconstitution of Family Life. Aldershot: Ashgate. Varavikova, E and Tulchinsky, T., 2009. The New Public Health. Amsterdam; Boston: Elsevier / Academic Press. Vosko, L., 2006. Precarious Employment: Understanding Labour Market Insecurity. 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