An inclusive Queensland matters for all Queenslanders

Health Consumers Queensland was one of eight state-wide organisations who co-hosted the Make Disability Count 2020 State Election Virtual Forum last Thursday, 8 October.

Over 200 people registered to attend and five political parties joined us to answer questions that are important to people with disability, their families and the organisations that support them.

Together with Queenslanders with Disability Network, ADA Australia hosting the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Disability Network of Queensland, National Disability Services, Queensland Alliance for Mental Health, Community Services Industry Alliance, Queensland Advocacy Inc., and the Queensland Collective for Inclusive Education, we all called on political parties to commit to seven priority policy areas:

  • Independent individual and systemic advocacy
  • Investment in frontline community services
  • Disability leadership, governance and accountability across mainstream services
  • A dedicated Minister for Disability and Inclusion;
  • Human Rights
  • Workforce
  • Sector capacity
  • Inclusive education.

This week, QDN is pleased to report that commitments have been received from all the parties on:

  • Ensuring there is a dedicated Disability Minister in the next government
  • Implementing the inclusive education recommendations from the  2017 Deloitte Review of Education for Students with Disability in Queensland State Schools
  • Retaining the Human Rights Act.

QDN said: “These are big wins, but we’re not done yet.  As promised at the forum, we have already sent all the political parties our seven policy priority areas for a formal response, as well as a list of general question themes that came through on the chat that we weren’t able to get to in the short time we had.”

“We are asking you to add your voice to our call for action. Can you email the political parties to let them know that disability counts at this election?  You can find contact details for all the parties here and all you need to do is attach our list of seven policy priority areas to your email and ask them to commit to these asks. The more people the political parties hear from, the more likely they are to make a commitment on these issues.”

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