Make my human rights a legal entitlement

We the undersigned call upon the Federal and State Governments of Australia to fulfill the promise they made to people with a disability by signing the Human Rights Charter and legislate in this country accordingly, so that their rights may be legal and not subjective:

Reflected in:

 Simpler direct proactive early intervention/support to families;

 Diagnosing professionals made more responsible for assessing and linking families with supports;

 Families not being expected to carry out clinical procedures as unpaid practitioners while still having the power of decision making in consultation with clinical professionals;

 In the case of families with a situation of long term palliative care a sufficiently funded, joint approach with clinical care and support between family and medical professionals, guided by the needs of client and family and carer;

 Building financial capacity for dedicated carers on carers pension eg do not means test the pension, superannuation paid on their behalf, support to have the option to stay in the workforce part-time to prevent long-term disadvantage regarding employment where caring role comes to an end;

 Addressing the poverty trap carers and families often find themselves in, where the disabled persons care needs are very high;

 Families having the option of managing funding with simple accountability without unreasonable red tape reflected in a joint agreement of what the support needs of the disabled person and their family members need;

 Changes in cultural thinking eg lift the profile of people with a disability eg: ongoing national education;

 Removal of disability funding from Centrelink which is illequipped to deal with families who are often hanging by a psychological thread on a day to day basis (this is usually the case in situations of very high support needs);

 Remove disability funding from Child Safety for the same reasons above;

 Disability having its own portfolio (Department as stand alone);

 The minister and staff who are entrusted with the portfolio of disability to be legally required to do a minimum of four hours per week at the cold face of disability eg: clean a soiled backside or wipe spittle from a siezuring or dribbling mouth of a very vulnerable person. This needs to be the case for all government employees who are entrusted with funding for their support to assist with common sense decision making on the part of those with the power (including service providers). (Practical exposure to daily life issues);

 Service providers regulated more tightly to prevent them from doing little more than riding on the back of the funding allocated for the support of a disabled person and their family, reflected in formal training for carers with minimum industrial standards. Development of career paths for support worker to advance;

 Removing the lack of security of funding for people with disabilities and their carers with rights based legislative entitlements ( similar to Centrelink as a citizen entitlement) to receive needed services, so that government bodies cannot pull funding when a plan of positive lifestyle or palliative care support is in place or being established.