Submission to the Disability Discrimination Act Review (2025)

Submitted by: Multicultural Communities Council of South Australia (MCCSA) Title: Reimagining the Disability Discrimination Act: A Multicultural and Inclusive Future Date: 22/10/2025

1. Executive Summary

The Multicultural Communities Council of South Australia (MCCSA) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Australian Government’s review of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA).

As South Australia’s peak body representing people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, including those living with disability, MCCSA brings deep expertise in intercultural communication, developmental education, and community-led disability inclusion.

While the DDA has laid the foundation for disability rights in Australia, it remains largely reactive, requiring individuals to experience discrimination before action is taken. Reform must move the DDA toward a proactive, preventative, and inclusive framework that reflects Australia’s diversity, promotes cultural safety, and embeds systemic accountability.

This submission responds to key areas raised in the Issues Paper and draws from MCCSA’s national advocacy experience. It is organised under seven themes aligned with the Review’s structure.

2. About MCCSA

MCCSA is the state’s peak multicultural organisation, supporting individuals, families, and communities through programs such as Connect Access Belong (CAB), the MCCSA Disability Inclusion Council, and Intercultural Training.

We partner with community organisations, government agencies, and disability advocates to strengthen inclusion and belonging across South Australia. Our submission is grounded in lived experience and the understanding that culture, language, and disability intersect in ways not yet fully captured by the DDA.

3. CALD and Disability: The Intersectional Gap

For many Australians from CALD backgrounds, disability rights remain theoretical rather than practical. Systemic barriers include:

• Limited language access and translation of information about rights and complaints.

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• Cultural stigma or misunderstanding surrounding disability.

• Inaccessible and intimidating complaint processes.

• A shortage of culturally safe advocates and representation of CALD disability leaders in policy design.

These barriers show that, while the DDA is strong in principle, it has not yet achieved equitable access or inclusion for all Australians.

4. Responses to Key Review Areas

4.1 Definition of Disability (Questions 1–2)

MCCSA supports updating the definition of disability to align with contemporary understandings based on the social and human rights models of disability. Language in the Act should move away from deficit framing (“malfunction,” “disfigurement”) and reflect diversity in disability experiences, including psychosocial, sensory, neurodivergent, episodic, and perceived disabilities.

Recommendations:

• Modernise the definition to recognise that disability arises from the interaction between individual circumstances and societal, environmental, and cultural barriers.

• Ensure the definition captures intersectional and fluctuating conditions.

• Include recognition of how cultural perceptions and stigma shape disability experiences.

• Provide the definition in plain English and translated forms for public understanding.

4.2 Intersectionality and Cultural Safety (Questions 3–4)

The DDA should expressly recognise multiple and compounding forms of discrimination, such as when disability intersects with race, migration status, gender, age, or faith.

Recommendations:

• Insert a provision acknowledging intersectionality and require consideration of cultural, linguistic, and gender factors in enforcement and compliance frameworks.

• Introduce mandatory cultural safety and disability awareness training for all duty holders (employers, educators, and public authorities).

• Allow for multi-modal claims to be made; such as written format, voice, or other forms of communication and language

• Recognise intersectional discrimination claims under the DDA

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• Fund bilingual and bicultural disability advocates to support people experiencing intersectional discrimination.

4.3 Direct and Indirect Discrimination (Questions 5–6)

The current comparator and burden-of-proof tests make it difficult for individuals to prove discrimination, especially those facing communication or cultural barriers.

Recommendations:

• Simplify the test for direct discrimination by focusing on unfavourable treatment rather than technical comparison.

• Shift the onus of proof to the respondent to demonstrate that conduct was not discriminatory.

• Ensure all complaint materials and procedures are available in Easy English, Auslan, and emerging community languages.

4.4 Positive Duty to Eliminate Discrimination (Questions 7–9)

MCCSA strongly supports introducing a positive duty requiring organisations to actively prevent discrimination and promote inclusion, rather than waiting for individual complaints.

Recommendations:

• Embed a proactive inclusion obligation, similar to provisions in the Sex Discrimination Act.

• Include a requirement for consultation with CALD people with disability when developing policies and services.

• Resource training and guidance materials on inclusive communication and cultural competence.

• Provide capacity-building grants for community and multicultural organisations to meet these new duties.

4.5 Reasonable Adjustments and Unjustifiable Hardship (Questions 16–22)

The current “unjustifiable hardship” defence is often used to deny inclusion. It should be reframed to encourage shared problem-solving rather than exemption.

Recommendations:

• Replace the term unjustifiable hardship with a collaborative duty to identify practical solutions.

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• Recognise language services, cultural liaison support, and translated materials as legitimate forms of reasonable adjustment.

• Require co-design of adjustments with the person affected.

4.6 Access to Justice and Enforcement (Questions 31–32)

The DDA’s reliance on individual complaints excludes those unable or afraid to engage with legal systems.

This is an individualised approach which reflects Western assumptions about autonomy and justice. However, many Australians from collectivist cultures experience discrimination and decision-making as family or community units rather than as isolated individuals. Reform must recognise that cultural values of respect, harmony, and group responsibility can discourage people from pursuing individual complaints, even when harm is clear.

Recommendations:

• Establish an independent Disability Rights and Inclusion Commission with powers to investigate, issue compliance notices, and initiate own-motion inquiries.

• Strengthen AHRC’s powers to address systemic discrimination.

• Promote culturally safe pathways through the role of community connectors, translated materials, and partnerships with multicultural organisations.

• Expand the DDA to clearly cover police and justice interactions.

• Allow representative or community-led complaints where discrimination affects groups rather than individuals. For example, families or cultural communities. This would align the DDA with collectivist values of shared accountability and ensure community-level harms are recognised in law.

4.7 Exemptions and Special Measures (Questions 33–37)

Exemptions should be limited and time-bound to ensure accountability.

Recommendations:

• Allow exemptions only where they lead to measurable improvements in inclusion.

• Require community consultation, including CALD representation, before exemptions are granted.

• Recognise and promote special measures that target participation and leadership of CALD people with disability.

• When exemptions are made ensure there is clear reporting process on progress towards compliance

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4.8 Modernising the DDA (Questions 38–47)

Modernising the Disability Discrimination Act is critical to ensure it is practical, enforceable, and inclusive for all Australians, including people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. Reforms should clarify rights and obligations, strengthen compliance, and reduce systemic barriers that disproportionately affect CALD people with disability. This includes making protections more understandable, culturally safe, and accessible across languages and communication formats.

Recommendations:

Assistance Animals

• Clarify legal protections, training, and evidence requirements to ensure CALD people with disability can confidently access public spaces and services with their assistance animals.

• Provide consistent national standards and multilingual public information.

Disability Action Plans (DAPs):

• Strengthen minimum standards, consultation, and reporting requirements to ensure organisations genuinely include CALD communities in planning, monitoring, and improving inclusion outcomes.

• Publish DAPs in accessible and translated formats.

Disability Standards:

• Strengthen enforceability and transparency, requiring inclusion of multicultural and language accessibility measures across education, transport, and premises.

Embedding Multicultural Principles:

Modernisation of the DDA should draw on existing state-based legislation or policy frameworks for Multiculturalism, such as South Australia’s Multicultural Charter, which recognises that cultural diversity is a strength and a shared responsibility. These charters provide a strong model for embedding intercultural understanding and community participation across policy and legal frameworks.

• Integrating multicultural principles into the DDA would: Promote respect for cultural and linguistic diversity within all DDA mechanisms, including Disability Action Plans and Standards.
• Require agencies and service providers to demonstrate cultural responsiveness and engagement with CALD communities as part of compliance and reporting.
• Encourage co-design with CALD people with disability to reflect lived experience and intersectional needs.
• Strengthen translation, interpretation, and outreach requirements so information about rights, complaints, and protections is accessible in community languages.

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4.9 Building Trust and Social Capital (Implementation Pathway)

For reforms to succeed, government must invest in social capital (the trust, relationships, and shared responsibility connecting communities and systems).

Effective communication is essential to building trust with CALD communities. Without accessible, culturally safe engagement, individuals and communities may feel excluded, undermining confidence in justice and service delivery. The current DDA does not fully address these barriers, leading to low participation and engagement. Strengthening intercultural communication and trust is vital to ensure CALD people with disability can meaningfully shape inclusive policies and services.

Key actions:

• Partner with CALD peak bodies as inclusion hubs.

• Fund bilingual peer connectors and intercultural navigators to link people to services.

• Support collaboration across disability, health, multicultural, and housing sectors.

• Recognise community organisations as equal partners in service design and delivery.

4.10 Learning from South Australia

The South Australian Disability Inclusion Plan (2025–2029) provides a strong example of how intersectionality, co-design, and accountability can be embedded in practical policy and service delivery. It demonstrates the benefits of:

• Intersectional approaches that recognise how disability intersects with culture, language, gender, and other identities, ensuring policies reflect lived realities.

• Co-design processes that actively involve people with disability from CALD communities in decision-making, planning, and evaluation of services.

• Transparent accountability mechanisms, including publicly available reporting and measurable outcomes, which enable communities to track progress and hold systems to account.

Recommendations

MCCSA recommends adopting this model nationally to guide DDA reform implementation. Key steps include:

• Establishing structured consultation processes with CALD people with disability for all DDA reforms.

• Creating clear, public reporting mechanisms that track inclusion outcomes and the impact of policy changes.

• Partnering with multicultural and disability organisations to ensure culturally safe, community-led participation.

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4.11 Future Reform Directions (Beyond the Review)

To future-proof the DDA:

• Establish national disability employment and leadership targets with CALD-specific pathways.

• Introduce open data reporting on accessibility outcomes.

• Embed cultural safety and intersectionality across all Commonwealth anti-discrimination legislation.

• Require periodic review and co-design with CALD disability communities.

5. Conclusion and Call to Action

This review presents a crucial opportunity to reimagine the DDA as a truly inclusive, modern framework.

MCCSA calls on the Australian Government to:

1. Modernise the definition of disability and ensure cultural understandings are reflected.
2. Recognise intersectional and systemic discrimination in law and practice.
3. Embed positive duties for inclusion and cultural safety.
4. Strengthen enforcement and accountability through proactive oversight.
5. Partner with CALD communities in implementation and education.

A renewed DDA, guided by multicultural leadership, can transform disability inclusion from compliance to connection, ensuring that every Australian, regardless of culture, language, or ability, truly belongs.

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