Queensland Alliance for Mental Health
Attorney-General’s Department
Draft Review of the Disability Discrimination Act
Date: 14 November 2025
Our Commitment to First Nations Wellbeing, Culture, and Self-Determination
We stand in strong support of First Nations Australians, affirming their inherent right to self-determination, cultural preservation, and sovereignty over their land and traditions. We acknowledge that for First Nations peoples, mental health is inseparable from cultural, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing—a holistic understanding maintained through thousands of years of continuous culture.
The Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit) Declaration Framework and Implementation Plan, launched in Meanjin (Brisbane) on the lands of the Turrbal and Yuggera peoples where our office stands, provides a crucial 10-year roadmap. QAMH fully endorses this community-led approach to integrating First Nations leadership, cultural knowledge systems, and healing practices into Australia’s mental health frameworks.
QAMH is committed to supporting truth-telling as a process of acknowledging the histories, lived experiences, and ongoing strengths of First Nations peoples, particularly in the context of mental health. By confronting the impacts of colonisation, intergenerational trauma, and ongoing systemic injustices, we can better address the historical and contemporary factors affecting the mental wellbeing of First Nations individuals and communities.
In this submission, we emphasise the importance of holistic and healing approaches to mental health that incorporate the cultural knowledges, connection to Country, and spiritual practices of First Nations peoples. We are dedicated to ensuring that the principles of self-determination, cultural safety, truth-telling, and holistic health are central to the mental health initiatives and recommendations we propose. Our goal is to help build a future where mental health systems respect and respond to the unique needs and strengths of First Nations Australians.
Acknowledgement of Country
QAMH acknowledges and pays deep respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the lands and waters across Australia. We honour their Elders past and present, whose knowledge, leadership, and cultural practices have sustained these lands for millennia.
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Who is QAMH?
The Queensland Alliance for Mental Health is the peak body for the state’s Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Sector and people with experiences of psychosocial disability in Queensland. We represent more than 120 members and stakeholders, involved in the delivery of Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Services.
Our role is to reform, promote and drive Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Service delivery for all Queenslanders, through our influence and collaboration with our members and strategic partners.
At a national level, we have a formal collaboration with Community Mental Health Australia and provide input and advice to the work of Mental Health Australia and the National Mental Health Commission where appropriate. Locally, we work alongside our members, government, the Queensland Mental Health Commission and other stakeholders to add value to the sector and act as a strong advocate on issues that impact their operations in Queensland communities.
QAMH Contact Details
For any further information please contact:
Chloe Jesson
Deputy CEO
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Email: redacted | Web: www.qamh.org.au
Recognition of Lived Experience
QAMH recognises that the Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Sector exists because of people with Lived Experience of mental distress, their families, carers and support people. We acknowledge the expertise and the courage of people with Lived Experience, and we commit to work with and alongside people with Lived Experience in all we do.
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Introduction
Queensland Alliance for Mental Health (QAMH) welcomes the opportunity to comment on the review of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA). As acknowledged in the review document, this modernisation arises from the findings of the Disability Royal Commission, which set clear expectations for reform that upholds the rights and dignity of all people with disability. People with psychosocial disability continue to experience hidden and systemic forms of discrimination that restrict their access to services, social and economic participation, and sense of belonging.¹ While mental health challenges are not always visible, they can profoundly affect daily life and relationships. Discrimination often manifests through exclusion from housing, education, and community life, with direct consequences for wellbeing and recovery.² ³
It is critical that DDA reform aligns with the recommendations of the NDIS Review and the design of future Foundational Supports to ensure protections extend to all people with psychosocial disability, including those outside the NDIS. Anti-discrimination duties must apply equally to people who rely on general or community-based supports, not only those within formal disability systems. This alignment would help create a coherent national framework that links rights with the supports needed to make inclusion real.
QAMH represents community-managed mental health and wellbeing organisations that play a central role in enabling inclusion, recovery and participation. These organisations are both employers of people with lived and living experience and providers of supports that help people overcome the barriers created by discrimination. For DDA reform to succeed in practice, it must be accompanied by sustainable funding and clear, practical guidance so that community services can meet new obligations and embed inclusive practice without further strain on limited resources.
Key Recommendations
- Modernise the definition of disability to use inclusive, recovery-focused language that recognises psychosocial disability and reflects a rights-based, person-centred approach.
- Introduce an enforceable positive duty to eliminate disability discrimination, supported by strengthened powers for the AHRC to monitor, enforce and guide compliance.
- Recognise that community-managed mental health and wellbeing providers already embody many of these principles but require sustained investment to maintain and extend inclusive practice.
- Establish an implementation support framework for community organisations that includes AHRC-developed model tools, training and guidance, and government-funded compliance supports tailored to non-profit, regional and lived experience–led service contexts.
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Defining Disability Within the Disability Discrimination Act
QAMH supports modernising the definition of disability in the DDA to reflect contemporary, rights-based understandings of disability. The current language is deficit-based and medical in tone. Terms such as “disturbed behaviour” are outdated and risk reinforcing stigma, particularly for people with psychosocial disability. The definition should be reframed to use inclusive, recovery-focused and person-centred language that aligns with the social and human rights models of disability.
Recommendation:
- Update the definition of disability to reflect current language and understanding, ensuring people with psychosocial disability are represented in a respectful, inclusive and recovery-oriented way.
Stronger Protections to Stop Discrimination Before it Happens
People with psychosocial disability continue to face widespread stigma, subtle forms of discrimination and systemic barriers to justice. Current complaint-based mechanisms place the onus on individuals who may already be experiencing distress, disadvantage or lack of access to legal support. This reactive approach has proven ineffective in preventing discrimination or driving systemic change. The Disability Royal Commission and reviews of Australia’s discrimination law framework have identified that relying on individuals to bring complaints is insufficient to eliminate discrimination. A positive duty, already established in other areas such as the Sex Discrimination Act, would create a shared, proactive responsibility among employers, education providers and service systems to prevent discrimination before it occurs. This shift would help drive cultural and organisational change, embedding equality as a routine expectation rather than an afterthought.
Community-managed mental health and wellbeing providers already operate in line with the intent of a positive duty through person-centred, recovery-focused and inclusive practices. However, the sustainability of these best practices is constrained by chronic underfunding. Embedding and maintaining inclusion requires ongoing workforce supervision, training and quality improvement - activities that are essential but resource intensive. Introducing an enforceable positive duty within the DDA would promote early intervention and shared accountability across workplaces, education and community settings.
To ensure this reform has practical impact, the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) should be equipped with strengthened regulatory powers to conduct own-motion investigations, monitor compliance, and issue enforceable undertakings or notices. These mechanisms would shift accountability from individuals toward organisations and systems responsible for creating safe, inclusive environments.
Recommendations
- Introduce an enforceable positive duty to eliminate disability discrimination, supported by strengthened powers for the AHRC to monitor, enforce and guide compliance.
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- Recognise that community-managed mental health and wellbeing providers already embody many of these principles but require sustained investment to maintain and extend inclusive practice.
Implementing the Disability Discrimination Act
Reforms to strengthen the DDA will only be effective if community-based organisations have the capacity to implement them. Many non-government organisations, particularly those that are small, regional or led by people with lived experience, operate with thin margins and limited administrative capacity. Without tailored implementation support, there is a risk that compliance obligations will unintentionally burden the very organisations delivering inclusion and access on the ground.
To promote equitable implementation, smaller and community-led organisations require proportionate, practical assistance to meet new obligations under the DDA. The AHRC could play a key role by developing model policies, compliance templates and training packages that clarify expectations and build capability. Governments should also resource compliance support structures proportionate to organisational size and risk, ensuring reforms are achievable across the full diversity of providers covered by the Act. Establishing dedicated implementation supports would strengthen the overall effectiveness of DDA reforms by embedding capability, consistency and confidence across the community sector.
Recommendation
- Establish an implementation support framework for community organisations that includes AHRC-developed model tools, training and guidance, and government-funded compliance supports tailored to non-profit, regional and lived experience–led service contexts.
Conclusion
QAMH welcomes this comprehensive review of the DDA as a positive and necessary step toward modernising Australia’s anti-discrimination framework. The review document demonstrates a clear commitment to aligning our laws with contemporary human rights principles and the expectations set by the Disability Royal Commission. Implementing its recommendations will help create a more inclusive, fair and consistent system that protects and promotes the rights of all people with disability, including those with psychosocial disability. Future reforms to the DDA should also align with the outcomes of the NDIS Review and the development of Foundational Supports to ensure that people with psychosocial disability outside the NDIS are equally protected. Rights must also be matched with the resources and community supports that make inclusion possible.
While we recognise this issue sits beyond the current review, QAMH also acknowledges the broader importance of establishing a Federal Human Rights Act. Such an Act would provide a unifying framework to strengthen equality before the law, enhance accountability, and ensure all Australians are afforded clear, enforceable protections consistent with our international obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with
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Disabilities. In this context, the review of the DDA represents a timely opportunity to reaffirm Australia’s commitment to dignity, respect and inclusion for all people with disability, and to ensure that the principles of equality are embedded not only in law, but in everyday practice.
References
1 Krnjacki, L., Priest, N., Aitken, Z., Emerson, E., Llewellyn, G., King, T., & Kavanagh, A. (2018). Disability-based discrimination and health: Findings from an Australian-based population study. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 42(2), 172–174. https://doi.org/10.1111/1753-6405.12735 2 Homelessness Australia. (2024). Homes for all: Housing First. https://homelessnessaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Housing-First-2.pdf 3 AHURI. (2025, 11, 04). Trajectories the interplay between housing and mental health pathways. https://www.ahuri.edu.au/housing/trajectories
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