Response ID ANON-NT3M-UN95-K
Submitted to Disability Discrimination Act Review – Issues Paper
Submitted on 2025-09-02 15:14:31
Consent to participate in our consultation
Do you consent to participate in our consultation?
Yes – I consent to participate in this consultation. I understand that I do not need to provide my personal or sensitive information to participate in this consultation.
If you are aged under 15, do you have consent from a parent or guardian to participate in our consultation?
I am aged 15 or over.
Publishing your submission
Do you give permission for your response to be published?
Yes – I give permission for my response/submission to be published.
What is your name?
Name:
Taliska Crispin
If you provided your name in response to the previous question, do you consent for your name to be published with your submission?
Yes
Are you making this submission on behalf of:
Yourself
Please specify the name of the organisation:
What is your email address?
Email:
Questions about you
Which of the following best describes your interests in the department’s review of the Disability Discrimination Act?
I am a person with disability
Please specify:
If you are making a submission in a professional capacity or as part of your work, please select the industry or industries that best apply to you:
Not applicable
Please specify:
How do you describe your gender?
Woman or female
Please specify:
Do you identify with any of the following groups?
Prefer not to say
What type of area are you or your organisation located?
Regional area
Where are you or your organisation based?
South Australia
Part 1 – Updating understandings of disability and disability discrimination
1 How should disability be defined in the Disability Discrimination Act?
Enter your response here:
Having Different Abilities, everyone is different. Nobody is the same.
2 What factors should be considered in developing a new definition of disability?
Enter your response here:
Acceptance of different abilitys.
3 Would the Disability Discrimination Act be strengthened by expressly allowing claims to be brought for multiple or combined protected attributes?
Yes
Taking legal action, gaining compensation for Grief and trauma. In a lot of peoples situations, Being discriminated by a government agency. Such as child protection.
4 Could any other changes be made to the Disability Discrimination Act to recognise and provide protection for people with disability who have intersecting identities, or addressing compounding discrimination?
Yes
The disability discrimination Act needs to hold a very strong, reluctance to. The disability discrimination of parents with disability in the child protection system. A stronger disability discrimination Act in all Walks of life. Innocent families with disability need more protection.
5 What test should be used to ensure that the definition of direct discrimination is easy to understand and implement for both duty holders and people with disability, and why?
Detriment test
6 How should the burden of proof be addressed in the Disability Discrimination Act?
Retain current burden of proof model
7 How should the definition of indirect discrimination be amended to ensure that it is easy to understand and implement?
Enter your response here:
8 Should the reasonableness element in the definition of indirect discrimination be:
Replaced by a legitimate and proportionate test
9 Should the language of ‘does not or would not comply, or is not able or would not be able to comply’ be removed from the definition of indirect discrimination?
No, it should be kept.
10 Should the Disabilities Convention be included in the objects provision of the DisabilityDiscrimination Act?
Yes
11 Should the Disability Discrimination Act be expressly required to be interpreted in a way that is beneficial to people with disability, in line with human rights treaties?
Yes
Part 2 – Positive duty to eliminate discrimination
12 If there was a positive duty in the Disability Discrimination Act, who should it apply to?
Enter your response here:
13 Are there lessons from the operation of the positive duty in the Sex Discrimination Act that could be incorporated into a positive duty in the Disability Discrimination Act?
Enter your response here:
14 What costs and other impacts would duty holders experience in meeting a positive duty under the Disability Discrimination Act?
Enter your response here:
Possibly higher costs
15 Should there be exceptions or limits to the application of a positive duty?
Part 3 – Encouraging inclusion of people with disability in employment, education and other areas of public life
16 Would the creation of a stand‑alone duty to provide adjustments better assist people with disability and duty holders to understand their rights and obligations?
Yes
17 Should the scope of the duty to provide adjustments apply only to the existing areas of public life covered by the Disability Discrimination Act, or extend to other contexts?
Enter your response here:
Extend to other contexts. As previously disability discrimination was not covered in the area of child protection.
18 Would removing the word ‘reasonable’ from the term ‘reasonable adjustments’ to align the language with the legal effect create any unintended consequences?
19 What is your preferred approach to achieving greater fairness and transparency in claims of unjustifiable hardship?
The Disability Royal Commission amendment as proposed.
20 What are your views on amending the Disability Discrimination Act to consider the nature and extent of any adjustments made and encourage consultation between prospective or current employers and prospective or current employees before making employment
decisions?
Enter your response here:
21 Are there other amendments to the Disability Discrimination Act that could support engagement between prospective or current employers and prospective or current employees to better understand the inherent requirements of a role?
Enter your response here:
22 Should any other amendments be made to the definition of inherent requirements, including factors that should be considered when deciding whether a person could carry out the inherent requirements of a job?
23 Should the concepts of exclusion and exclusionary discipline be defined in the Disability Discrimination Act?
24 Should there be exceptions or limits on when exclusion is unlawful?
Yes
25 Should any of the state and territory provisions relating to exclusionary discipline be adopted in the Disability Discrimination Act?
26 Would a different approach to exclusionary discipline be more appropriate in the higher education and vocational education and training sectors?
Part 4 – Improving access to justice
27 How could the Disability Discrimination Act be amended to protect people with disability from offensive behaviour and/or harassment?
Enter your response here:
By putting all areas of life of discrimination. into the disability discrimination Act and human rights.
28 If the Disability Discrimination Act were to prohibit offensive behaviour and/or harassment, how should these terms be defined?
Enter your response here:
29 Should there be exemptions for any behaviour, similar to the Racial Discrimination Act?
30 Given the recent legislative developments, are there any further gaps in the legislative framework that could be addressed by amendments to the Disability Discrimination Act to protect people with disability from vilification?
31 How could the Disability Discrimination Act be amended to ensure that it covers policing?
Enter your response here:
32 Are there any specific circumstances or situations relating to policing or justice that should be excluded from the application of the Disability Discrimination Act?
Part 5 – Exemptions
33 Could any of the permanent exemptions be narrowed or updated, while balancing other policy considerations?
Yes
34 Should the Australian Human Rights Commission be given the power to grant special measures certificates?
35 Should a definition for special measures be added to the Disability Discrimination Act?
Yes
It could help
36 Should a definition for temporary exemptions be added to the Disability Discrimination Act?
37 Would you recommend any changes to the legislative process of granting temporary exemptions?
Part 6 – Modernising the Disability Discrimination Act
38 How could the protections for assistance animals be clarified for both people with disability and duty holders, including in relation to evidence of training, evidence or standards of hygiene and behaviour that are appropriate for a public place?
Enter your response here:
39 Would legislative amendments or guidance materials be helpful to balance flexibility and certainty, or a mixture of both?
A mixture of both
40 Should specific training organisations be prescribed under the Disability Discrimination Regulations?
Yes
It could be helpful
41 Should there be minimum requirements for action plans (such as through guidelines) and what should the minimum requirements cover?
42 Should the Australian Human Rights Commission be able to reject action plans that fail to meet these requirements?
Yes
43 Should there be a set period of time for which an action plan is valid?
No
I don’t think so,
44 Are there any other changes to the action plan process that you would recommend?
Enter your response here:
45 How could compliance with and enforcement of the Disability Standards be improved?
Enter your response here:
46 Should the Disability Discrimination Act be amended to encourage relevant duty holders to self-report on their compliance with the Disability Standard(s) in disability action plans?
Yes
Yes most definitely
47 Could the Australian Human Rights Commission provide additional guidance to duty holders regarding how to self‑report on the Disability Standards in disability action plans?
Yes
Part 7 – Further options for reform
48 Are there examples of legislative provisions in Commonwealth or state and territory anti-discrimination law that could be drawn on to modernise or strengthen the Disability Discrimination Act?
49 What additional guidance materials should be provided to the community, including duty holders, about the operation of the Disability Discrimination Act or specific amendments proposed in this paper?
Enter your response here:
50 How can we ensure the Disability Discrimination Act remains fit-for-purpose into the future?
Enter your response here:
Regular review meetings.
51 Are there any other issues with the Disability Discrimination Act that should be considered as part of this review?
Enter your response here:
Document upload
Document upload
Upload your attachment: No file uploaded