Indigenous Allied Health Australia
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15 October 2025
Submission on the Review of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992
1. Introduction
Indigenous Allied Health Australia (AHA) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the review of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA). IAHA is the national peak body for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander allied health workforce, committed to achieving health equity and a culturally safe health system. Our purpose draws on the lived experiences of our members and communities and is informed by the findings of the Disability Royal Commission and Australia’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). AGD should use these key policies are guiding principles for the development of a contemporary DDA.
IAHA acknowledges the DDA’s role as a cornerstone of disability rights protection in Australia. However, we share the view of the Disability Royal Commission that the Act is no longer fit for purpose. Reform is required to ensure the DDA aligns with the CRPD, addresses intersectional discrimination, and shifts from a reactive to a proactive approach that delivers tangible improvements in the lives of people with disability.
The DDA needs to address the power of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with a disability and the system. It shouldn’t be up to an individual to understand the legalities of the Act and rely on them to navigate these complexities. The DDA should have the legal ‘teeth’ to influence societal change for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with a disability to be able to fully participate in society. The DDA needs to be embedded across other Acts such as the Racial Discrimination Act, AHPRA cultural safety legislation, child protection, justice and education. Importantly, there needs to be accountability mechanisms embedded within the Act to ensure systems and services and being compliant.
IAHA recommends that the Attorney Generals Department work in collaboration with the First Peoples Disability Network (FPDN) to ensure the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability are central to the development of the DDA. Without this, AGD will not be upholding their responsibilities to the Closing the Gap Priority Reforms.
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2. Positive Duty and Reasonable Adjustments
IAHA strongly supports the introduction of a positive duty on all duty holders to take proactive and meaningful action to prevent discrimination. This duty must go beyond compliance to actively dismantle racism and ableism, and to create inclusive and culturally safe environments. Positive duty should require organisations to:
* Design universally inclusive environments, rather than treating adjustments as exceptions.
* Actively implement anti-racism strategies and embed cultural safety into their operations; and
* Build organisational capacity through ongoing training, education, and accountability mechanisms.
This ensures that the burden does not remain on individuals and places responsibility squarely on systems and organisations to create equity and safety. The DDA needs to support the sector and services to transform that meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability.
3. Access and Inclusion
The DDA must go beyond prohibiting discrimination to actively promoting inclusion. Access should be framed as a strengths-based principle that affirms the positive assets of individuals, families, and communities. As the cornerstone for disability rights in Australia, an updated Act must be framed around the acknowledgment that being actively involved in community and being culturally connected is a protection against exclusion and discrimination.1 Therefore reforming the Act requires:
* Modernising definitions of disability to reflect the human rights model and remove deficit-based language and adopt a culture of inclusion.
* Embedding recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander concepts of health, wellbeing, and diversity, including the strengths of culture, kinship, and community.
* Requiring co-design of access standards with people with disability and their communities, ensuring inclusion strategies reflect strengths, aspirations, and cultural identity; and
* Embedding explicit provisions to address intersectional discrimination, while recognising the resilience and leadership of those most affected.
Inclusion must not only remove barriers, but also actively foster belonging, contribution, and leadership.
1 S Avery ’Culture is inclusion: A narrative of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability (First Peoples Disability Network Australia, Sydney 2018) 2
4. Shifting from Reactive to Proactive
The current reactive model of the DDA places the burden on individuals to lodge complaints after harm has occurred. Reform must embed a proactive approach, requiring:
* Duty holders to adopt a human rights model of disability that celebrates diversity and cultural determinants of health and wellbeing.
* Mandatory education and training in cultural safety, anti-racism, and strengths-based practice for all organisations covered by the Act.
* Stronger Disability Action Plans, co-designed with people with disability, monitored and publicly reported, with clear cultural safety benchmarks; and
* Government commissioning and procurement processes that require proactive adoption of inclusive, culturally safe, and strengths-based models of service delivery.
This ensures proactive responsibilities are embedded across systems, not just left to the goodwill of individual organisations.
5. Accountability and Monitoring
Reform of the DDA requires strong accountability mechanisms that move beyond symbolic law. IAHA recommends:
* Strengthening the statutory role and responsibility of the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) to lead monitoring, auditing, and enforcement of positive duties.
* Resourcing the AHRC with investigative and compliance powers tailored to proactive duties, not only complaints resolution.
* Introducing performance measures co-designed with people with disability, disaggregated by race, gender, and disability type, with specific indicators for cultural safety and anti-racism; and
* Embedding participatory oversight structures to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability are central to accountability processes.
Accountability must track not only breaches but also progress in dismantling racism and ableism, and in achieving measurable inclusion outcomes.
6. Conclusion and Vision Statement
Reform of the Disability Discrimination Act must transform it from a complaints-based shield into a proactive instrument for justice, equity, and inclusion. The new DDA must:
* Embed anti-racism and cultural safety as core legislative duties.
* Recognise and build on the strengths of people, families, and communities.
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Require governments and service providers to proactively commission inclusive and culturally safe systems; and
- Empower the Australian Human Rights Commission with the authority to monitor and enforce systemic change.
This vision moves beyond preventing harm, towards creating a society where people with disability are recognised for their strengths, fully included, and supported to thrive.
Contact
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Chief Operating Officer
Indigenous Allied Health Australia
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