Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into ‘Delivering Quality Care More Efficiently’.
Our submission highlights the urgent need for a gender-responsive and disability-specific approach to care reform – one that recognises women, girls and gender-diverse people with disability as both providers and recipients of care, and as experts in what quality, inclusive care looks like.
The submission provides several recommendations to the Productivity Commission, including:
- Consider and respond to the findings of the Disability Royal Commission and the NDIS Review around NDIS regulatory frameworks.
- Eliminate restrictive practices, including forced contraception and sterilisation.
- Engage disability and women’s health organisations to lead co-design, commissioning processes and capacity-building programs.
- Develop frameworks that measure outcomes beyond efficiency, focusing instead on safety, equity, autonomy and human rights.
WWDA emphasises that care work, both paid and unpaid, is the foundation of all productivity. Reforms to the care economy must centre lived experience, support the leadership of women and gender-diverse people with disability, and ensure no limitation of rights or protections for more efficiency.
Read the full submission in Word (.docx) or PDF format.