WWDA’s submission to the Second Action Plan under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children, “Making Disability-Specific Violence Visible,” calls for disability-responsive implementation.
It argues that current laws, data and services often overlook violence experienced by women, girls and gender-diverse people with disability outside intimate partner relationships, including abuse by support workers, carers, family members, co-residents and service providers.
WWDA recommends ongoing funding for a disability-led gender-based violence working group, led in partnership with Disabled People’s Organisations and Disability Representative Organisations.
The submission identifies four priorities:
- recognising disability-specific violence in law and data;
- treating income, housing, transport, disability supports and community participation as essential safeguards;
- designing accessible early-help pathways around disabled women’s real lives; and
- strengthening accountability, monitoring and feedback.
The submission also calls for accessible services, supported decision-making, no-wrong-door complaint pathways, and meaningful, paid participation by women, girls and gender-diverse people with disability throughout implementation and evaluation.
Read the full submission by clicking the buttons below.
Endorsements
- Australian Multicultural Women’s Alliance (AMWA)
- Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA)
- Disability Advocacy Network Australia (DANA)
- Down Syndrome Australia
- Inclusion Australia
- National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Alliance (NATSIWA)
- National Rural Women’s Coalition
- People with Disability Australia (PWDA)
- Physical Disability Australia
- Working with Women Alliance (WWWA)