World News from Australia

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Woman, 75, loses Jetstar wheelchair lawsuit

(NINEMSN 13.01.12) A 75-year-old woman who was not allowed to board a Jetstar flight because she was in a wheelchair will have to pay $20,000 in legal fees after she lost a lawsuit against the airline.

Sheila King had bought a ticket on the internet to fly from Adelaide to Brisbane in August 2008, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. But Ms King was later told that — in line with Jetstar policy — she could not be accommodated because two other people with wheelchairs had also booked on that flight.

Federal Court Judge Alan Robertson found the airline had not discriminated against Ms King because she had failed to select the wheelchair option when buying her ticket and refused an offer of a flight on the same route.

"In my view Jetstar did not discriminate against Ms King, being a person with a disability because of the fact that she ... possessed a wheelchair," the paper quoted Justice Robertson as saying.

Costs against Ms King were capped at $20,000 because the case was determined to be in the public interest.

Disability campaign comes to Canberra

(13.10.11, AAP, Ninemsn) Federal MPs are being asked to wear a badge in parliament to show their support for a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Every Australian Counts campaign director John Della Bosca said on Thursday the implementation of a NDIS would help government finances by bringing people with a disability back to work.

"We see this as the last great frontier of fairness in Australian public and social policy," Mr Della Bosca told reporters in Canberra. All 226 members of the Australian Parliament will be able to show their support by wearing a "Count on Me" badge in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The commission in February released a report suggesting a Medicare-style NDIS, covering people born with significant disability, including the cost of care, accommodation and therapy.

It also suggested another scheme, covering those who sustain catastrophic injuries in accidents which would be similar to state and territory compensation schemes.

"Hundreds of thousands of Australians with a disability around the country are counting on all members of parliament to work together to deliver the NDIS," Mr Della Bosca said.

Source:http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8359491/disability-campaign-comes-to-canberra

$130m for disabled in Budget National

(Samantha Maiden, Political Editor, Sunday Mail (SA), 24.04.11) Families caring for disabled children have won access to up to $30,000 a year in the May Budget.

The $130 million boost to early intervention will also include new support for autism and deliver on an election pledge to offer a $6000-a-year Better Start for Disability payment from July. The Sunday Mail can reveal that 9000 extra families will be able to secure up to $30,000 a year in assistance under the changes. The Better Start for Children with a Disability payment, will help eligible children with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, hearing and vision loss, fragile x-syndrome, deafness and blindness.

The total support will now include up to $19,290 a year in carer payments, $2900 in carer allowance, $1200 in carer supplements and $1000 carer disability assistance payments plus the new Better Start for Children with a Disability payment of up to $12,000, capped at $6000 a year.

"Bringing up kids is hard enough, without the added challenges that can come with a disability," Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan told the Sunday Mail. "Caring for a disabled child puts a lot of strain on family budgets, so we're determined to provide as much help as possible." Programs for autism will also be expanded, after more children registered for the Helping Children with Autism package offered in previous Budgets.

The scheme, which was first launched in 2008, provides eligible children with up to $12,000 to secure early intervention including speech pathology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and psychology services. While 9000 children were expected to benefit, more than 12,000 families have now secured support, with the Government boosting funding by $30 million for this program to help meet the cost.

The additional funding will support 3500 children access early learning programs including PlayConnect playgroups for children with autism spectrum disorders. Families Minister Jenny Macklin said early intervention was critical for children with disabilities. "But the costs are often a barrier for many families on low and middle incomes," she said. But an angry backlash from mothers over Budget plans to means test the childcare rebate has prompted the Government to dump the proposal.

The Sunday Mail revealed last week that options on the table were a means test on income between $150,000 to $200,000, or a work test to limit stay-at-home mums claiming the 50 per cent rebate. The revelations prompted tearful calls to MPs' offices and warnings from business groups it would stop some mothers returning to work.

Government sources confirmed the option was tabled at a meeting of the powerful Budget razor gang on Monday, with senior ministers agreeing the controversial proposal was at odds with the central message of the Budget to boost productivity. The Government had been divided over the controversial measures

Source: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/

Western Australia: Aboriginal Man With Intellectual Disability Languishes In WA Prison For A Decade

The detention for 10 years in the WA prison system of an unconvicted Aboriginal man with an intellectual disability is nothing short of a disgrace, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda said today.

Commissioner Gooda said it was hard to believe that Mr Marlon Noble had been imprisoned without being convicted and without evidence against him having ever been tested in court. “I am concerned and deeply saddened to hear about the case of Marlon Noble,” Commissioner Gooda said. “He should not be in prison and should certainly have been linked into appropriate support services from the outset rather than being left to languish in prison.

“A mature society simply can’t allow people like Mr Noble to be punished for the inability of the disability and justice systems to provide appropriate community supervision and support for people with intellectual disabilities and mental illnesses. “It is a tragic fact that people who fall under the jurisdiction of mental impairment legislation can spend longer in custody than offenders who have been convicted of similar crimes.”

Mr Noble was arrested 10 years ago for an alleged sexual assault but he has never been convicted of the crime. Instead, Mr Noble was imprisoned without conviction under the Criminal Law (Mentally Impaired Accused Act) 1996 for the last 10 years. Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes, said it was important that community-based alternatives were pursued in cases such as this.

“The least restrictive option should be community-based supervision where he can access assistance to modify inappropriate behaviours. These alternatives must strike the correct balance between community safety and individuals’ rights,” Commissioner Innes said. Commissioner Gooda said prisons should not be used as treatment options. “Prisons should not be used as a treatment option for people with intellectual disability, nor should they be used to warehouse people the system simply doesn't know how to accommodate,” Commissioner Gooda said.

“We should be diverting our resources into community-based services and treatment, rather than costly and unjust indefinite detention.”

Commissioner Gooda said the WA and Australian Governments had obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to ensure that people with a disability have equal access to justice.

“Where is the justice for Mr Noble who has been locked up for 10 years because we don't have services to provide a safe community treatment option?” Commissioner Gooda said. “I urge the Western Australian Attorney-General to urgently review Mr Noble's case.”

Source: Australian Human Rights Commission

Government defends disability pension scheme

(23.12.10) Labor has defended its reform of the disability support pension, saying changes will soon help to ease the ballooning number of recipients.

But welfare groups say little will be achieved until the government addresses the $130 a week discrepancy between the disability and unemployment payment.

Outgoing federal families department boss Jeff Harmer has flagged the growing number of DSP recipients, close to 800,000, as a major policy hurdle for the government.

Dr Harmer told The Australian reform is needed to curb the flow of recipients, which has tripled since the 1980s, costing taxpayers more than $11 billion this year.

He suggested tougher measures for people to get on the scheme, and greater incentives for them to get back into the workforce.

Dr Harmer also called for a crack-down on middle-class welfare, noting that 80 per cent of families with children currently qualify for assistance.

Families Minister Jenny Macklin defended the DSP system, which increased by about 40,000 recipients between 2008-09 and 2009-10.

"The DSP is an essential element of Australia's safety net but it is vital that it supports the people who need it," a spokeswoman for Ms Macklin told AAP.

"We have made a number of changes to create a fairer and simpler system," she said, noting that reform would likely cut DSP applications by 10,000 a year from 2012.

Under the changes, new applicants will have to prove they can't work independently, even with assistance, to receive the pension.

The medical test, that determines a person's ability to work, will be tightened, and applicants will have to access employment services.

The claims of those clearly eligible for the pension will be fast-tracked, streaming those who are not out of the system earlier.

The Australian Council of Social Service says little will be achieved until the unemployment allowance is lifted to the same rate as the DSP.

"Many DSP recipients could be working and would be better off, but worry that if they lose their job they'll end up on Newstart," ACOSS spokesman Peter Davidson told AAP.

"The government can't, in all conscience, encourage recipients to look for work until they fix this problem."

The group also backed Dr Harmer's concerns that some welfare payments, including Family Benefit Part B, are poorly targeted.

Liberal MP Simon Birmingham said that was one area that could be looked at.

"There's a genuine need to look at the interaction of our welfare and tax systems and make sure that we minimise the churn of payments," he told Sky News.

Source:http://news.ninemsn.com.au/

Welfare boost for kids in care

(James Massola, The Australian 04.11.10) Victorian Premier John Brumby has announced a $493m social welfare package to protect children in care and help prevent drug use. And Opposition leader Ted Baillieu has pledged $29.3m for 100 science and maths specialists in primary schools and 400 scholarships for science graduates if he wins office at the November 27 election.

At an early morning appearance in inner city Kensington - his first campaign stop in Melbourne - Mr Brumby said the package would help make Victoria the fairest state in the country.

Under Mr Brumby’s plan, more than $154m will go towards drug prevention and treatment programs, $125m will be spent to tackle problem gambling and an extra $60m will be given to people with a disability.

There was also $53m for carers, $43m to recruit 80 child support workers and extra family support specialists and $1.5m to improve vision-impaired facilities.

Mr Baillieu returned to eastern suburban Glen Waverley - an area the Coalition must wrest back from Labor to claim government - to make his announcement at Glendal primary school.

Mr Brumby said his package built on the $6bn Labor had spent on making the state more equitable.

“Victoria has the strongest finances of any state and we want to invest in vital services for the most vulnerable Victorian,’’ he said.

“Every day around 140,000 carers provide support to vulnerable Victorians and of those, many are older carers looking after someone with a disability.’’

Mr Baillieu said his education package would help Victorian students reach their potential.

“This plan will give Victorian students the access they deserve to professional recognised science and maths specialists,’’ he said.

“Under Labor, primary students wanting to learn maths and science are held back by the shortage of properly qualified teachers.’’

Mr Brumby will travel to the Snowy River in country Victoria later today to inspect record high flows on the river.

(Additional reporting: Rebecca Puddy)

Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

Determined medical pioneer despite her own disability

(By Yvonne Hurley and John Callander, 04.11.10) Dr Joan Spong, who was one of the first full-time directors of radiology in a Melbourne public hospital when she was appointed at Queen Victoria Hospital in 1957, has died at Epworth Hospital in Box Hill following a stroke. She was 88.

Spong remained director of radiology until she retired in 1985, when the hospital closed at its site in Lonsdale Street in the city and moved to Clayton.

Born at Maidenhead in England to a doctor father, she was educated in a convent school and then at St Paul's School at Hammersmith, where Rosalind Franklin, the medical scientist who played a vital role in the discovery of the double helix, was a contemporary.

Spong enjoyed a happy and active childhood and was a talented swimmer and horsewoman. She studied medicine at London University and at the Royal Free Hospital. Her course coincided with World War II and at that time this hospital was evacuated to a county hospital north of London. In her course she obtained an exhibition in physiology and graduated MB, BS, in 1947.

Her first appointments were as house surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital and then, because of her aim to become a paediatrician, at Queen Victoria Hospital for Children in London. Here she obtained her diploma of child health but she developed severe polyneuritis as a complication of chicken pox that resulted in widespread muscular weakness - similar to poliomyelitis - that limited her physical activity for the rest of her life. Her father thought the climate in Australia would be better for her and the family migrated in 1950. Soon after her arrival, Spong was appointed at the Royal Children's Hospital, but her disabilities proved a major handicap and she was advised to apply for a registrar appointment in radiology at the Queen Victoria Hospital. She went on to obtain her higher qualifications and became the foundation director of radiology there in 1957.

Her skill in surgical emergency work and paediatric radiology, as well as her love of student teaching, soon made an impression at the hospital. So, too, did her leadership of a large and busy department at a time of rapid developments in radiology, and she played a leading role in the use of ultrasound in obstetrics.

After she retired from the Queen Vic in 1985, Spong entered private practice and finally retired at the age of 80. Two months later she had a stroke, and another eight years later, after further medical problems, she suffered a second, fatal stroke. Spong's determination to lead an active and fulfilling life despite grave physical disability was remarkable. Although prevented from undertaking her chosen career caring for children, she enjoyed a successful alternative profession. Generous and supportive of numerous charities, she never complained about the difficulties imposed on her by disablement.

She has no survivors.

(Dr Yvonne Hurley was a contemporary of Joan Spong at the Royal Free Hospital; John Callander was her colleague at the Queen Victoria Hospital).

Source: http://www.theage.com.au/