Key Points
A Rebecca White Labor Government will be committed to the disability community and the community and sector that supports them.
After 10 years of the Liberals, responses and Bills relevant to disability have been delayed, deadlines have been missed, and Tasmanians living with disability, their families and carers are missing out.
Labor will:
- Improve pathways and boost employment
- Increase peak body funding to support high quality services
- Improve access in our communities
- Deliver truly inclusive play spaces in Tasmania
- Foster inclusion from a young age through Young Leaders of Tasmania
- Guarantee the future of Autism Tasmania
- Complete important work that remains unfinished by the Liberals.
Why we need it
There are dozens of recommendations and hundreds of actions from the Disability Royal Commission and the NDIS Review, but the Liberals have lagged with Tasmania's responses.
The Tasmanian Disability Inclusion and Safeguarding Bill was allegedly coming to the Parliament in 2024 but is on hold because of the snap election.
“A Labor Government will be informed by and committed to Tasmanians living with disability”
In the meantime, Tasmanians living with disability, their families and carers are missing out.
A Labor Government will introduce practical solutions to improve employment, accessibility and inclusion for people living with disability.
The details
1. Improving pathways and boosting employment
Tasmanian Labor will boost workforce participation of people living with disability in both the public and private sectors.
Currently 2.2 per cent of the Tasmanian State Service have a disability while more than a quarter of Tasmanians are living with a disability.
A Labor Government will expand pathways to State Service careers for people with a disability and seek to double that number within five years and work with stakeholders to set meaningful, long-term targets and pathways to boost employment of people with a disability over the next 25 years.
A Labor Government will convene a Tasmanian workforce summit in its first year of government, inviting workers, unions, business, community sector and community leaders to speak to challenges and solutions for workforce, and ensure that workers with a disability are made a priority.
We will also invest $450,000 to grow opportunities for workers with a disability in the private sector by developing a social procurement framework to ensure organisations that employ people with a disability get their fair share.
This approach has worked in other states and is backed by National Disability Services and employers like BlueLine Laundry to ensure the State can contribute greater social value with every dollar spent.
Tasmanian Labor will also invest $250,000 in Hamlet Café to allow the operation to purchase new kitchen equipment that meets accessibility requirements and expand their facilities to create an improved environment for the large number of participants.
Hamlet Café supports Tasmanians living with a disability through targeted training and work readiness support and with this funding Labor will ensure they are able to help more Tasmanians living with a disability into employment.
Budget: $50,000 for workforce summit. $450,000 over three years to develop social procurement framework with National Disability Services.
2. Increase peak body funding to support high quality services
National Disability Services has a proven track record in collaborating and supporting providers to implement best practice. With the disability sector set to undergo substantive reform, it has never been more important to build sector support.
This funding will ensure that during a significant period of reform disability services will be well placed to contribute to policy and legislative developments and be engaged, informed, and responsive.
Budget: An extra $170k p.a. over five years
3. Improving access in our communities
Labor will invest in inclusion through local government grants to deliver better access to community spaces and our state’s beaches.
We will establish an All-Abilities Access Stream of $2.5 million over four years to focus on improving existing local government assets to ensure all community members have appropriate access. This includes improvements such as: all access bathrooms, all access car park spaces, all access sporting infrastructure.
We will also establish a specific Beach All-Access Stream of $2.5 million over four years because everyone deserves to access Tasmania’s pristine beaches. To ensure that beach access is a priority for councils this stream would partner with councils to both pilot and install beach access around Tasmania.
Budget: $2.5 million over four years for All-Abilities Access in community. $2.5 million over four years for Beach All-Abilities Access.
4. Delivering truly inclusive play spaces in Tasmania
Labor will invest $2 million to build truly inclusive play spaces in Tasmania and establish a template for their delivery statewide.
Tasmania has a mix of very new and very old playgrounds most of which are not fully accessible.
This means many children, youth and families with disability do not experience the joy and benefits of play, passive recreation and connecting with their community in their local park, which as we know is so important to health and well-being for children, families and connected, thriving communities.
Whilst we have plenty of green space our playspace offerings are significantly lower than that of the rest of Australia.
The Touched by Olivia State of Play 2022 report found:
- Children and youth in Tasmania have far fewer play opportunities compared to their mainland counterparts.
- Children, youth and their families living with disabilities in Tasmania have extremely limited opportunities to play with purpose or independence.
A Labor Government will change this. We know inclusive play delivers happier and healthier communities.
We also know that many Tasmanian children, youth and families are not playing and will deeply engage with children, young people and families experiencing disability, their families, carers and other stakeholders and partner with local councils to find out what these barriers to play are and then deliver best practice, state of the art truly inclusive playgrounds.
We will use the $2 million for funding this project to partner with a council or councils and interested benevolent organisations to pilot at least one of these play spaces.
We will collate and share the intellectual property and learnings with councils to deliver more inclusive playgrounds and policies statewide, with the ambition to develop a Tasmanian model of the NSW Everyone Can Play guide.
This approach has been shown to make longer-term changes to the planning and design of playspaces in NSW by educating the people who manage and design these spaces with clear guidelines and how to apply them.
Budget: $2m for piloting inclusive play spaces in Tasmania.
5. Fostering inclusion from a young age through Young Leaders of Tasmania
A Labor Governmnet will foster inclusion from an early age by securing the future of the Young Leaders of Tasmania program and see it grow to the North, North-West and into mainstream schools.
YLOT is an innovative, award-winning, forward-thinking organisation that aims to drive disability inclusion and support to the next level, promoting awareness, education and understanding within the community.
YLOT provides:
- Peer-mentor buddy programs, to provide friendship and support for young people living with disability
- Personal growth and leadership opportunities amongst young Tasmanians including those living with disability
- Post School options for young people living with disability.
Budget: $1.24m over four years for expanding the Young Leaders of Tasmania program.
6. Autism Tasmania guarantee
Tasmanian Labor has signed the pledge to guarantee the future of Autism Tasmania because a Labor Government will need the help of Autism Tasmania over a significant period of reform.
We must ensure that the many reforms to national programs and local services work for autistic Tasmanians, their families and carers and we must build on and not waste what we have already achieved.
Budget: $300,000 p.a. over three years
7. All of the Liberals unfinished work, their lack of action and the upcoming period of significant reforms
It is clear that the Liberals were lagging with Tasmania’s response to the Disability Royal Commission, the NDIS review and the early election is yet another abdication of responsibility in this space.
The response was due at the end of March however with the election and a statement from the Federal and other State Governments, this will not occur and has now been set down for mid-year.
There are dozens of recommendations and hundreds of actions from the Disability Royal Commission and the NDIS Review.
The Tasmanian Disability Inclusion and Safeguarding Bill was allegedly coming to the Parliament in 2024 but is on hold because of the snap election.
The long-term deadline to implement changes under the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport was missed in 2022, with the Liberals having nothing to offer other than trying to offload bus stop responsibility and maintenance on to councils. We know that DSAPT is about more than bus stops but on this issue a Labor Government will not handball responsibility to councils.
There is a lot of work to be done and a lot of voices to listen to.
Labor is committed to the disability community and the community and sector that supports them.
A Labor Government will convene a series of roundtables with Tasmanians with a disability and local stakeholders to hear their views on all of the Royal Commission recommendations and all other unfinished business by the Liberal Government from affected Tasmanians.
This will inform future investments ahead of Labor delivering its first budget as we embark on a significant period of reform.
Labor will be open and transparent about the process and, where necessary, will develop dashboards on this work so that progress is well understood.
Budget: Existing departmental budgets and future budget considerations.