Federal, state and territory governments have agreed to defer their response to the land mark Disability Royal Commission until the middle of the year. The inquiry, which looked into the violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability made more than 200 recommendations including that all governments should respond by the end of march.
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TVTranscript
00:00 Look, so there were 222 recommendations handed down in the Royal Commission's final report.
00:09 That report was handed down in September last year. And one of those recommendations was
00:14 that all governments, federal, state and territory governments, respond to those recommendations
00:19 by the end of March. Now, we've had a joint statement today from the Commonwealth and
00:24 state and territory ministers saying that they will actually delay that response until
00:30 the end of the year. They've acknowledged that recommendation for the response by March
00:35 and have, you know, they say that they are committed to a coordinated approach to its
00:42 response to the Royal Commission's final report. But really that this scale of work, the reforms
00:49 that are being suggested, there really does need to be careful consideration and more
00:54 consultation with the community. And that before they sort of formulate their response,
01:00 they would like to further consider and consult with the community and then they will be able
01:05 to come out with that coordinated response in the middle of the year.
01:08 So how has the community reacted?
01:10 Look, it's safe to say there will probably be quite a mixed response to this announcement.
01:16 I think there will be certainly sides to the community saying we understand, we are sympathetic
01:22 because we know that this is a huge body of work. You know, four and a half years, more
01:27 than 10,000 stories heard at this Royal Commission. And so it's a huge body of work and there
01:32 are definitely going to be people who want the report from the Royal Commission to be
01:37 considered alongside another report, a review that has been recently done and handed down
01:42 into the National Disability Insurance Scheme. There will certainly be sections of the community
01:47 that want both of those considered and all of those recommendations considered alongside
01:52 each other before a response is handed down. And they will certainly want people with disability
01:57 to be at the centre of those consultations and that response.
02:01 But then there will be other sections of the community who say, well, this Disability Royal
02:05 Commission report was handed down in September. It's already been six months. And as it stands,
02:11 violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation is continuing to happen, particularly in closed
02:15 settings like group homes. And so change is needed. And for some, they'll say it's long
02:21 overdue and a response is needed.
02:23 And now just remind us of the huge body of work that the Royal Commission dared to undertake.
02:27 It certainly was a really big body of work. I mean, we're talking here about years of
02:33 listening to people's testimony in public hearings, private sessions, you know, 222
02:39 sessions after some of the most horrific stories over the last four and a half years. And so
02:43 it will be very interesting to see when and what that response is from the federal government.
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