From the Editor

Seizing the moment to advance disability rights

MICHAEL ESPOSITO, EDITOR

Law Society records suggest that this is the fi rst time The Bulletin has run an issue dedicated to disability and the law.

Not that the Society has necessarily shied away from this issue.

The Bulletin has covered disability related legal issues in editions that have carried themes such as “ageing”, “vulnerable people” or “human rights”.

But having an edition that explicitly focuses on disability feels like a signifi cant moment, and an overdue one.

As Natalie Wade points out in her article, the Disability Royal Commission is likely to signifi cantly advance the disability rights movement in Australia, not least because the sheer scale of the investigation and voluminous public accounts of violence, neglect, abuse and exploitation of people with disability has forced its way into the nation’s public consciousness to a degree that numerous previous inquiries have failed to do.

Disability discrimination can come in different forms, and it is not always explicit.

Mark Douglas, a profoundly blind barrister, knows what it feels like to be dismissed, under-estimated, overlooked.

In his article, he argues for consistent policies for disability access to courts, as well as formal policies and other mechanisms to support lawyers with a lived experience of disability.

For lawyers, and aspiring lawyers, with disability to be placed on an even footing with everyone else, to be given the same opportunities, more must be done to create an environment where disability is not viewed as an impediment.

As Mark writes: “Within the profession it denies access to the intellectual capabilities of some very bright people excluded because of a false inference about what they can and cannot do. It erodes diversity of experience. It deprives the community of a profession that refl ects its own composition.”

This edition also features important articles from authors who have dedicated years to their respective causes.

Peta Spyrou’s PhD examines the resolution mechanisms relating to challenging behaviour among secondary school students with disability. The different resolution pathways available are based on anti-discrimination laws, which in this context can help students with disability have the same access to education as their peers. Peta’s comprehensive research is likely to help students with disability and those in their support network navigate the resolution and redress process via the equal opportunity commission and other means.

Hannah March, South Australian Advocacy & Campaign Coordinator for the Justice Reform Initiative, demonstrates the discrepancies between the cost of incarcerating people, and the investment in community-based services for people with cognitive and psychosocial disability, and argues that greater investment in community services that are therapeutic and rehabilitative will reduce recidivism and enhance community safety.

The discrimination, abuse, neglect and ignorance of disability is still far too prevalent, but watershed events such as the Disability Royal Commission can profoundly change the way we think about and treat disability.

I hope we as a community can seize this momentum and do what we can to ensure that the spaces we inhabit be as inclusive, safe and enriching as possible. B

IN THIS ISSUE

LOCKED UP

Why jailing is failing people with disability

HELP FOR FIRE VICTIMS

Highlighting the work of the Bushfi re Community Legal Program

DUTIES WHEN MAKING WILLS

Lessons from Moloney v Hayward