WITH workplaces looking to become more equal and inclusive, Australia is still lagging behind other countries when it comes to employing people with disability.
The figures have not improved on the 2022 National Disability Service workforce census, which included new questions about the employment of staff with disability.
A gulf exists between the employment rates of working-aged Australians with and without disability.
The gap in Australia is 32 per cent, much higher than countries such as Sweden (9.5%), Finland (12.4%), France (9.9%) and Italy (13.3%).
University of Sydney research indicated many Australian disability services did not include people with lived experience of disability among their workforce.
Almost a quarter of the 288 disability services surveyed said they did not employ anyone with disability.
Further, only 24 per cent of the organisations said they had someone with disability on their board.
Even fewer organisations (19%) employed people with disability in management positions.
The NDIS Workforce Capability Framework, rolled out last year, along with the NDIS National Workforce Plan: 2021–2025 both recommended employing more people with disability.
However, both national polices were limited to “soft statements” rather than the steps required to achieve this goal. For example, the NDIS National Workforce Plan recommends educators promote the demand for disability service workers.
This might encourage job seekers with disability to apply, but these kinds of indirect policy approaches relied on the goodwill of the disability services sector.
Within the disability services sector, lived experience should be valued as a key capability and the National Workforce Plan should be forthright in actions to harness the skills, knowledge and experience of people with disability for roles across the sector.
Quotas throughout legislation were aligned with the concept of “affirmative action”, which aims to achieve equality for groups of people who have historically experienced discrimination, especially in areas such as employment and education.
Alternatively, service providers who currently receive National Disability Insurance Scheme funding could be registered with a condition that requires compliance with disability employment quotas.
