Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA)

Annual Report

September 2004 – September 2005

Winner Australian Human Rights Award 2001

Winner National Violence Prevention Award 1999

Nominee, French Republics Human Rights Prize 2003

Nominee, UN Millennium Peace Prize for Women 2000

This document was published by:

Winner Australian Human Rights Award 2001

Winner National Violence Prevention Award 1999

Nominee, French Republics Human Rights Prize 2003

Nominee, UN Millennium Peace Prize for Women 2000

PO Box 605, Rosny Park 7018 TAS

Ph: 03 62448288 Fax: 03 62448255

ABN: 23 627 650 121

Email:

Web: http://www.wwda.org.au

© Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA)

October 2005

This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced without written permission from Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA). All possible care has been taken in the preparation of the information contained in this document. WWDA expressly disclaims any liability for the accuracy and sufficiency of the information and under no circumstances shall be liable in negligence or otherwise in or arising out of the preparation or supply of any of the information aforesaid.

Contents

About Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) 4

WWDA President’s Report 5

WWDA Executive Director’s Report 7

WWDA Management Committee 2004-2005 18

WWDA Operational Funding Audit Certificate 22

Appendices 23

Media Coverage 23

WWDA Representation 2004-05 26

WWDA Feedback 28

About Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA)

Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) is the peak organisation for women with all types of disabilities in Australia. It is a federating body of individuals and networks in each State and Territory of Australia and is made up of women with disabilities and associated organisations. The national secretariat is located in Tasmania, the island State of Australia. WWDA is run by women with disabilities, for women with disabilities. It is the only organisation of its kind in Australia and one of only a very small number internationally. WWDA is inclusive and does not discriminate against any disability. WWDA seeks to ensure opportunities in all walks of life for all women with disabilities. In this it aims to increase awareness of, and address issues faced by, women with disabilities in the community. WWDA seeks to ensure the advancement of education of society to the status and needs of women with disabilities in order to promote equity, reduce suffering, poverty, discrimination and exploitation of women with disabilities. WWDA is unique, in that it operates as a national disability organisation; a national women's organisation; and a national human rights organisation.

WWDA addresses disability within a social model, which identifies the barriers and restrictions facing women with disabilities as the focus for reform. The aim of Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) is to be a national voice for the needs and rights of women with disabilities and a national force to improve the lives and life chances of women with disabilities. The objectives of Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) are:

·  to actively promote the participation of women with disabilities in all aspects of social, economic, political and cultural life;

·  to advocate on issues of concern to women with disabilities in Australia; and

·  to seek to be the national representative organisation for women with disabilities in Australia by: undertaking systemic advocacy; providing policy advice; undertaking research; and providing support, information and education.

WWDA is managed by a National Management Committee, which is elected each year at the Annual General Meeting. All members of the Management Committee are women with disabilities. WWDA has two paid staff members: an Executive Director, and a Business Manager. WWDA receives a small amount of operational funding annually from the Commonwealth Government, and is required to re-apply for funds each year.

More information about Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) can be found on WWDA's website at: www.wwda.org.au

/ WWDA President’s Report
By Annie Parkinson

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The WWDA year started for me in January, when I flew down to Tasmania to meet with WWDA staff in our national office in Hobart. I spent two days with Carolyn Frohmader, our Executive Director and Angela Court, our Business Manager, discussing what we had coming up for the year and assisting with the completing the Global Survey on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, the aim of which was to shed light on the progress that countries have made in the adoption and implementation of the Standard Rules and to find out what form that implementation has taken and to what extent.

This past year has thrown up a lot of areas for WWDA to make our presence felt in, some that are specific to women with disabilities, some that became part of our intervention in the mainstream political agenda such as examining Industrial Relations and Welfare to Work for the impact they may have on women living with a disability. We have continued to highlight the two areas that WWDA has been working on for some time, sterilisation and access to health screening services for women who have disabilities. As a consequence of WWDA’s paper on enforced sterilisation, presented at the Disabled People’s International (DPI) Summit in Winnipeg last year by Leanne Dowse, DPI, which is part of the United Nations, has included as one of their reforms to work towards, an end to the sterilisation of minors with disabilities. No sterilisation for minors is a position also supported by the NSW Attorney-General although other State/Territory Attorney’s General do not appear to support this position.

The difficulty that women across a whole spectrum of disabilities experience in gaining access to cervical and breast screening has been raised by WWDA in many forums, ranging from the Australian Women’s Health Network in Melbourne in April to the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) Round Tables this year in Sydney. The second of these HREOC consultations brought together representatives of the disability movement and the Royal College of Australasian General Practitioners, where a range of issues facing people with disabilities and women with disabilities in particular, were discussed. We hear that BreastScreen Australia has taken on the physical access issues our members have raised in these forums and are attempting to make their premises physically accessible for all women seeking mammograms.

In the last few months, politics on the broader national agenda have taken our attention, particularly the mooted Industrial Relations and Welfare-to-Work proposals. We feel a strong concern that women with disabilities will be most severely affected by the proposed changes, given the double whammy of the existing structural difficulties that exist for women with disability entering and staying in the paid workforce and the punitive approach loaded with disincentives of the Welfare-to Work program. This has been backed up by the independent analysis done by the National Centre for Social & Economic Modelling (NATSEM) which demonstrated that sole parents and women with disabilities will be the most financially disadvantaged from the proposed changes.

I was able to join with women representing the three national women’s secretariats to meet with Kevin Andrews (Minister for Employment & Workplace Relations) and express our concerns about the difficulties that women face moving out of welfare and into work. Our Industrial Relations spokesperson Sue Salthouse has done some very detailed work on the question of how both sets of proposals will affect women with disabilities and more detail on this is provided later in this Report.

Reflecting on the focus that WWDA has maintained this year, I feel very pleased with one aspect of it in particular. Our strategic plan stresses the need for us to develop our links with other women’s groups as well as maintain the links we have in the disability field. In the past we’ve struggled to make those connections in anything but a tenuous way. In the last few months though we’ve had a strong involvement in the women’s secretariat’s campaign in Industrial Relations. The three secretariats involved are Womenspeak, auspiced by the YWCA, the Australian Women’s Coalition and Security4Women which is auspiced by the Business and Professional Women (Australia). There are over 60 women’s groups affiliated with these secretariats Contact with these women’s groups should be very helpful in raising the profile of Women with Disabilities Australia (WWDA) to members of other women’s groups across the country.

I would like to thank the other members of the WWDA Management Committee for all their contributions during the year and as always, thank Carolyn and Angela for their hard work, as always, above and beyond the call of duty. I would like also to thank the many WWDA members who have undertaken representative work on behalf on WWDA and who have contributed to the work of our organization.

/ WWDA Executive Director’s Report
By Carolyn Frohmader

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Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) has had yet another hectic and demanding year and despite our small amount of resources, has achieved a number of significant outcomes over the past 12 months. We have been particularly active and successful in our systemic advocacy work, most notably in the area of the Federal Government’s welfare to work policies and industrial relations reforms.

As Executive Director, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Annie Parkinson, WWDA’s President, for her hard work in this role over the past year. Thanks too, to Sam Jenkinson for her support in the role as WWDA’s Vice President. My thanks go to the WWDA Management Committee members for your efforts over the past year, particularly for your support during my leave in August following the death of my mother. I would like also to acknowledge those WWDA members who have undertaken representative work on behalf of WWDA over the past year. I would like to give particular acknowledgment to Sue Salthouse for the invaluable work she has given to WWDA over the past year, specifically her work on the welfare to work and industrial relations reforms. And finally, a big thank you to Angela Court, who has worked tirelessly and diligently in the WWDA Office, and acted in my role during my leave.

The following report gives a brief synopsis of WWDA’s performance over the past 12 months, under the categories: Advice to Australian Government on Policy and Service Delivery; Consultation, Representation and Networking; Community Information, Awareness Raising and Education; and Corporate Governance. These categories are consistent with the outcome requirements within WWDA’s funding contract with the Commonwealth Department of Family & Community Services (FaCS).

1. Advice to Australian Government on Policy and Service Delivery

WWDA has provided significant input to a number of government, non-government and industry processes, reviews, inquiries, and consultations during the past 12 months. At a Federal Government level, WWDA’s formal submissions have focused on the major areas of employment, welfare reform, industrial relations reforms, and the evaluation of the Commonwealth Disability Strategy. These submissions have informed inquiries undertaken by the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC); the Commonwealth Department of Family & Community Services (FaCS) and the Commonwealth Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR).

WWDA made a considerable contribution to the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) National Inquiry into Employment and Disability, which commenced in early 2005. In March 2005, WWDA President Annie Parkinson, attended a National Roundtable conducted by HREOC, which formed part of the Inquiry. The aim of the Roundtable was to identify the barriers facing people with disabilities in employment, and also to canvass ideas about practical initiatives and potential solutions to further employment opportunity of people with a disability.

WWDA also contributed a written submission to the Inquiry, which was developed in consultation with WWDA members. The Submission examined the available data relating to gender, disability and employment and detailed the barriers that women with disabilities face when seeking to participate in the labour market. WWDA's Submission identified a number of specific strategies required to address the barriers facing women with disabilities in seeking, finding and maintaining employment. WWDA's Submission makes a number of clear recommendations and strongly argued that any strategies which look to the principles of 'mutual obligation, self-reliance and early intervention' require a clear sense of the reality of the situations that women with disabilities face, and a commitment to addressing the barriers that stand in the way of them participating in the labour market. (A copy of WWDA’s Submission to the National Inquiry is available from WWDA’s website. Go to: http://www.wwda.org.au/employsub2.htm

During the past year, WWDA has also sought out opportunities to provide input to a range of State/Territory Government Policy Reviews relevant to women with disabilities. Policy areas addressed have included reproductive health; parenting; women’s services and disability services provision. All WWDA submissions are routinely provided to WWDA members and every politician in Australia (via email). Hard copies are also provided to relevant stakeholders, including the Minister for Family & Community Services (FaCS); WWDA’s funding body; and other Government Ministers and Departments as appropriate. WWDA Submissions are also widely disseminated and are made available on the WWDA website.

At a national level, WWDA’s leadership and systemic advocacy in relation to employment, welfare reform and industrial relations reforms has had significant impact and has received extensive media coverage (Examples of media coverage is attached in Appendix 1). WWDA has joined the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) in spearheading the ‘What Women Want’ Campaign, which involved more than 60 national women’s organizations. WWDA’s targeted advocacy and a strategic fund raising campaign, resulted in the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) being engaged to undertake research into the impact of the Federal Government’s proposed welfare to work measures as they impact on people with disabilities. The NATSEM research analysed the distributional impact of the proposed changes upon the disposable incomes and effective marginal tax rates of those affected. Amongst the may detrimental effects which will result, it showed that the disposable incomes of people with disabilities can be up to about $120 a week lower under the proposed new system than under the current system. It also found that effective marginal tax rates will be sharply increased, ranging up to 75%, under the proposed new system, over a reasonably wide range of earned income.