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FIRST PEOPLES DISABILITY NETWORK AUSTRALIA IS PROUD TO BE A MEMBER OF THE COALITION OF PEAKS

FPDN has been advocating for many years with Federal and State Governments alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander National Peak organisations for disability to be included as a Closing the Gap target.

Disability is not just a health issue, it is prevalent under all existing Closing the Gap target areas: families, children and youth, housing, justice, including youth justice, health, economic development, culture and language, education, healing, and eliminating racism and systemic discrimination.

WHAT IS THE COALITION OF PEAKS?

FPDN is a member of the Coalition of Peaks, a National representative body made up of around fifty Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and members who have signed a National Agreement with Governments to work together in shared decision making on improving the life outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through Closing the Gap.

The Coalition of Peaks came together to change the way Australian governments work with our people. As community-controlled organisations, the Coalition of Peaks work for and are accountable to our communities, not governments. We share a belief that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should have a meaningful say on policies and programs that impact on us through formal partnerships with Australian governments at all levels.

The Coalition of Peaks together with Australian governments have signed the new National Agreement on Closing the Gap (National Agreement). The National Agreement has been built around what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people said is important to improve their lives. The National Agreement is available here

The National Agreement is being built around four “Priority Reforms” to change the way governments work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, organisations and people across the country to accelerate improvements in Closing the Gap.

The Priority Reforms have arisen from the Partnership between Australian governments and the Coalition of Peaks; they respond to the voices and aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; and were overwhelming supported during the formal engagements in 2019.

Each Priority Reform has its target and indicators and they are available here.

The Priority Reforms also protect and support the strengthening of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures through:

  • Ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander own governance and decision-making structures are supported.
  • Recognising community-controlled organisations are an act of self-determination where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people deliver services to their communities based on our own needs, cultures and relationship to land.
  • Confronting institutionalised racism in government mainstream institutions and agencies to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can access the services they need in a culturally safe way.
  • Sharing data and information with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have more power to determine their own development.

In addition to the Priority Reforms targets, the National Agreement establishes 17 socio-economic targets to help bring focus to new areas and help monitor progress in improvements in the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Read more about the 17 socio-economic targets here

FPDN is also a member of the NSW Coalition of Aboriginal Peak Organisation (CAPO NSW). You can read more about the work of CAPO NSW here

Disabled People’s Organisations Australia
(DPO Australia)

Disabled People’s Organisations Australia (DPO Australia) is an alliance of four national Disabled Peoples Organisations (DPOs) in Australia. DPOs are organisations that are led by and made up of people with disability.

DPO Australia promotes and advances the human rights and freedoms of all people with disability in Australia by working together on areas of shared interests, strategic priorities and opportunities. Our work is grounded in a human rights framework that recognises the United Nations human rights conventions and related mechanisms as fundamental tools for advancing the rights of people with disability.

The four national DPOs that make up DPO Australia have been funded by the Australia Government to represent the views of people with disability, to advocate for systemic change to improve the lives of people with disability and to provide advice to Government/s and other stakeholders.

In our work we seek to:
  1. promote and protect the human rights and dignity of all people with disability
  2. represent and promote an understanding of the diversity of people with disability
  3. promote and support the active participation of people with disability in decision-making processes and all aspects of community life
  4. foster strategic partnerships with other disability and human rights organisations and groups
  5. foster co-operative and respectful relationships with all levels of government
FPDN is a founding member of DPO Australia. The other founding member organisations are these national peak bodies:

Visit DPO Australiaís website here.
Find out more about DPOs and terminology here

FPDN is a proud member of the Change the Record Coalition
What is Change the Record?

Change the Record has released a blueprint for change –
a concrete plan for Federal, State and Territory governments to change the record on the soaring Aboriginal imprisonment rates and high levels of experienced violence.

We need a new approach, which focuses on greater investment in early intervention, prevention and diversion strategies.

These are smarter solutions that increase safety, address the root causes of violence against women, cut reoffending and imprisonment rates, and build stronger and safer communities. On Monday 30th November 2015, the Change the Record Coalition launched a ‘Blueprint for Change’, This is the first time a broad range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous organisations have come together with a concrete plan for Federal, State and Territory Governments to change the record on soaring Aboriginal imprisonment rates and high levels of experienced violence. The Blueprint calls for a whole of government strategy, the setting of justice targets, and a commitment to work in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, their organisations and representatives to drive solutions.

Many of the solutions are already there. Now we need to make it happen, and do so in a way that empowers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, communities and services to drive these solutions.

Learn more by downloading the Change the Record campaign’s Blueprint for Change.

Join the movement to Change the Record and take the pledge here

join the movement

NDIS Independent Assessments

The NDIS wants to change how people with disability get access to the essential supports we need. Instead of getting reports from your doctor or specialist, people with disability will have a person they don’t know put them through some tests that will say how disabled they are. FPDN believes that this is going to make access to the NDIS harder for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability than it already is.

We are part of the campaign from many disability advocacy groups to stop these independent assessments and to make the NDIS work for our community.

FPDN’s CEO Damian Griffis gave evidence to a Parliamentary Committee that is looking at this. He said:

“The specific needs of our people with disability require direct consultation with us, not a mainstream one-size-fits-all process. As you would know, many of our people with disability live in remote communities and they have a very different set of needs than many other Australians with disabilities.”

“Do they really understand the lived experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in regional and remote Australia? Do they know, for example, that some of our people with disability live in unsafe housing, don’t have access to clean and consistent water supply, have no means of moving around their communities and don’t speak English as a first language? Do they have that understanding? Do they know that there is often—as many committee members would know—a deep distrust between government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people when people engage? That’s based on historical realities.”

“You have to understand the lived experience. You have to understand that, in regional and remote parts of Australia, as many committee members would know, a lot of our people face challenges that are non-existent in other parts of the country. So I don’t have any confidence whatsoever.”

We want the NDIS to:

  • Stop the independent assessments trial
  • Consult specifically with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability about the risk for our community
  • Address the broader issues about access to the NDIS for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability through a genuine co-design process with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability.

Get involved and have your say through the Every Australian Counts website.

HAVE YOUR SAY