Opening Remarks - Disability Discrimination Lawyers Workshop held in Sydney
I join in the welcome to this Workshop. I greatly appreciate your willingness to attend and give us the benefit of your knowledge of and experience with the legal system as it affects – both positively and negatively – people with disability.
Being lawyers I am confident that you have scrutinised the terms of reference intimately and, as the High Court would say (mixing its metaphors) with an eye finely attuned to error. You will have observed that the terms of reference are very broad indeed. All Commissioners are conscious that the task confronting us is formidable and that we have a very heavy responsibility to discharge.
The terms of reference require the Commission to focus on the experiences of people with disability, especially their experiences of violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect in their many different forms. The Commission intends to place people with disability at the forefront of its activities – their stories will be central to informing the Commission on the policy issues that will need to be considered.
But the Commission also needs help from other people who are intimately familiar with the obstacles faced on a daily basis by people with disability in securing basic rights and enjoying the opportunities that people without disability take for granted. People in this room – from community legal centres, legal aid agencies, public interest centres, law firms providing pro bono services and advocacy groups – are very well placed to offer us advice on the issues to which we should give priorities and the policies we should ultimately endorse. We need your help in carrying out our responsibilities in a manner that will actually make a substantial difference, not only to the legal entitlements of people with disability but to the quality of life and opportunities for fulfilment they enjoy in this country.
On a personal note I am particularly pleased to participate in a Workshop attended by providers of legal services to people with disability. A mere 44 years ago, as part of the Australian Government Commission of Inquiry into Poverty, I presented the Law and Poverty Report to the Government. The report recommended, among many other proposals, a large-scale expansion of legal aid including the establishment of a network of community-based centres.
At the time of the Poverty Commission report there was really only one community legal centre – the Fitzroy Legal Service. By the time the Access to Justice Advisory Committee (which I chaired) reported in 1994 the Commonwealth was funding 91 CLCs either jointly or with a State. Another 35 CLCs operated without Commonwealth funding. The numbers of CLCs have increased since then but as you know very well the ever present difficulty of securing adequate funding has not diminished.
Your presence today is a recognition of the very great contribution made by legal aid lawyers, volunteers and the legal profession in general to protecting the rights of people with disability and maintaining the rule of law in this country.