A couple of days ago, Australian investigative journalism television program Four Corners aired a story called Breaking Point. It covers some of recent Australian disability rights history, personal stories from many individuals and families, discussion of a proposed national disability support scheme, differences between the UK and Australian systems, all sorts of things. It’s rather long at the better part of an hour, but you may find it worth just dipping in, if only a little, particularly if you’re not familiar with disability rights in Australia.
From the program website:
The system of assistance for people with a disability in Australia is broken. Carers know it, charitable organisations know it and so do the governments. Now the federal government says something must be done. It’s holding an Inquiry, with the intention of creating a new and fairer system. It’s even considering a national disability insurance scheme. But will the system be reformed in time to save the families now at breaking point?
Here’s a transcript of the program.
Do check it out!
“The system of assistance for people with a disability in Australia is broken. Carers know it, charitable organisations know it and so do the governments.”
Interesting quotation. Guess who’s missing from that list?
Exactly.
yeah, i didn’t end up watching it all the way to the end, because the video froze (watched about the first 45 minutes) but the focus on severely disabled, non-verbal people almost made it seem ‘natural’ that they never once asked anyone with disabilities what they thought.