The Allan Labor Government has embarrassingly withdrawn a Bill introduced into Parliament more than a year ago to merge key functions of the existing disability complaints process into a bigger, more cumbersome Social Services Regulator (SSR).
Labor, without widespread consultation of the disability sector, planned to merge the Disability Complaints Commissioner into the SSR – and also flagged the intention to do the same with the Victorian Disability Worker Commissioner and Disability Worker Registration Board of Victoria “within the next two years”.
It is a humiliating backflip from Minister Lizzie Blandthorn, who has pulled the legislation without outlining what her plans for the future structure are.
Shadow Minister for Disability, Ageing, Carers and Volunteers, Tim Bull, said the disability sector did not want the merger and now needed urgent answers on the path forward.
“Despite claims from more than 20 disability sector groups at the time that they had not been consulted, and their clear preference for a stand-alone complaints service as supported by the Disability Royal Commission, the Minister dismissed these concerns and forged on, stating it would ‘strengthen safeguards’,” Mr Bull said.
“She then went further, claiming it was not the wish of the wider sector to have an independent regulator. This riled a number of disability groups that had not been consulted, quoting the Minister’s own slogan being ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’.
“The bottom line is you cannot have this slogan and then fail to follow through with it,” said Mr Bull.
