Powerd NewsWrap 25th March 2026

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Welcome to a Vision Australia radio podcast. Love our podcasts. Why not listen to us live? Tune in anywhere, anytime, ask your smart device to play Vision Australia radio or visit va radio.org

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on the Vision Australia and reading radio networks. This is the Powerd newsrap.

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G'day, day. I'm Sam Rickard, it's the 25th of March, 2026 and where has this year gone? We're three months in. We are reading articles from the Powerd dot media website, and of course, joining me is the writer of these articles, G'day. Emma Myers, hello, Sam. So it's a nice, relaxing week for me, because next week I'm going on leave. What about yourself? I'm also going on leave. Now, dear listener, there's nothing at all suspicious about this at all. It's just a complete and utter coincidence. Anyway, we have two stories this week, one of them is on the surface, probably a little bit dry, and that is, there's been some funding increases approved, but there's a twist to this. Isn't there? Yes. So the funding for the IRC programs, which is the linkage and capacity building program, which funds community based projects to pretty much help the disability community with their best lives. And the good news about that, really, we have our own little reason for liking this is because one of those projects is, of course, Powerd dot media. Yes, the ILC grants do fund Powerd media a tad, and we're hoping that we can get some more money so we can keep bringing you our stories, and you can live the rock star life that you've become accustomed to. Of course. Oh yeah, definitely. That's that's all I live for, exactly, exactly. All right, well, we will go ahead on to the news with a favorite news reader of ours, Mike Scanlon Smith,

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many in the disability community would be interested in how the Albanese government will use a reported $90 million to improve the lives of people with disability. The federal government is investing $90 million into improving the overall lives of Australians with disability under the first phase of a revamped grant program, organizations nationwide will share funding from the information linkages and capacity building the ILC program, which funds community based projects to foster independence, connection and capacity building for individuals with disability, families and carers.

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Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Senator Jenny McAllister believes it is essential for the ILC program to reflect the genuine needs of the disability community. We want to make sure that people with disability and their families are empowered by a broad network of supports and services on the ground in their communities to ensure people with disability, particularly those not eligible for individual NDIS plans, are connected to mainstream community services. Up to $50 million will be split between 38 organizations as part of the new individual and family capacity building. The ifcb grant opportunity, according to the department of health, disability and aging website, a further 24 organizations will share up to $40 million through the information, advice and referral the IAR grant opportunity, which is proposed to help people with disability and their families access high quality targeted information on disability, including how to access relevant supports and services. And during the 2025 to 26 federal budget, the government stated its commitment to reforming the ILC program over the next five years, aiming at boosting the quality, consistency and reach of funded initiatives to better meet the needs of the disability community. The NDIS Minister claims more changes are on the way. This is just the first step in reforming the ILC program, more comprehensive changes and opportunities are to come later this year.

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So you may be wondering why we spell the name of the website. The way we do that is because P, O, W, E, R, E, D, dot. Media is a completely different website if you want Media Management.

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By all means, go to that website if you want us, go to P, O, W, E, R, D, dot media

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now back to the show.

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Calls for a dedicated, state based Human Rights Act are growing as more than 120 advocacy groups rallied outside of a New South Wales parliament yesterday to implore government officials to strengthen human rights protections, an alliance of legal and community organizations, religious bodies and trade unions protested the need to establish a public inquiry into the introduction of a Human Rights Act for New South Wales, arguing that the lack of one leaves residents with some of the weakest legal protection of their human rights anywhere in the western democratic world. The Europe Human Rights Act for New South Wales says New South Wales has fallen significantly behind other Australian states as well as Western countries in legally protecting fundamental rights. Chair of the Human Rights Act Alliance and vice president of Australian lawyers for human rights, Kerry West, argues that states like Victoria the act and Queensland are benefiting in concrete ways because they have a Human Rights Act that helps government officials to make fair and caring decisions. These laws, which have been operating successfully for decades, also support community focused policy development in areas like domestic violence, housing, education, aged care and health care. It's time for New South Wales to embrace the opportunity to learn from the experience in other jurisdictions through an inquiry into a Human Rights Act, Acting Chief Executive Officer of people with disability Australia, Megan Spindler Smith explains how the disability Royal Commission may have exposed the violence, abuse and neglect experienced by people with disability across Australia, yet the disability community in New South Wales still relies on a patchwork of laws that simply isn't strong enough to protect them too often, people with disability are still left behind in protections against violence, discrimination and hate. A Human Rights Act would create clear legal protections and give people with disability a pathway to challenge these systemic barriers that continue to drive violence, discrimination and exclusion. This week, the Legislative Assembly has an opportunity to refer the bill to an inquiry, something the New South Wales Labor government had explicitly committed to in 2024

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promising community consultation to better protect the human rights of New South Wales residents. The Alliance says this gap is increasingly difficult to justify, particularly given New South Wales labor promise to explore stronger human rights protections. According to Human Rights Act for New South Wales, an inquiry would offer the New South Wales community a chance to come together in a unifying conversation about returning dignity and power to everyday people and will help government officials to make decisions. Public support for reform is strong. Recent polling by Amnesty International Australia found that 76% of people in New South Wales supported introducing a Human Rights Act in the state back in January, over 120

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international countries urged the Australian government to improve its protection of human rights following United Nations Human Rights Council's review Australia's legal system. Australian Human Rights Commissioner President Hugh de kretzer, said the international community delivered consistent messages regarding the lack of human rights protections in Australia's democracy. As a wealthy, stable democracy, Australia should be leading the world on human rights.

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Powerd media, we'll keep you updated on this as the story progresses the

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Thank

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you. Mike. All right, so this seems to be something that pops up every second week or so the need for a Human Rights Act. Yeah. So, so this time, it's called for a Human Rights Act in New South Wales. Because, um, now I didn't actually know this, but apparently states like Victoria, the ltt and Queensland do have state where it's human rights acts, but states that gives New South Wales, they're all done. And New South Wales is the oldest state in the Union, as it were, so it's obviously deciding to just rely on common sense, which I think, as we know in the disability sector.

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Yeah, when it comes to disability, disability and common sense don't necessarily mix. It seems to be a lot more emotion than anything else. So, yeah, it's it is an interesting one. I mean, there was a lot of vague talk about, I mean, what positive effects would a Human Rights Act have, really? I mean, what's the difference between, say, crossing the border over to to Victoria the Human Rights Act for New South Wales would have an extraordinary impact, because it means that people have a law to back up their claim when they feel their rights to whatever their situation is being threatened. So at the moment, basically, we have a tapestry of laws that may cover someone's if someone's been offended against or something like that, whereas assumption, I suppose I'm trying, I'm sort of trying to pluck this out of human rights like for New South Wales will give residents a stronger backbone when it comes to challenging systemic barriers such as violence, discrimination and exclusion. But I mean, aren't there laws in place? I'm trying to try to be devil's advocate here. Aren't there any laws in place at the moment, at least federally as well. So we have the Disability Discrimination Act, and I think pretty sure there are discrimination acts within New South Wales as well that do cater these. So what, what is the I really have struggled to find the difference. Maybe they're not strong enough, and a Human Rights Act really brings the best bits of products together. And then builds on what's already in place. I know, again, to be Dale's advocate, the more things you actually do write down on paper, the more some lawyers can actually find ways around them. That's often the problem that I will would would see especially, I mean, where this is what we kind of do, seeing, at the moment, with the disability, Discrimination Act. So it's a complicated kind of thing there. And okay, one positive difference I probably can see between, say, New South Wales and Queensland, for example, is there do seem to be more people in Queensland with a disability being employed, as it were, and there does seem to be more of a backbone for complaining about disability discrimination there, and that witchcraft does mean, for example, that places like the Brisbane City Council do seem to have an actual policy towards hiring people with a disability. That's probably the only thing I can really sort of see there. But I think I'm not the only one that would be a little bit

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cautious in deciding whether this is a silver bullet or not. No. However, I did receive an update to this story after it was published in that a public inquiry into the establishment of a Human Rights Act for New South Wales is going to go ahead. So that's at least a positive way of ending things on and yep, we are about to come to the end of yet another program. As you're going to be on leave, we are going to be heading back into the studio in a very short time to provide a special April Fool's Day episode of The Powerd news rep. But in the meantime, what have we got to look forward to in the future? Well, for now, taxi drivers will be fined if they refuse a disabled person on basis that they want to use their taxi vouchers, and we are looking at a bit of a podcast, in a podcast, as it were, Bye, for now, bye.

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You can find these articles and more by going to Powerd spelt, P, O, W, E, R, D, dot media, along with the podcast of this show, the Powerd news wrap was brought to you by disability media Australia, and this show was produced by Sam Rickard in the Adelaide studios of Vision Australia radio.