Unknown Speaker 0:00
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, on
Unknown Speaker 0:21
Vision Australia radio and reading radio networks. This is the Powerd news, rap,
Unknown Speaker 0:30
G'day. I'm Sam rigard, it's the eighth of October, and we're presenting articles from the Powerd Media website. Joining me, as per normal, is Emma Myers, you haven't really left really, have you? It's, it's as if you've always been around. It's as if I've been sitting in the same chair for my entire life. Yeah, exactly.
Unknown Speaker 0:52
All right. So, so we're beginning with a topic that I suppose a lot of us might not necessarily like to think about, and that is people with a disability in the prison system? Yeah. I mean, we know that the majority of society doesn't understand disability if they haven't been exposed to it. So this this issue is only exacerbated when law enforcement are confronted with someone doing the wrong thing, who may not know they're doing the wrong thing, or who may know that they're doing the wrong thing, but they also have a disability. Yeah, I mean, there's a two fold thing there, really. I mean, one is it's learning to deal with people with people with a disability, and that wouldn't be necessarily something necessarily law enforcement officers would really understand, because they're not necessarily trained for that kind of thing, but also it's how people actually deal with the law and also the corrections system. Yeah, Sam, and especially those who are under the age of 18 and living with a disability. It really comes down to systemic issues which is so ingrained in our society, which can often lead to the over representation of people with disability ending up in detention. Also, people with a disability can be from any socio economic group, we have the same issues as everybody else, but often things are magnified. So if you have a disability and you come from a poor background, then yes, you're going to probably come up against the justice system at some stage, just because, well, all your friends are doing the same thing. That's kind of the way I sort of see it. And I've actually seen that happen in Darwin. Yeah, and you wrote Sam, and how many times have we talked about disability and intersectionality? It's just we're not just part of a single minority cohort. We can be part of cohorts across the board. And the reality is, it's often not about the person with disability being the issue, but rather systemic government failings
Unknown Speaker 3:14
that have pretty much forced them to end up in this situation. So again, something we should be keeping an eye out on. And now to shake things up a little bit, we have two news readers, Ron sedecki and Nanette Hancock over to you. Nanette,
Unknown Speaker 3:35
thank you, Sam, this is a growing concern about the overwhelming number of children and young people with disability serving time in Australia's youth detention centers where they're faced with additional charges, which can lead to further vulnerability, according to the National Legal Aid Powerd media sat down with the AC T's children and young people's Commissioner Jodie Griffiths cook to discuss how systematic issues can often lead to over presentation of young people with disabilities in youth detention, the kids with disability who are our youth detention systems are often there because of compounding intergenerational challenges that haven't been adequately dealt With. Commissioner Griffiths cook argues, intergenerational challenges like trauma, poverty and lack of educational and parenting support can make children increasingly vulnerable to exploitation and eventual contact with youth justice system. She believes youth involvement in the justice system, especially for young people with disability, is often not just about them being the issue, but rather a reflection of government systems failing to provide adequate and timely support for them and their families. A 2023
Unknown Speaker 4:51
study by the Bureau of crime statistics and research B, O, C, A, sar, compared with the.
Unknown Speaker 5:00
Activity of approximately 13,302
Unknown Speaker 5:03
young people with disability born in New South Wales between 1997 to 2000 to those of young people without disability, although just over eight in 10 young people with disability did not offend before the age of 18, they are vastly over presented in the youth justice system, according to the Bureau of crime statistics and research Commissioner Griffiths cook explains, accessible supports, such as the public advocate liaison pal role piloted by her office In 2025
Unknown Speaker 5:39
are invaluable in helping people with a disability navigate the justice system. The government has subscribed to Disability Justice strategy to ideally reduce the number of people with disability who inadvertently find themselves caught within the Justice space by working directly with people with disability at the point of initial contact with the courts. Supports like pal enable more effective solutions that improve outcomes for court users while also reducing costs for the justice system itself. Commissioner Griffiths cook also points to the strategies like the intermediary program, which allows police or courts to request an intermediary to help a vulnerable person such as someone with a disability, give their best evidence or get a fair trial. This can involve communication support or advising the court to slow down proceedings or take regular breaks. According to the AC T Human Rights Commission, the ACT children and young people's Commissioner, believe systems like the public advocacy liaison and the intermediary program improve judicial outcomes for people with disability. Mechanisms like these are very useful in terms of reducing risks to people in justice system, and in particular, reducing the risk of people being criminalized off the back of simply having a disability or a mental health concern.
Unknown Speaker 7:16
Like most Australians, many in the disability community are living with the consequences of climate change. However, those with disability are often faced with higher rates of CO morbidity as a direct result of rising temperatures, according to the recently released national adaptation plan,
Unknown Speaker 7:34
as a survivor of the 2003 Canberra bush fires Eve Brennan understands how difficult it can be to manage additional health challenges. Ms Brennan, who has joint Hypermobility syndrome and PTSD, is an environmental educator with a master's in environmental science. Ms Brennan argues that climate change poses a significant risk to people with disability, pointing out that they already experience marginalization and exclusion from society, which in turn heightens the risk of not having support
Unknown Speaker 8:08
under climate change. Where communities are exposed, it's often disabled people that get left behind and fall through the cracks when those stresses are placed upon communities, says ms e Brennan, the environmental advocate, explains how the risk from climate related disasters is set to increase to moderate to high by 2050 affecting accesses to healthcare facilities, support systems and other government services. What we need to think about is things like crop failure in terms of both food and access to nutritious food, which is a struggle for a lot of disabled people, the educator claims also for pharmaceutical crops, those disruptions are going to impact supply, how people can access medicine, and whether or not they can get the medicine they need. Ms Brennan is urging the federal government and peak bodies to actively consult with the disability community. She argues that people with disability can produce solutions that will benefit all Australians, but only if all parties work together.
Unknown Speaker 9:08
A spokesperson for the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Josh Wilson says the government's national adaptation plan sets a framework for coordinated adaptation that strengthens resilience and health, housing and social support system, the national adaptation plan prioritizes inclusive, place based action to support communities disproportionately vulnerable to climate impacts, including people with disability. However, Ms Brennan argues that the disability community should be viewed as more than simply vulnerable members of society. There's a lot of talk about vulnerability, but disabled people are incredibly adaptive, strong and resilient. She says, We have schools that are incredibly useful in the challenge of climate adaptation.
Unknown Speaker 9:55
Powerd media also heard from a spokesperson for the Minister of emergency management, Christy Mead.
Unknown Speaker 10:00
Bain, who says the disability inclusive Emergency Management dim project, which provides nationally consistent guidance to support emergency planners in integrating disability inclusion in emergency planning will address the heightened risk that people with disability face in emergencies by ensuring they play an integral part in the conversation about disaster risk and planning for emergencies, we can build a resilient society where everyone is empowered and protected, they say. Now back to Emma and Sam.
Unknown Speaker 10:33
Thank you, Ron. All right, so this is the second week we've talked about climate change, and what new insights have we got from this week's article? Yeah, so last week, we talked about how the federal government had released the national climate change risk assessment, but also a national adaptation plan to combat those risks and to really shore up the various future and so I sat down with an environmental educator who specializes in climate change and mobility, specifically how climate change affects those living with a disability. So what sort of insights did you get from that. Well, the thing is, it's an insight, but it's an insight that so many of us already have knowledge of, in that it's often people with disabilities that get left behind or fall through the cracks when natural disasters take place. A Brandon, who is the expert I spoke with, explained how disasters are set to increase, which could affect access to health care and food, which could be detrimental to those living with disability, especially if you're in, say, a rural area or something like that, because, I mean, you're isolated to start out with. So yes, I mean, if you've got places that are subject to flooding or fire or something like that, then your services are gone as well. So that's the local NDIS office or Centrelink office, or just the shop where you go to, not that this was in the article and but we saw this last week with the Optus outage. Oh yes, three people died because they couldn't get in touch to services. Now that we don't know whether those people had disability or not, but just imagine if they did. We are going slightly off topic on this with this one, but there are other numbers to call. But when you are in an emergency, you're not going to remember those numbers, are you? So yes, what kind of struck me with that one as well? And yeah, well, that's still a developing story, and I suspect that the people that were affected were, well, there was an elderly lady and a young could have been on life support, young baby, but, yeah, that's a bit of a bit of a worry there. And that's, again, another developing story in the saga of climate change. We have a course once more run out of time, but so that is a wrap for this rap. What are you working on for the future? Well, I'm working on a story about inadequate childcare for kids with profound disability, and that could be quite a worry, because that would force some parents to spend more time at home when they probably need a break from it all. Anyway, anyway, that is all so Bye, for now, bye.
Unknown Speaker 13:50
You can find these articles and more by going to Powerd, spelled P, O, W, E, R, D, dot media, along with the podcast of the show, the Powerd news rep was brought to you by disability media Australia. This show was produced by Sam Rickard in the Adelaide studios of Vision Australia radio.
Unknown Speaker 14:13
Sam.
