Campaign for Disability Vilification Legislation in Australia

*** URGENT PETTITION!! SIGNATURES SOUGHT BEFORE 21ST DEC 2012 ***

Dear Australian Citizen

Thank you for visiting this important Australian human rights petition webpage. This is a call to arms. This urgent, nationally significant and historic disability activism campaign cordially requests electronic “signatures” from all Australian citizens to redress a fundamental gap in the human rights of Australians living with a disability (physical, neurological, mental and psychological). The campaign seeks to strengthen the national disability discrimination act by adding a provision that legally prohibits disability vilification i.e. outlawing public acts of hatred towards a person because of that person’s disability. Signatures are required NOW (before 21st Dec 2012) as there is a very small window of opportunity to convince the leaders of our great nation to effect the change that hundreds of thousands of Australians with a disability are screaming out for and even more are silent over because they rely on their parents and disability advocates and activists (they don’t have a voice, often literally). Various anti-discrimination legislations for specific attributes (race, age, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion.) have recently been revised by the Federal Attorney General's Dept. and are going to be consolidated/harmonised into a single discrimination Act (i.e. a law that prohibits various types of discrimination) in 2013. Firstly the anti-discrimination Bill, derived from an exposure draft (see www.ag.gov.au/antidiscrimination for a copy) that is now available to the public and invites submissions, will be approved - currently this Bill OMITS disability vilification; the Attorney General's Department has recently assessed that it is okay for the absence of a national legal deterrent for disability vilification to remain (for at least a decade+). As well as gradually eroding the prevalence of disability vilification and then ultimately relegating it to the history books, the sought legal protection should significantly raise the respect and dignity for this large and growing group of Australians that historically. This campaign is not about pity or seeking attention. It’s not about equality either. It’s about being fair towards people that have been born with or have acquired an impairment that can serioualy affect their lives. It’s about recognising that expressing or condoning hatred of a person based on nothing but their disability is not okay. Disability vilification should be regarded as unAustralian – are most Australians really tolerant of or apathetic towards this blemish on society? Please help reverse the disability vilification omission in the exposure draft legislation. There is nothing to lose from a successful campaign, except perhaps the ability to continue to engage in free expressions of hate towards our most vulnerable and disadvantaged Australians. Ask yourself, is hate speech free speech or is it not that simple? For more information on this campaign, please keep reading below. Otherwise, please sign the petition ASAP and consider sharing the petition URL throughout your social networks to help gather more signatures and promote the campaign.

Thank you

*** More details on the Campaign ***

In crime and law, hate crimes (also known as vilification or bias-motivated crimes) occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, sex, or gender identity. Many western countries have a disability hate crime provision in their national discrimination legislation.

People with disability in Australia, however, are currently not legally protected against vilification with the exception of those living in the state of Tasmania where disability vilification is considered prohibited conduct. The Tasmanian Office of the Anti-Discrimination Commission states that “A person (or organisation), by a public act, must not incite hatred towards, serious contempt for, or severe ridicule of, a person or a group of persons on the grounds of race, disability, sexual orientation or lawful sexual activity, religious belief or affiliation or religious activity”. Other states protect many other attributes against vilification. In NSW, it is generally against the law to vilify people because of their: race, colour, nationality, descent, ethnic, ethno-religious or national origin; homosexuality (lesbian or gay); HIV or AIDS status; or transgender status. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability requires State Parties to protect against all forms of discrimination against people with disability.

Evidence of disability hate crime in Australia is rampant, but it does not make it to the mainstream media almost always. Most disability hate crime does not get reported either because of the perceived futility of reporting or because the victim cannot physically report it. Disability hate crimes are being committed by people working in disability institutions. Disability hate crime can be subtle. For example, there does not need to be violence or physical abuse involved. It can done using words of hate which cause deep enduring pain and damage. Ask yourself, what is more important as a peaceful and progressive society: Freedom of expression or freedom from hatred aimed at a deficit in a person's impairment that will harm and degrade the victim and in turn corrode the worth and identity of the community as a whole?

Governments of Australia have previously considered adding a disability vilification provision to discrimination law. For instance, in 2011 the NSW Government advised in writing that the principle of freedom of speech and a perceived lack of justification were cited reasons for its exclusion remaining. This seems nonsensical when one considers the existence of national racial vilification legislation.

In October 2012, the federal Attorney General advised in writing that the Commonwealth Government that a disability vilification provision in national anti-discrimination law will be omitted from its exposure draft legislation. The exposure draft, which is part of the Australian Human Rights Framework and underwent public consultation in 2012, seeks to “harmonise and consolidate Commonwealth anti-discrimination laws to remove unnecessary regulatory overlap, address inconsistencies across laws and make the system more user-friendly”. This omission will remain in the final Bill that proposes anti discrimination law until it finally is will be permanently excluded from Australian law for decades when the anti-discrimination bill is converted into law next year. Australians who care about the human rights of people with disability can now rise up and protest against this omission now. The exposure draft was released to the Australian public in the late November 2012. The draft of has now been referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs for inquiry and report.  The reporting date is 18 February 2013 and the Committee is currently seeking written submissions from interested Australian individuals and organisations. The deadline for submissions is 21 December 2012. For more information on this public consultation process, see the Senate Committee’s website: http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate_Committees?url=legcon_ctte/anti_discrimination_2012/info.htm

Along with submissions, a strong petition can send a galvanised and resonating message to both our elected parliamentarians and the Committee that omitting disability vilification from national anti-discrimination law is fundamentally wrong.

Please sign this petition and also consider sharing the petition URL with your family and friends throughout your social networks.

Respectfully yours,
Disability Advocates and Activists of Australia