Thank you for supporting this petition WE now have over 6000 signatures and aiming toward !0,000
The recent protest in Hyde park went very well and had good impact in the city in the lunch hour where many interested passerbyes stopped to talk- and I met some who worked in disabilities or for politicians who were most helpful. I am planning to run a series of protests to start lifting the profile of the vulnerable in disabilities who need protection and Justice...using the excuse of 'privacy' issues is not relevant anymore since there is no privacy in this society! Especially now with the tracking of everyone there are cameras everywhere in public. No one asks a little childcare kid if they want privacy to be hurt by one of their carers - they make sure there are cameras in day care to protect them!
When the disability providers hurt our children what are we to do? We have to pick ourselves up and fight for our innocent ones ...we must. #disabilitylivesmatteroz
Five days ago as reported by 9News a young adelaide man was allegedly assaulted by the carer, a 53year old who slapped him and pushed a pillow into his face three times, also leaving him restrained in his wheelchair. The only reason this was caught was due to the CCTV cameras catching it in his own home! The article by 9news notes the parents and the young man are both traumatized by this incident. Parents are heavily traumatized when anything happens to their children and after that live with the constant worry of what could happen next. Our vulnerable children with disabilities are innocents who cannot defend themselves or even speak up if they are non verbal. When your child is so vulnerable even as an adult there needs to be extra measures taken to protect them. This needs to be recognized by the federal government and Stuart Robert who has thus so far avoided bringing in any real protection for the vulnerable, whether intellectually impaired or physically or both. Meaning the vulnerable not Robert who appears to be intellectually blind to the needs of those he is paid to care for. Stuart Robert has not done enough to show protection and care, or punishment for the organizations which allow harm to occur and hide it easily. If there was some kind of justice and deterrence for assault on those who are vulnerable then the trauma could be alleviated somewhat for parents and the anxiety they have to live with everyday for their child.
At least in this case, the organization who employed the 53 year old woman worker were quick to report it to the police (Community Support)and the worker stood down. One wonders if there had been no cameras would they have reported it, and would anyone have listened if the parents complained? No probably not.
The police particularly it seems in NSW want to avoid even prosecution or investigation in my son's case where the worker walked away and they kept saying to me without cameras there is no crime, that was their mantra. Past research in South Australia showed that police never see a disability person as a credible witness and do not believe what disabilities persons or their families say in an incident.
As we See from the lastest stats in the news one or no prosecutions in Disabilities care after 8000 incidents of harm done to those receiving care or respite, and 32 prosecutions of workers and organizations in Children care for the 5000 incidents of harm to children. The disparity is great. WE need to change attitudes in society to value those with disabilities as human beings who should also have justice.
The police women who came to my house after I first went to them about the assault on my son said 'the organization is there to care for your son'
...as if I didnt know anything about disabilities and that a carer organization would never let anything bad happen. Maybe in a perfect world. This is not a perfect world. 8000 plus complaints of serious incidents made to the NDIS who only fined one, and did little to punish providers overall is a despicable situation.
This shows that those vulnerable with disabilities can be hurt by carers quite easily and with no CCTV cameras it is hidden and never dealt with or prosecuted where has occurred. Childcare organizations now mostly have CCTV in their buildings hence the higher amount of prosecutions and justice served.
Also noted in the 9News that Ndis quality commission would commence their investigation. Trully laugheable the quality commission does not investigate at all, they just listen to the provider and go to the providers side even when they have been complained to by the disability person. They smooth it over calm it down and generally do not punish the providers. Unless the evidence is staring them in the face. Like Ann Marie Smith the worker starving her and neglecting her to death was obvious. NDIS quality commission do little to stop abuse incidents and rarely punish the providers. They are merely a name to look like they are stopping abuse, reality however shows little action. Even when Merna Aprem died in care by drowning in care with Afford Disabilities, the police have not prosecuted anybody, perhaps the organization is covering up and lying like they all do to protect themselves when they fail to protect the vulnerable person in their care but how can the justice system let this go.
Disability Workers should be screened, and trained to do the right thing, and have ongoing training for complexities of those with disabilities just like a nurse has to train for her job. They should not be in it just for the money
You put untrained unaccountable people in a stressful job with the vulnerable, you put the vulnerable at risk and you get chaos. You get corruption. Especially if providers make alot of money and they do now with STuart Robert's NDIS greed and callousness - there is then often corruption out of greed. He turns his back on those who need help the very people he is meant to help.
Parents are on a back foot to protect their disability children from exploitation or abuse unless there is accountability. There must be more accountability by the workers and the organizations to do the right thing at present they can do what they like. If there is no accountability then crime can happen easily and no deterrence which is what the cameras would bring.
Recently a young mother has appealed to Stuart Robert to come and see what it is like to live with a child with a disability after she has been knocked back for a lighter wheelchair for her 6 year old who was not deemed to have disability enough to get a new wheelchair. How bad do you have to be?! She has autism and epilepsy as well as being in a wheel chair.
Mr STuart Robert needs to get out of his job of running NDIS if he doesnt even care what children or adults with disabilities need or their parents need in support. He shows no christian inclination of empathy or compassion despite his claims to christianity and is a shame and embarrassment to the christian ethic and religion. A man trained in military college who was a military officer in Kuwait one wonders what Scott Morrison was thinking when he put Robert in charge of NDIS particularly after being sacked twice for corruption. I guess they were just good mates. Go figure. Is there no accountability for politicians then? Do they always get away with hurting their own people? Lying stealing and cheating... Shame on both of them for ignoring the needs and suffering of the vulnerable and being co designers of the robo debt perhaps it is no surprise that money is all that matters to these two then.
With such nonchalant leaders and organizations who are wolves we must protect our vulnerable children...innocent as lambs... as best we can and make these wolves accountable for everything they do...
all the best
Anndrea Wheatley (Voice for the Vulnerable in Disabilities)