29 April 2021

The Disability Royal Commission will hold a one day hearing on 17 May 2021 to assess how the Australian Government has managed the vaccination of people with
disability and disability support workers.

Background

On 26 November 2020, the Royal Commission shared a report with the Governor General on the experiences of people with disability during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report found that the Australian Government did not properly address the needs of people with disability during the early stages of the pandemic.

It also made 22 recommendations and suggested that people with disability be consulted when addressing their access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

A vaccine is now available.

On 9 February 2021 the Royal Commission issued a statement to welcome the release of Australia’s ‘COVID-19 vaccine strategy’ and the Morrison Government’s decision to give priority to:

• Disability care residents and disability care staff (Phase 1a)
• Younger adults with a disability (Phase 1b)

This week, the Morrison Government announced that it supports 21 of the 22 recommendations from the report on Public hearing 5 and takes note of one recommendation. This included recommendations in the report addressing access to a COVID-19 vaccine by people with disability and disability support workers when one becomes available.

The Disability Royal Commission welcomes this response. However, it is important to remember that during the early stages of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, disability advocacy groups, people with disability and service providers expressed deep concern about the low numbers of people with disability and disability support workers who have been vaccinated and the lack of information about implementation of the rollout.

Those concerns have been reported in the media and have been shared directly with the Royal Commission.

The concerns suggest that the rollout may not have included the priorities announced in the COVID 19 vaccine strategy or met the expectations of people with disability.

These are matters that the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out for people with disability hearing will investigate.

The public will not be able to attend the hearing room. However, the hearing will be live streamed on the Royal Commission website.