As the world marks UN International Day of People with Disability, Federal Minister Alan Tudge said Australia’s performance on the employment of people with disabilities needs improving.
Despite being a wealthy country, Australia performs poorly in international rankings for employment for people with disability.
Australia ranks 21 out of 29 OECD countries in employment for people with disability, with 45 per cent of people with a disability in Australia living at or near the poverty line.
Both sides of politics at a state and federal level realise more needs to be done.
Federal Assistant Minister for Social Security with responsibility for disability employment, Alan Tudge, said the Federal Government was reviewing the Disability Employment Services.
"Unfortunately if you have a disability, you are twice as likely to be unemployed as a person without one and we have to do better,” he said.
“We have a Disability Employment Service which is there to help people get into work, but it can perform better.
“At the moment only about a third of the people who use that service end up with a sustainable job. So we are going through a process now of engaging with the community as to how we could reform that.
"Clearly there is still some stigma with employing people with disability and we have to overcome that."
Multiple barriers to employment
Actuary John Walsh is Australia’s Patron for this year’s International Day of People with Disability.
In a wheelchair since his early 20s after a football injury, John Walsh said things were improving but not fast enough.
"I think Australia still has a long way to go in employment of people with a disability,” Mr Walsh said.
“According to the official statistics we are near the bottom of the ladder of OECD countries in terms of employment of people with severe disabilities so there is quite a lot of scope for improvement.
“There are multiple problems with accessing employment. They range from physical problems, access and just the general problems of attitudes of the general population, which need quite a lot of work."
This week, Mr Walsh has attended several events as Patron of the International Day of People with Disability, including attending the National Awards at Parliament House in Canberra.
He said he hoped to do what he could to raise awareness of disability.
“It is an honour to have this role,” he said.
PwC extols benefits of opening jobs up to people with disabilities
While job opportunities are lacking, one Australian business is leading the way.
PwC has opened all of its job applications to people with disability.
"All of our recruitment team are being trained at looking and supporting people with disabilities to come into our workforce," Partner Alan Hockings, who oversees the programme, said.
“There is a broad accessibility piece that is part of our access and inclusion plan.
“We have looked through the end-to-end recruitment process to see what we can do to improve that process."
‘Getting this job was life-changing’
Bjorn Zangmeister was out of work and suffering a depressive illness but found a job at PwC under its new recruitment scheme.
"When they rang me and said congratulations you have got the job I was delirious," he said.
Mr Zangmeister said the job has changed his life.
"I love coming into work in the mornings," he said.
"I don't think many people can say that, but I absolutely do.”
PwC said their inclusion program helped clients as well as the wider community and increased the talent pool for workers.
