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Showing posts from November, 2014

An open letter to Prime Minister Tony Abbbott and Senator the Hon Mitch Fifield, Assistant Minister for Social Services and Manager of Government Business

Dear Tony and Mitch On Monday, a Four Corners episode aired on ABC, where people with disability told us about being raped in care. They told us about coverups by the organisation, and failures to act on complaints. Other people with disability told us that this is a nationwide epidemic and that people living in institutional and residential care settings are being raped and abused or neglected every day. You told us that it wasn't your responsibility , but you'd do something in 2019 when the NDIS had rolled out. It is someone else's responsibility, you say. As of this morning, 3,417 petitioners disagree. They are calling for a national inquiry into violence, neglect and abuse against people with disability in residential and institutional settings. So are peak disability bodies, including People with Disability Australia , http://ymlp.com/z6IlfO, the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations . So is the former Disability Discrimination Commissioner, G

Outrage

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22 hours after the unexpected deaths of two horses at the Melbourne Cup, animal rights activists are calling for immediate changes within the racing industry to prevent any more unnecessary deaths. One horse broke his leg. Another collapsed in the stalls, dying from heart failure. There are statements from the racing industry, campaigns with 22 metre billboards with the question ‘Is the party really worth it?’ and public outrage. And somewhere in America, a six year old boy was thrown over a bridge to his death. We are collecting stories of the murders of children and adults with disability in an almost dispassionate way this year. There’s little London, thrown 133 feet from the Yaquina Bay bridge. His mother called the police to tell them what she’d done. Across the ditch in the UK, a mother won the right to end the life of her disabled child, Nancy, in a country where euthanising non-terminally ill children is illegal. A Michigan woman, Kelli Stapleton, attempted to mur