Treatment of Asylum Seekers

No surprises to see this one included in the list, with the Abbott government overseeing new levels of brutality, building on Labor’s disastrous decision to back a return to punitively focused offshore processing. The report reflects on the poor conditions in detention, the indefinite detention of refugees with adverse security assessments, and the practice of using “enhanced screenings” on asylum seekers arriving by boat, who are not provided with legal representation or the right to appeal.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein is quoted as critiquing Australia’s refugee policies for “…leading to a chain of human rights violations, including arbitrary detention and possible torture following return to home countries”

Truth About Manus Island - A Concise Summary

Injured get Worse on Manus

Refugee Action Coalition

Sending Them Back: The Unanswered Questions From High Court Findings in Tamil At Sea Case

Right wing view of Asylum Seekers

Asylum Seekers to be Sent Back to Home Country

Aboriginal Incarceration

An issue that is very slowly starting to be acknowledged by the political mainstream, the report points to the oft quoted statistic that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians account for just 3 per cent of Australia’s population, but 27 per cent of the adult prison population (and more than 40 percent of juveniles in detention).

The report also notes Aboriginal Australians continue to “die at alarmingly high rates from treatable and preventable conditions such as diabetes and respiratory illnesses”.

Across Australia, Indigenous people are over-represented in Australian prisons.

The rate of Indigenous Australians in prison is 16 times higher than non-Indigenous people.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Mick Gooda said creating safer communities would be the key to reducing that over-representation.

"This means creating communities where violence is not tolerated and where victims have access to the entire spectrum of support services.

Indigenous persons make up 26 per cent of the prisoner population yet only constitute 2.5 per cent of the Australian population.

Indigenous Prison Rates a National Shame

How Much does it Cost to Keep People in Gaol?

Report on Government Services 2015

Easier to Keep Indigenous Kids in Prison Than in School

Creative Spirits - Aboriginal Prison Rates

Disability Rights

A shocking forty-five per cent of Australians with disabilities live near or below the poverty line, according to the report, and a Human Rights Commission inquiry found inadequate safeguards and poor access to support.

Almost 20 per cent of Australians have a disability (3.96 million people). This proportion is increasing, particularly as the population ages.^[2] 19.8 per cent of all males and 20.1 per cent of all females report having a disability.

When employed, people with disabilities earn lower wages, on average, than workers without disabilities. Having a disability reduced the average gross weekly wages of females by $110 (24 per cent) and males by $105 (17 per cent) in 1998, compared with people without disabilities.

Australia has the seventh lowest employment rate for people with disabilities in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In 2003, nearly two thirds of the OECD countries measured had better employment rates than Australia for people with disabilities.

Rights of People with Disabilities

National Inquiry into Rights of People with a Disability

People with Disabilities Australia