¶ COLLIE Shire councillors were told the shire is unacceptably lagging in its approach to disability access and inclusion at their June meeting.
APM Communities local area coordinator Sarah Bowes and Collie Family Centre manager Ronald Donoghue delivered a presentation on behalf of the Collie Disability Reference Group (DRG), outlining what Ms Bowes labelled “challenges around access and inclusion”.
Ms Bowes told councillors the DRG struggles to advocate at a local government level in Collie due to a lack of appropriate forums.
She said Collie does not have a Disability Access and Inclusion Committee and that its Community Safety and Wellbeing Committee, on which the DRG has two seats, meets infrequently.
The committee’s last meeting was in August and before that 18 months prior, Ms Bowes said.
“The problem being, how do you get your voice?” she asked.
“You haven’t got the systems in place for appropriate consultation, which is what’s lacking in Collie at the moment.”
The DRG, made up of individuals with disabilities, advocates and APM representatives, was formed in 2023.
“We said, ‘okay, the Shire of Collie is for whatever reason not in a position and not willing to have a Disability Access and Inclusion Committee, therefore we will start a Disability Reference Group that the shire can consult with,’” Ms Bowes said.
Ms Bowes said disabled people in Collie face “many attitudinal barriers”.
“There are so many gaps in people’s knowledge that can end up causing unintentional, discriminatory behaviour,” she said.
Attempts to teach disability awareness at a local government level hit a brick wall after the DRG secured funding for the initiative, Ms Bowes said.
She said the DRG organised two sessions, however only about 10 staff attended combined, and that it is still seeking to arrange training.
“We have not had any help from the shire in organising those additional meetings,” Ms Bowes said.
“We’ve been told there’s a lot of staff change-over and they’re just under-resourced to be able to do that.”
Ms Bowes acknowledged issues with staff turnover, but said after three years the DRG “don’t want to keep hearing that”.
“Even in the tumult of staff changes, there has to be a point where the shire says enough’s enough, we’re going to prioritise people with disabilities,” she said.
“And we’re going to start doing this disability awareness training that we promised we would do.”
Councillor Gary Faries acknowledged the shire needs to be more proactive.
“This is a very valid point in relation to something we dropped the ball on,” Cr Fairies said.
“From my perspective, I feel pretty embarrassed by what you’ve just presented.”