By bobb |

The Government wants people with a disability to go to work (see benefits tighten to get more working) ... but the Government and its close friends in big business (see Business Council of Australia gives simplistic and morally bankrupt advice) are employing fewer people with disabilities.

Few people who are diagnosed with autism/ASD manage to get jobs. There are stong indications that the HR Departments in most major organisation are keen for employees who are hyper-normal. The modern employment process is extremely intolerant of difference. So people with ASD rarely get a chance.

But the Government blames, and even penalises people with a disability because of its inadequacies. One might say this is un-Australian ... it does not give people a fair go. But one would be quite wrong. This behaviour is very Australian.

Here is a recent newspaper article.

Job quotas urged for disabled in public service

Sue Dunlevy From: The Australian May 26, 2011

QUOTAS are needed to arrest the "shameful" decline of disabled people employed in the Australian public service and make the government's welfare reforms work, says Disability Commissioner Graeme Innes.

While Julia Gillard talks about getting the disabled off welfare and into work, the number of disabled people employed in the public service has been cut in half, Mr Innes says.

He wants the performance pay of senior public servants linked to meeting employment targets for the disabled. "That's the only way to get things achieved in the public service," he told The Australian.

The number of people with a disability employed in the public service dropped from 6.6 per cent in 1986 to 3.1 per cent last year.

Mr Innes says he wants the federal and state governments to match the ACT government's commitment to double the number of disabled public servants over the next four years.

"I've been opposed to quotas for employment of people with disabilities for most of my life in this area, but I've come to the view that we are so far behind on employment for people with disability that the only way we are going to address the balance is to set some quotas or a target," he told a Senate estimates committee yesterday.

"Targets certainly should introduce a degree of accountability and should be linked to people's performance bonuses," he said.

"The government can't sell to the private sector the employment of people with disabilities if it's not performing itself."

Opposition disability spokesman Mitch Fifield, who raised the issue in estimates, said the fact the commissioner was advocating quotas "is a sign the government is failing".

"Given helping people with disability get into work is a key part of the government's budget, they should lead by example when it comes to employing people with disability," he said.

Last year, the public service announced changes allowing departments to create, design or identify an appropriate position for a person with a disability who while having the capacity to perform the duties specified, would find it difficult to compete in a traditional merit process.

from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/job-quotas-urged-for-disabl…

See also