Making Inclusion Happen > Personal and community support > ACT Discrimination and Disability Services Commissioner

ACT Discrimination and Disability Services Commissioner

Disability & Community Services Complaints

If you are unhappy with the provider of your disability supports you can contact the ACT Human Rights Commission to make a complaint.

ACT Human Rights Commission logo

The Disability and Community Services Commissioner handles complaints about:

services for people with a disability and carers, disability service providers, the NDIA, services for carers
services for older people in the ACT
services for children and young people including youth justice services, child protection services, schools, sport, health services for children.

The role of the Commissioner is also to promote:

improvements in the provision of services,
the rights of users of services,
an awareness of the rights and responsibilities of users and providers of services.

Karen Toohey is the Disability and Community Services Commissioner, and also the Discrimination Commissisoner and Health Services Commissioner.

Discrimination Complaints

The ACT Human Rights Commission works to prevent and remedy disability-based discrimination.

In the ACT, the Discrimination Act 1991 makes it unlawful to to treat someone unfavourably because they have a disability.

The legislation also covers imputing a disability to a person or treating someone unfavourably because of a past or possible future disability, or because of physical appearance, and covers persons who have a guide dog, hearing dog, assistance animal or other aid.

The ACT Human Rights Commission is an independent body that handles discrimination complaints (among other types of complaints). The Commission also promotes and educates the community about their rights and responsibilities under equal opportunity laws, provides policy advice and offers a fair and accessible process for dealing with complaints.

If you need assistance with making a complaint, Disability Discrimination Law is a specialist legal service of Canberra Community Law that provides free, independent and confidential legal assistance in disability discrimination law for people living in the ACT.

There are also Federal laws against disability discrimination: Disability Discimination Act 1992. If you wish to make a complaint under this Commonwealth legislation you need to contact the Australian Human Rights Commission (based in Sydney).