PRIORITIES - from the disability perspective....

Accessing health care safely

Accessing shops - especially food shops

Accessing education

Accessing indoor recreational activities including restaurants, clubs, pubs, nightclubs etc.
               AND
outdoor activities including parks, beaches, sporting venues.

Enforcing smoke free places

PROJECTS:

Immediate:
The Alfred Hospital in Victoria has contracted out the public cafe services. There is an indoor and outdoor section. Currently there are ash trays in the outdoor section and smoking takes place. Smoke is also drifting inside. The only way to maintain safety is to ban smoking altogether in the outdoor area. This will also mean that those with respiratory and other disabilities exacerbated by smoke can use these areas.

27 April 2000 spoke with Caroline Kettle, Patient Representative.

Updates will continue of the progress.

Enforcing smoke free places:
I have some legal cases being prepared.

Hospitals:
Rohan Greenland from the Australian Medical Association has informed me that this issue will be discussed on 12 May 2000 among the State Branches.

Nightclubs:
Though I wished to be able to go to nightclubs myself, the main reason I chose to put in the complaint against the nightclub was in honour of a female with cystic fibrosis who I befriended in hospital. Her health was very good when I first met her, but this young woman, aged 21, did not wish to miss out on nightclubbing with her peers. This was the main risk in her life. She had her lungs bleed as a result and first the doctors managed to stop the bleeding; they bled again and she died. I have also known others who have suffered more and died sooner in the effort to live a "normal" life.

A complaint against the Hilton Hotels of Australia Pty Ltd by Neil Francey and Sue Meeuwissen to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (CTH) was made 20 March 1995.

The first Decision Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission 25 September 1997 is on-line

The final Decision Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission 10 March 2000 is now online.

See archive section for further information relating to this issue.

This issue is being taken up further.

Parks:
Jells Park is my local park run by Victorian Parks and Gardens. It is at the hub of a network of parklands linked by the Dandenong Creek.