Review of the Disability Discrimination Act

The Australian Government is reviewing the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. We want to make sure it is working to protect people with disability.

Read more about the review:

• Issues Paper [PDF 1.3MB]
• Issues Paper (Text only) [DOCX 284KB]
• Issues Paper overview [PDF 133KB]
• Issues Paper overview [DOCX 564KB]
• Summary Issues Paper [PDF 208KB]
• Summary Issues Paper [DOCX 192KB]
• Summary Issues Paper – Easy Read version [PDF 4.25MB]
• Summary Issues Paper – Easy Read version (Text only) [DOCX 72KB]

View the Auslan video version of the Summary Issues Paper below.
 

About the review

The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (Disability Royal Commission) made 222 recommendations to government in its Final Report. Some of these recommendations included changes to the Disability Discrimination Act.

On 31 July 2024, the Australian Government published its response to these recommendations. This included accepting, in principle, the 15 recommendations related to the Disability Discrimination Act.

Read the government response to the Disability Royal Commission's Final Report

As part of the government response to the Disability Royal Commission, the government committed $6.9 million to the review and modernisation of the Disability Discrimination Act.

The government has asked us to lead this review. The review will consider options to implement the 15 recommendations from the Disability Royal Commission, as well as further changes to improve the experiences of people with disability.

The disability community has contributed to many reviews and inquiries over the 3 decades that the Disability Discrimination Act has been in force, including the Disability Royal Commission. This review will draw on the reports and submissions from these reviews and inquiries so that people with disability do not need to advocate again about the same issues and experiences.

In late 2024, we met with representatives of the disability community and legal representatives to inform our approach to the review.

Watch a short video about the review of the Disability Discrimination Act:

• Short video about the review
• Short video about the review with Auslan translation
• You can also watch our introductory webinar on YouTube.  

Sign up to our mailing list to automatically receive updates on the review

Consultation

We held a public consultation on the review from 1 August to 14 November 2025. We conducted 29 public workshops, seminars and focus groups and received targeted feedback from the community and stakeholders through our Issues Paper and community surveys.

During the consultation period, we received over 1,100 submissions and heard from more than 1,100 people in consultation events.

The public were able to share their views by:

• making a submission in response to the questions in our Issues Paper
• completing the shorter community survey
• attending a consultation event.

We have published submissions from authors who gave their permission in accordance with our publication policy.

Read public submissions to the consultation

Read a summary of our consultation process and what we heard

There will be further opportunities for the disability community and people with duties under the Disability Discrimination Act to participate as the review progresses.