One of the biggest deterrents to employing the disabled is our litigation mentality and hence the inevitable workers comp payouts,prosecution under our OH&S legislation which can charge an employer with criminal neglect.Who is going to pay for all the necessary infrastructure such as wheel chair ramps etc?If disabled people have to take more sick leave,who will pay and can they be held accountable?Businesses have a hard enough time now competing with third world wages.

Equal opportunity leglisation will just simply see many businesses
close.

Get rid of Govt regulation,educate employers and get the legal disease under control,then we will see more disabled employed in private enterprise.

“In conclusion, my knowledge and experience of disability allows me to argue that the employment policies of affirmative action and government as employer of last resort, provide practical solutions to the problems of social and economic exclusion and un-employment for people with disabilities.”

Affirmative action, at any level, is merely the process of attempting to “artificially level the playing field” by “handicapping the able” to allow the less able / disabled to supposedly be equal.

Affirmative action is neither moral nor sustainable. It is meddling and anti-social.

The social inclusion and the right to work are not mandated human rights.

Whilst

Article 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

Article 23 does not presume to suggest that anyone’s “right to work” is a right to expect work to be provided for them by government, exclusively or “affirmatively”.

There are plenty of fit and able people who I would, like to be socially excluded from, hence I drive to work, electing to exclude myself from those who use public transport whilst in a state of “aromatic distinction”.

The purpose of government is not that of employer it is that of servant.
That government needs pubic servants to satisfy the delivery of government services is an inevitable consequence, much as shadows are an inevitable consequence of a sunny day.

People are individuals. No two are equal and whilst many might seem able, it is not an employers responsibility to carry the burden of an individuals disability especially when that “disability” becomes an “inability”.

Employers are individuals too. I have found that “employer individuals” are as compassionate as employee and private individuals. Being an employer does not result in automatic any loss of compassion or philanthropy compared to being a private individual.

Arjay, well said.
Those things which would attempt to artificially secure opportunity, can often be a barrier to opportunity.