Angry about plans to privatise disability services, hundreds of union members and people with disabilities protested at the gates to the Victorian ALP conference on 12 November. 

Premier Daniel Andrews was elected in 2014 after promising workers and service users in the sector that his government would “support the existing balanced service system … and avoid further privatisation or contracting-out of existing disability services”.

Once in government, he dropped that commitment. Using the cover of the incoming National Disability Insurance Scheme, Andrews moved to open up disability services to the profit-driven corporations that have already wreaked havoc in health, aged care, education and other vital social services.

At the conference, a walkout was staged by dozens of ALP delegates from the Health and Community Services Union, the Australian Services Union, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union and others. They linked up with the protesters outside the conference to demand that the Andrews government stick to its 2014 platform and keep disability services public. 

The protest and the campaign leading up to it, led by HACSU, have scored some results. In the week before the conference, Andrews agreed to meet with HACSU officials about the issue for the first time. The government has now committed to establishing a legislated accreditation and registration scheme for disability support workers. This is a step towards protecting the quality of service delivery in disability and the employment standards of workers in the sector.

But the registration scheme clearly leaves open the door to privatisation. This is despite delegates at the conference unanimously voting for a motion to keep public disability services in public hands. The party leadership has given no indication that it will abide by this motion and reverse its backflip on privatisation.

The concessions from Andrews show that it’s collective resistance that gets results. Now that resistance needs to escalate if public disability support services are to be saved. HACSU has vowed to keep up the pressure.