In late 2021, the federal government started to reduce many COVID-19 measures and embrace a ‘living with COVID-19’ approach. People with Disability Australia (PWDA) wanted to know how this current approach is affecting their members and what, if any, action they would like to see the governments take.

PWDA distributed a survey to its members in March 2023, which received 104 responses. This was followed by an online member forum held on 4 July 2023, which had 31 participants. The common themes from the survey and forum were:

• most members have felt worried or scared about the government’s relaxing of COVID-19 measures 
• that the government and public is ‘pretending’ that the pandemic is over
• feeling forgotten, ignored, and undervalued by the government and the public
• concern about contracting long COVID
• very strong support for telehealth
• feeling unsafe about going out into the community.

This position statement and the below recommendations is based on members' responses through the survey and the online member forum. These findings have been summarised in a report.

PWDA recommends that:

Recommendation 1 – The relevant level of government mandate up-to-date vaccinations for all workers in high-risk settings including but not limited to hospitals, medical services, disability services and aged care homes, and other settings where workers support people with disability.

Recommendation 2 – The Commonwealth Government develops national indoor air quality standards, with particular consideration given to high-risk settings, including hospitals, medical services, disability group homes, aged care homes, schools and workplaces.

Recommendation 3 – The relevant level of government mandates that people who have tested positive for COVID-19 should not be allowed to visit disability group homes and aged-care homes until they are no longer infectious.

Recommendation 4 – The relevant level of government mandates that masks must be worn in all health and hospital settings.

Recommendation 5 – Each state and territory government implements a traffic light advice mechanism to signal the current level of COVID-19 risk in the community.

Recommendation 6 – The Commonwealth Government creates an exemption to the Medicare ‘Existing Relationship Requirement’ so that people who have disability and/or are immunocompromised can access telehealth appointments regardless of whether they have attended the medical practice in person in the past 12 months.

Recommendation 7 – The Commonwealth Government mandates that general practitioners must bulk-bill telehealth appointments for people with disability.

Recommendation 8 – The Commonwealth, state and territory governments regulates the tertiary education sector to ensure that people who have disability and/or are immunocompromised can choose to attend their course online, in-person or by a combination of both delivery modes.