STATEMENT OF ALL MEANS ALL
27 June 2025
All Means All condemns in the strongest terms the Queensland Crisafulli Government’s decision to expand special schools and deepen the segregation of students with disability.
This is not inclusive education. It is a calculated move to further entrench a two-tier system that excludes, separates and discriminates. And it sets a dangerous precedent for other states and territories. This cannot be the path forward for Australia.
This week, the Crisafulli Government proudly announced what it called the “largest special school investment in Queensland’s history.” Past governments have failed children with disability — but this government is cementing that failure as policy. In doing so, it is turning its back on the rights of children with disability to be welcomed, valued and supported in their local schools.
This is not an investment in the future of children with disability—it is a decision to exclude them from it.
All children miss out inclusive education is denied. We know through overwhelming research and direct experience that all children have better outcomes, academically and socially, in inclusive settings.
Dr Rhonda Galbally AC, Patron of All Means All and former Royal Commissioner, stated:
“At the Royal Commission, the two other Commissioners with lived experience of disability and I heard overwhelming evidence that segregated education undermines mainstream schools’ ability to become inclusive. We recommended that governments phase out segregated education over 28 years — starting with a halt to building new special schools from 2025. Inclusive education cannot be achieved while segregation continues to expand.”
The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has made it unequivocally clear that ‘inclusive education is incompatible with segregated education systems’ and has called on states to redirect resources from special schools to inclusive settings. The Crisafulli Government’s actions defy this mandate and the State’s Inclusive Education Policy, investing in outdated institutions while mainstream schools remain under-resourced and ill-equipped to provide inclusive education.
This move is not only out of step with international law. Rather, it directly contradicts the findings of the Disability Royal Commission and the landmark recommendation of the three Commissioners with lived experience of disability who affirmed that segregated education must be progressively dismantled to realise the right to inclusive education.
This view was supported by every UN human rights experts who gave evidence to the Commission, including former and current UN Special Rapporteurs on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and members of the CRPD Committee. These experts were united in their assessment: segregation is not a legitimate educational model—it is discrimination.
The Crisafulli Government’s actions fly in the face of this overwhelming legal, moral and evidentiary consensus.
Invoking “parent choice” to justify segregation is a particularly egregious misrepresentation of the lived reality of families. Many parents of children with disability do not experience real choice — only a lack of support in their local school. True choice exists only when every neighbourhood school is capable and committed to including every learner. That is what the CRPD and the Royal Commission affirmed — and what all children and families deserve.
There is another way — and it is already happening. Across Australia and around the world, schools are demonstrating that inclusive education is not only possible but beneficial for all students. What’s missing in Queensland is not evidence or capability— it’s political will.
Stephanie Gotlib, Executive Director of All Means All, stated:
“The Queensland Government’s decision represents one of the most serious and deliberate violations of the right to inclusive education we have seen in recent years. The scale of investment in segregation is shocking and unconscionable. If other governments follow this lead, we risk a national retreat from hard-won human rights commitments. We cannot and will not allow that to happen.”
All Means All calls on the Queensland Government to abandon this harmful path, and on all Australian governments to affirm their commitment to building universally accessible and genuinely inclusive education systems where all children learn and thrive. Our collective future depends on it.
Inquiries: Stephanie Gotlib, Executive Director, Government Relations and Advocacy Email: stephanie.gotlib@allmeansall.org.au Website: www.acie.org.au