ABSTRACT
The Hawke Government’s (1983-91) restructuring of the Australian disability field began in 1983. The Government used corporate initiatives such as a tripartite system of Government, service providers and clientele (people with disabilities) working through a national inquiry (Handicapped Programs Review) and a national advisory council (Disability Advisory Council of Australia) to ensure greater representation of people with disabilities on disability issues. The Government also appropriated a central concept, ‘the least restrictive alternative’, from the internationally acclaimed theory of normalization, to address past inequities and provide the New Directions (Handicapped Programs Review, 1985) for the disability field. Both normalization and the Hawke Government’s restructurings were closely associated with human rights.
