South Australian Response to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability

The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability ran from 2019 to 2023.

In its final report, the Disability Royal Commission delivered 222 recommendations to improve laws, policies, structures and practices for people with disability in all settings.

The South Australian government would like to thank all of the people with disability, their families, carers, advocacy organisations, service providers and non-government organisations who contributed to both the Disability Royal Commission and the South Australian response.

This response was developed by the South Australian Department of Human Services, on behalf of the South Australian government.

Our responses to recommendations

This initial response provides South Australia’s position to the 129 recommendations that are the responsibility of the South Australian government.

• 44 recommendations are the responsibility of the South Australian government to individually respond to.
• 85 recommendations have joint responsibility across the Australian Government and other states and territory governments.
• An additional 93 recommendations are the responsibility of the Australian Government, other states and territories only, or non-government entities to implement.

Recommendations that are the responsibility of the South Australian government have been allocated to the appropriate agency for implementation.

This initial response is the first step in progressing important reform to make the Disability Royal Commission’s vision of a safe, accessible and inclusive Australia a reality.

Progress on the implementation of recommedations

The first progress report on the implementation of recommendations made by the Disability Royal Commission was published on 27 November 2025 on the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing website. The first Progress Report provides an overview of the progress made by the Australian and state and territory governments on all 222 recommendations from the Disability Royal Commission to date.

The first Progress Report buils on the National Interim Update 2024 that was released on 23 December 2024, which provided a snapshot of some of the key areas of implementation progress in response to Disability Royal Commission recommendations.