Labor has vowed to establish a royal commission on violence and abuse against people with disabilities.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Labor would lobby the Turnbull government to establish a commission on violence and neglect in the disability services sector, and make it a priority if elected.
A joint Senate committee, set up in 2015 in response to growing concerns and media coverage of failures and abuse within the system, recommended a royal commission be established to help bring about change.
But despite calls from the sector, and Greens senator Rachel Siewert, the government rejected the recommendation, saying that frameworks in the National Disability Insurance Scheme would address concerns.
Disability advocates have not given up, with the Disabled People's Organisations Australia (DPOA), an alliance of groups supporting people with disabilities, continuing to campaign for a more strident inquiry into the sector.
"Only a royal commission can provide a just response to people with disability who have been denied justice for so long," the alliance said in a statement to the government earlier this year, following a Four Corners report into violence and abuse in the disability service sector.
The alliance rejected the government's assertion that mechanisms in the NDIS were the answer.
"[The NDIS] will not cover the range of settings in which people with disability experience violence, nor the multiple forms of violence that people with disability experience," it said. "It will not hold individuals, organisations and systems accountable for past injustices."
Matthew Bowden, the co-chief executive of People with a Disability Australia, part of the DPOA alliance, said there was an "urgent, pressing need" for further investigation, given the "horrendous stories" and "appalling rates of violence and abuse" faced by the community.
"A royal commission has the weight and the investigative powers, with the resources and the time to open up these issues," he said.
"It also has the power to open the doors to many closed institutions and residential environments."
Mr Shorten said the calls could not be ignored.
"People with disability experience much higher rates of violence than the rest of the community, and in many cases, this violence occurs in places where they are meant to be receiving support," he said.
"Children with disability are at least three times more likely to experience abuse than other children.
"A royal commission is needed so that people with disability, their families and carers can tell their stories to the highest level of judicial inquiry and seek justice.
"This will be a vital part of a national healing process."
