Disability Access and Inclusion

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (15:22): Late last week, I was really pleased to represent the Minister for Disabilities at a disability access and inclusion consultation in the City of Salisbury, close to my electorate. This consultation looked at ways in which state government can better facilitate the access and inclusion into broader society of people with disability, and looked particularly at ways in which we can assist and encourage local government to do the same thing.

This consultation was hosted by the Department for Communities and Social Inclusion and also by the City of Salisbury, and I want to acknowledge in particular the work of Mike Taggart, who heads up Salisbury council's strategies for greater inclusion for people with disability. He himself made many worthwhile contributions to that session, which I attended after my official duties.

The point of the consultation was to bring together local people with disability, their carers and the relevant policymakers and workers within state and local government to really tease out some of the barriers to people with disability, particularly in the areas of employment and transport. I missed the morning session on employment but, clearly, employment is critical to providing people with independence and economic security. Both the South Australian Strategic Plan and the National Disability Strategy have a strong focus on improving employment outcomes for people with disability.

I was able to reflect a little on the work of this state government, in particular the Office of the Industry Advocate, which we are coincidently discussing today, in helping to frame government contracts and tenders that specifically give incentives for employers and businesses bidding for government contracts to look at employing people with disability, among others, who have barriers to employment.

I know from my experience of working closely with Lendlease on the Northern Connector project that this strategy does work and that companies like Lendlease are already exceeding their targets in both this and other areas of workforce participation. I was really pleased to stick around for a while for the transport part of the consultation and to listen and also have my two cents worth about how I see the future of transport and how it might affect people with disability.

Clearly, the ability to move around the community underpins all aspects of life for people with disability, including employment. So, the provision of accessible, affordable and efficient public transport is essential. The 2015 report on the review of the transport standards identified 15 recommendations, including the development of accessibility guidelines for a whole-of-journey approach. This is all about recognising the importance of ensuring that all aspects of a person's journey are accessible and seamless.

I think it is inevitable that in the next decade or so we are going to see something of a revolution in the provision of both private and public transport, particularly in our urban and suburban areas. We will see the adoption of autonomous vehicles, both in the private market and in the provision of mass transit. We will see an increasing use of the sharing economy, with companies like Uber using technology to connect commuters with private transport. We will also see the exponential growth of smart city technology, which will bring all of these things together and, ideally, from a public policy point of view, enable seamless door-to-destination travel, blurring the lines between public and private transport.

The challenge for government, of course, will be to make sure that public policies keep pace with technology and afford people with disability, among others, the same options that will be available to the broader community. Even now we have gaps. The forum heard from many of the people present many examples of various barriers to public transport, air travel and taxi travel. They also suggested many smart solutions, which will form part of the submission to the minister.

The next step is that the findings from this consultation, as well as from similar forums elsewhere, will be collated by the Disability Policy Unit and government will be provided with a report to help prioritise our efforts into the future. Of course, overshadowing all this is the NDIS, which is changing the face of disability service provision and, in the process, providing the potential for thousands of new jobs into the future, particularly in the northern suburbs. We have already seen service providers like Minda set up in the Elizabeth CBD and the creation of a disability hub at Elizabeth City Centre to help coordinate some of this expected employment growth.

On Monday, I was pleased to attend the opening of the new Novita service centre on Philip Highway, also in the Elizabeth CBD, along with the minister, the Premier and His Excellency the Governor and Mrs Van Le, who are long-time patrons of Novita.

Novita understands that the growth of this industry will largely be based around the northern suburbs. They are also responding to the opportunities of the NDIS by expanding their services beyond the arbitrary age of 18 to cater for young adults. In addition, the expansion of Novita into Elizabeth will lead directly to the creation of 10 new jobs, with the possibility of more to come as the NDIS rolls out further to include adult funding.

All this activity is not only good for people with disability in the north but also for the economic and cultural health of Elizabeth into the future. I think these are exciting times for that sector.