International Day of People with Disability

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (12:31): By leave, I move my motion in an amended form:

That this house—

(a) notes that on Monday 3 December 2018 we celebrate the International Day of People with Disability;

(b) believes that all people, irrespective of their disability, have a right to live in and be treated with dignity;

(c) believes a well-funded National Disability Insurance Scheme will help improve the quality of the lives of people living with a disability;

(d) calls on the Liberal-National federal government to ensure that the NDIS is properly funded so it can improve the quality of the lives of people living with disability, as was intended when the previous Labor federal government established it.

I indicate that the International Day of Disabled Persons was proclaimed in 1992 by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 47/3. The aim is to promote the rights and wellbeing of persons living with disabilities in all spheres of society and development and to increase awareness of the circumstances of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life. Building on many decades of the UN's work in the field of disability, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted in 2006, has further advanced the rights and wellbeing of people living with disabilities.

The 2018 theme is 'Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality', and they are the things that I would like to focus on in my contribution to this motion. This year's theme focuses on empowering persons with disabilities for an inclusive, equitable society so that no person is left behind. Mr Deputy Speaker, you would be aware that one of the greatest reforms in this area was the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which was campaigned on quite strongly by Bill Shorten when he was parliamentary secretary for disabilities and then actually put into place under prime minister Julia Gillard.

That reform has seen changes not only in terms of the financial contribution to supporting people with disabilities but also in the way we provide services to people living with disability, which is very important. Previously, there was a shortage of funding and, certainly in this state, with our contribution to the NDIS, we have more than doubled the amount of funds available to this scheme to support people living with disability and also changed the whole focus, from previously saying, 'These are the services. You actually take what we give you.' The whole emphasis now is enabling people living with disability to have choice and control over the services they want, and that is very important and makes a huge difference.

While the introduction of the NDIS has been an important and significant step in improving the lives of people living with disability and their families and carers, we still have a long way to go. In almost all walks of life, particularly in the areas of employment and transport, people living with disability still face significant barriers to achieving a fair go. As a society and, in particular, as employers in the area of disability employment, we need to focus on ability rather than disability to ensure that people living with disability are able to engage in meaningful and dignified work.

With my interest in this area, I recall a young lad in a wheelchair who attended a parliamentary session one day. As it was a program for young people, I assumed he was still at school, but he had left school and was working in a disability enterprise. Let me make it very clear that there is nothing wrong with disability enterprises; they have a role to play. However, there are a number of young people who work in those enterprises who have greater ability and skill and should be afforded the opportunity to work in different types of employment. That spurred me on to ask: why is it that people are working in jobs that are way below their ability level? At the time, I committed myself to do some work in that area.

Next Monday, to mark International Day of People with Disability in my electorate, I am hosting a disability employment seminar where a number of disability employment service providers are coming to talk with families, with young people and with people who have disability in their family. The idea is to make sure that they have the necessary information to make the choices that are right for them and to make them aware of the additional training opportunities available to them to ensure they can enter the open workforce if they wish to do so.

On that point, I would also like to acknowledge the contribution made by UnitingSA employment services and manager, Cherie Jolly; a number of staff at the City of Playford; staff at the Stretton Centre; Mark Kemperman from the department of state development; and training partner, the Independent Institute, a northern-based institute, and program director, Mr Thomas Knoll, who have been part of a program to help skill young people living with disability to enable them to enter the open workforce market. This program is designed around food preparation, food hygiene and food processing. I attended their first training session in the electorate where they were taught how to be baristas.

Their role is to train these young people to fill jobs—not behind the scene but up front—so we help change the attitudes of people, particularly employers, to say, 'We need to focus on young people's abilities and give them the opportunity to find meaningful work.' I would also like to acknowledge a number of local public schools that were part of this program: Mark Oliphant College, Craigmore, Gawler and District College and a number of other schools that have been a part of this program to give 10 young people a real opportunity to find meaningful work. I applaud that program and particularly Mark Kemperman from the former department of state development, who was a strong supporter of it.

I would also like to congratulate the government and minister Lensink on the announcement yesterday of the appointment of former executive director of Disability SA and CEO of Novita children's services, Dr David Caudrey, as the first Disability Advocate. I think it is a great choice. I was fortunate enough to work with David for three years. He is a person who not only understands his sector better than anyone else in this state but, more importantly, has a passion and compassion for this area. It is not just about numbers: it is about the dignity of people with disability. David is a huge advocate and I wish him well.

The only thing I would say is that the appointment took some time in the making. The minister announced back in April that she was to appoint a person and it has taken quite a few months to make the necessary appointment. Another disappointment I have is that I understand the appointment will only be for 12 months. Given that we now understand that the rollout to NDIS will not be completed for some time after that 12 months, I hope that David's appointment will be extended because we need a person like him in that role to make sure that people get the best possible scheme to support them to live meaningful lives.

I would also like to mention that, unfortunately, this government seems to be quite keen to ensure that some opportunities are taken away from people living with disability. I refer to the Marshall Liberal government's plan to close the Strathmont pool from January next year, which will force around 700 children living with disability either to find a new pool or discontinue their swimming programs altogether. If this government needs to make cuts, I think cuts to the disability sector are quite appalling, and it should not kick the most vulnerable people in our society. The forced closure, announced to families who attend the pool, was actually sent by a departmental email. I understand that no further explanation has been provided.

I would also like to mention the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which, as I said earlier, is an important social reform in this nation to make sure that people in our community can live meaningful and dignified lives. Two decisions that have been made over the last few years by the federal Liberal government I think are quite disconcerting. First of all, they said that they would need the Medicare levy to be increased to provide funding and then, as part of their tax rhetoric and to give them the excuse to be able to cut taxes for corporates, they reduced the Medicare levy.

They then withdrew that levy because there was enough money in the scheme to do so. There was enough money in the scheme to do that, but it is interesting that almost every week, without fail, my office gets complaints about the slow rollout of plans and the slow rollout of funding to people living with disability. These are people who have actually had their plans approved and who are waiting months, if not years due to lack of funding, for services to be delivered, or they are waiting to have their plans approved and there are enormous delays.

The second decision that has been made is the recent one where they took $3.9 billion from the National Disability Insurance Scheme to fund the Drought Aid program. I have no argument with the drought aid to farmers, as it is very important to do that, and I have spoken to people who are affected by the drought. But to do what the federal government did twice? First, they made cuts to education, families and people who rely on social security or to the NDIS.

They tried to play one vulnerable group against another, and this is what they have done again on this occasion—this time, the vulnerable group is the farmers, who are under drought pressure—and they took money away from the National Disability Insurance Scheme to do that. That is utterly disgraceful and what they have done at the national level is utterly disgraceful. People and their families who are living with disability have fought so hard for decades—

Mr Cowdrey interjecting:

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: —you will get your chance to speak—to get a fair deal in society. Unfortunately, there has been one giant step forward with the NDIS and a couple of steps backwards with the federal Liberal government. That is why it is very sad to hear that.

There is another area which needs some improvement and which will in part be addressed by the NDIS if it is properly funded. The slowdown of delivery of the services is, in essence, about funding. You either fund people directly, which is being delayed, or you fund the industry to actually grow and be able to provide the services. That is one thing that the federal government is not doing. I am sure that people will understand that, and certainly it will be reflected next year at the appropriate time.

Another issue I mention is transport, and I hope that the NDIS will address this. One of the issues facing people with disability is transport—whether they want to go to education, to work, to recreation or to culture—and the capacity to be able to get to venues and events. I still get a number of complaints about how we ration the money for people to get access to transport services. I am not sure where this case is at in the Federal Court, but the Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruled that, if a person has been approved for transport services in their plan, those transport services should be funded in full because it is either a service you need or a service you do not need.

The federal government decided to take that decision to the Federal Court to rule it out because, again, they want to ration money to the most vulnerable people in our society. It is a fact that it is in the Federal Court, and I hope the Federal Court will uphold the AAT decision because if it does not that will mean, again, a rationing scheme to people living with disability. The underlying principle of the whole NDIS is that people get the things they need, not the things we just want to afford.

With those comments, I ask members to support this motion to acknowledge the International Day of People with Disability next Monday and that we can do better in this space to help people living with disability.

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (12:44): I move to amend the motion as follows:

Delete paragraph (d).

So the motion will read:

That this house—

(a) notes that on Monday 3 December 2018 we celebrate the International Day of People with Disability;

(b) believes that all people, irrespective of their disability, have a right to live in and be treated with dignity; and

(c) believes a well-funded National Disability Insurance Scheme will help improve the quality of the lives of people living with a disability;

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Colton, could we have a signed and seconded copy of that, please?

Mr COWDREY: You certainly can.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you. You have the call.

Mr COWDREY: There are certainly elements of the member for Light's contribution that I agree with. The NDIS is obviously a substantial shift in the platform of disability in this country, and that cannot be underestimated. It is a shift in approach for the whole of the disability sector, in terms of the way service providers now have to look at their businesses and deliver their services.

Gone are the days when block funding came to the organisation and they decided on and worked out what services could be delivered with the amount of funding they received. Service providers are now dealing with a change, where unit pricing, forecast modelling and invoicing—things that are now commonplace within a disability service organisation—were previously unheard of.

For a number of organisations, that transition has been difficult and has taken time, but I believe that we are starting to get to the point now where a number of organisations have made that transition and understand the need to work in an efficient manner that helps them accurately determine their unit pricing and allows them to competitively put their services out to the open market, which effectively is the change that the NDIS was seeking to achieve.

For consumers of disability services, it is obviously a substantial change in terms of their ability to source services and supports that assist them in their daily lives and that assist them in achieving goals that they set for themselves. It allows them to go out to a market to determine the services that are most appropriate and beneficial for them. It is clear across the country that the anticipated number of people participating in the NDIS is much greater than was initially conceived or envisaged. I do not see that as negative by any stretch of the imagination.

The fact that we have reached a point where more people are happy to associate, to put their hand up and say, 'To achieve what I need in life, I do need support and I do need help and assistance,' is an incredibly powerful thing. We see a market where they can come in, dictate and choose what they wish to have. Previously, maybe there was a service there that they were not accessing because it was not right for them. The fact that we have more people involved now than had previously been envisaged to access services is absolutely a powerful and important change.

I do not think anybody in this house, in Canberra or anywhere else would say that the NDIS is perfect at this point by any stretch of the imagination. We know that there are challenges. We know that there are things that need to be improved, and we are certainly working, from a state perspective, to continue that journey and assist where we can in people making that transition. I thank the member for Light for highlighting one of the commitments of this government in terms of delivering the Disability Advocate, the inaugural disability advocate for South Australia. As was announced yesterday, Dr David Cowdrey—

The Hon. A. Piccolo: Caudrey.

Mr COWDREY: —Caudrey, pardon me, I will not confuse it; it does sound very similar, and certainly no relation—is the inaugural Disability Advocate for South Australia. The quantum of people we are talking about being involved, just from a South Australian perspective, is in the realm of 35,000 people, perhaps more than that. As I said, we have had more people come and be involved across the nation than was originally envisaged.

In terms of other things that the government is doing to celebrate International Day of People with Disability, there is a Celebrate on the Square event this Friday, 30 November, from 11am to 2pm, which is being co-hosted by the Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Association of SA. Also, earlier, through this parliament, we moved the Disability Inclusion Act 2018. I think we have all had an opportunity to discuss the changes to disability access inclusion plans, so I will not go into great detail around that.

In regard to the question of funding, the Coalition government committed to fully funding its share of the NDIS in the 2018-19 federal budget and on 1 July 2018 it signed a bilateral agreement guaranteeing funding for the full scheme here in South Australia. I must admit that it is actually very disappointing. My rhetoric could probably be a lot stronger, given the implication of paragraph (d) of the original motion and also the contribution, but it has been very clearly stated that strong economic growth across the federal sphere has allowed for increased tax receipts, which it subsequently allowed.

It has well and truly been confirmed on numerous occasions that the NDIS is 100 per cent fully funded. The accusations and mistruths that have been out in the community around allaying a fear that perhaps people are going to miss out in the future because funding is not in place is something that is really, really disappointing.

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Heysen, just take a seat please for a moment. The member for Colton has the call. He is making a contribution to this motion and he is within his rights to be heard in silence.

Ms Stinson: Well, ask him to explain.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, I do not want to hear it. There are no interjections across the house. Member for Colton, continue.

Mr COWDREY: What I will say is that clearly the agreement was not in place when the former federal government was in office; it is now. I am certainly confident that everybody within South Australia who wants to access the NDIS both now and in the future will have their services funded. Further to that, we have heard both negatives and positives in regard to what the NDIS has been able to deliver in South Australia and across the country as well. I probably have more experience than most in regard to experience with people under NDIS plans.

Last week, I was at the Mid North Games, which is an annual sporting event held in South Australia over this year and next year. It rotates around the country, with a number of people with disabilities coming to compete. As part of that event, they had a final end of event celebration. A young girl performed as part of that. Her goal under her NDIS plan was to further herself in regard to her artistic endeavours, in particular singing. She had the opportunity to perform at that closing event by singing in front of a group of 200 or so people. That is just one example of where the NDIS is making a difference.

Previously, some of the services that she was accessing would not have been offered or covered by organisations, whether that be at a not-for-profit level or a state level in South Australia but, with the changes in the NDIS, they have been covered. She had the opportunity to stand up and do something that she wanted to achieve and that was absolutely fantastic to see.

To me, the International Day of People with Disability should be about celebration and hope and it should not be about fear. This motion should solely be about celebrating the contribution of people with a disability to our state and our community. I hope that we can work together to achieve a future where the lens of disability does not need to be added but is just assumed. I support and seek support for the amended motion.

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (12:54): I rise to support the motion. I will make some very brief comments on it. Basically, I want to highlight a few issues with the NDIS. Certainly, I think it is a very positive step forward. But people need to realise that fear of change, particularly in terms of parents who have a child with a disability, is one of the very important things that we, as a parliament, need to recognise. Particularly as parents get older and age, they fear their child being disadvantaged, if not abandoned, by changes to the rules.

The NDIS offers great opportunity; however, the work that Disability SA did was greatly appreciated. At home, we had Di Hennessy who did amazing work. The change that I need the government to understand is that it went from where funding was applied to Disability SA, and they provided a range of services. Now we are going to individual funding. If you take just a simple exercise like respite care or craft, if you had 15 people in the class, Disability SA would run a program and advertise it.

Now it has gone to individual funding with individual plans. Those who are signing up for their plans may not actually know the range of services out there. To get a critical number to make that class or respite work, you need a cohort signing up. I still firmly believe that Disability SA had an important role in the transition to NDIS and it upsets me greatly that that opportunity has been missed.

I also want to talk about Bedford and the great work that Bedford in Mount Gambier offers in terms of employment opportunities. I have a sister who has a disability, and you see what adverse effects can occur through a disability pension where effectively they are paid and they stay at home. It leads to isolation, and it leads to mental health issues. I know that people talk about programs and getting people involved; it is a lot harder to do than it is to say.

I encourage the government, where possible, to use this transition and NDIS funding for the betterment of all people. There is no greater achievement, in my mind, than having all people in work. I would like us as a parliament to recognise that. Wherever we can assist that, without the fear of their pension being taken away, it is a vital step in the mental health and the connectedness of people with disabilities in our community.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (12:57): I would like to thank everybody for their contribution and ask why those opposite are concerned about the words 'ensure that the NDIS is properly funded, so it can improve the quality of the lives of people living with disability'.

The house divided on the amendment:

Ayes 23

Noes 18

Majority 5

Sitting suspended from 13:03 to 14:00.