Motions

Motivation Australia

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (16:38): I move:

That this council—

1. Notes the contribution that Australian non-government organisations make to improving the welfare and quality of life of disadvantaged people living in less resourced settings in developing countries, including our near neighbours such as the small island nations in the Pacific region;

2. Notes the South Australian non-government organisation, Motivation Australia, works in partnership with local organisations in the Asia Pacific region and rural and remote Australia to improve the quality of life of people with mobility disabilities in the Asia Pacific Region;

3. Notes that over 100 million people globally have a mobility disability. Currently it is estimated that only 5 per cent to 15 per cent of people who require mobility equipment can access it. Across the small island nations in the Pacific region, there are more than 150,000 people in need of a mobility device, with this number set to rise due to the diabetes epidemic. There is a heavy reliance on inappropriate donated equipment; and a desperate lack of rehabilitation staff and services; and

4. Notes and commends Motivation Australia’s work, increasing access to mobility devices to enable people with a mobility disability to be active, contributing participants within their family, community and broader society.

I bring this motion to the chamber today as ambassador of Motivation Australia and to acknowledge their important work that they do but also the work that other non-government organisations do to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities or who are disadvantaged in some other way in developing countries and in our region. I also bring this motion to this place because it is timely, given Cyclone Pam has just ripped through the Pacific, or specifically Vanuatu, damaging some of the services which Motivation Australia provides or assists in providing for people with disabilities in these remote island communities.

I will start by talking a little bit about their work in Vanuatu with the Vanuatu Society for Disabled People (VSDP). The Vanuatu Society for Disabled People has a long history of working with children and adults with a disability in their community, providing services to help enable those people to participate as fully as possible in community life in Vanuatu. VSDP services include an early investment program for children and a community-based rehabilitation program.

This year, Motivation Australia and VSDP have also commenced a project to provide walking aids, funded through the Australian government and also involving the Frangipani Society and physiotherapists from Vila Central Hospital. The loss of VSDP's main building, caused by Cyclone Pam, has severely disrupted the services that VSDP is able to provide, at a time when children and adults with disabilities most need their support.

Motivation Australia is now running a fundraising appeal to help VSDP get back on its feet so it can replace its lost rehabilitation and office equipment, meet the immediate needs of its clients, contribute towards rent of a temporary space while VSDP seeks support from large donors to help rebuild its original building, and work toward the ongoing strengthening of VSDP and its services to assist people with disabilities in Vanuatu.

With this fundraising appeal, it should be noted that Motivation Australia's administration and accountability costs are being funded separately by Motivation Australia so that all moneys go directly to the people and services that need it most: with VSDP in Vanuatu.

On the general work of Motivation Australia and its background, Motivation is a not-for-profit development organisation, a registered charity and a member of the Australian Council for International Development. The organisation works in partnership with local organisations to enhance the quality of life for people with mobility disabilities specifically in the Asia-Pacific region, including rural and remote Australia.

Motivation Australia is based right here in Adelaide. Locals passionate about international development and the rights of people with disabilities sit on its board, and the countries which Motivation Australia currently do work in include Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Thailand, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Timor Leste and, of course, as previously mentioned, Vanuatu.

As the motion I have put forward today suggests, using World Health Organisation statistics, we can estimate that there are over 1 million people globally with a mobility-related disability. Assistive devices, such as wheelchairs, prosthetics and walking aids, increase mobility and reduce the impact of mobility impairment and reliance on government services and charity. With the aid of these devices, people with a mobility disability are better able to live independently and participate in their societies.

It is no secret that my personal campaign to get an appropriate-sized wheelchair for myself is one of the reasons I ended up in this place as a member of parliament. That in modern-day Australia our existing ability to access adequate mobility devices in a timely fashion is still such an issue gives you an idea of what challenges must be faced by people with the same needs in a developing country.

It is, therefore, very saddening to learn (but not surprising) that, in many low income and middle-income countries, the World Health Organization report on disability estimates that between only five and 15 per cent of people who require mobility equipment can actually access it. Again, as my motion notes, Motivation Australia estimates that across the small island nations in the Pacific region alone there are more than 150,000 people in need of a mobility device, with this number rising as a result of a worsening diabetes epidemic.

There is a heavy reliance in these countries on inappropriate donated equipment and a desperate lack of rehabilitation services and other services including equipment provision. Therefore, Motivation Australia's work is focused on increasing access to mobility devices in order to enable people with mobility disabilities to be active contributing members within their families, communities and broader society. This disability-specific assistance is critical in enabling people with disabilities to benefit from existing Australian government funded and other mainstream aid and development programs. Motivation Australia will continue with a number of their projects across these countries. These projects include:

improving the quality and affordability of mobility devices, such as rough-terrain wheelchairs which suit the rural environments that many wheelchair users live in;

building sustainable services and working in partnership with government and non-government organisations;

training local staff to be able to meet the needs of people with disabilities in their communities;

empowering people with a disability to help and support each other through peer training projects, such as training people in how to use their mobility device to its full potential once they get access to one; and

working with partner governments to develop and implement minimum guidelines on the provision of assistive devices.

As I have said, there are particular vulnerabilities that people in developing nations who require mobility equipment face. There are certainly exacerbated levels of the challenges that many people here in Australia now continue to face in the 21^st century. That is why Motivation Australia works both in developing countries in the Pacific region and in rural and remote Australia to holistically address these inadequacies and to promote human rights with a holistic and global perspective because, no matter who you are and no matter where you are, your human rights should remain the same and be addressed accordingly.

If members are interested in learning more about the work of Motivation Australia, I encourage them to contact me, as their ambassador. I am more than willing to provide more information as the very proud Ambassador of Motivation Australia. I also encourage members to donate to the Cyclone Pam campaign to help the Vanuatu Disabled People's Association to get back on its feet. They can do that—and, indeed, members of the broader community can do that as well—by visiting mycause.com.au and entering 'Motivation Australia' into the search terms to make sure that the money goes directly to that cause.

You can also join us at the Walk For Wheels event coming up in May, which is a walk of varying distances around the Aldinga region, and Aldinga Beach, which is modified on that day to be wheelchair accessible through the use of temporary tarmacs so that people with wheelchairs and other mobility aids can get onto the sand. It is a great event to raise funds for Motivation Australia's general work and I encourage all members to get involved with that particular event as well. I am certainly looking forward to attending it and promoting it as Motivation Australia ambassador.

So there are many opportunities available to get involved both in the Vanuatu cyclone recovery effort but also generally supporting people with mobility disabilities in the Asia-Pacific region and right here in Australia and I encourage all members to do what they can to do that.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. T.T. Ngo.