Matters of Interest

National Relay Service

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:21): I rise today to speak about Australia's National Relay Service, which is currently under threat. Australia's National Relay Service has been one of the world's best relay services since 1995; however, on 4 April this year, the Australian government released a request for tender for the next contract for the National Relay Service, a tender that would see that service slip from being the world's best to potentially one of the world's worst relay services. Consumers who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or who have speech impairment rely on the National Relay Service as a natural bridge to vital services and the wider community.

The government now sees the National Relay Service as a safety net rather than an equivalent phone service for consumers with disabilities, as it has come to be. Australia's National Relay Service consumer organisations have repeatedly made key recommendations to improve the NRS; however, it appears that none of those recommendations have been incorporated into the government's recently released tender documents. In 2016-17, the actual cost of operating the National Relay Service was close to $32 million a year.

The request for tender proposes only $22 million per annum cap on the service for the three years of the new contract. This does not support the recommendations made by the consumer organisations in which the National Relay Service needs to be funded on a cost recovery basis. While access to emergency services remains a 365-day, 24-hour requirement, the request for tender does not stipulate operating hours required for all other services.

This puts at risk those current relay services which are operating on that 365-day, 24/7 model and critically ignores the recommendations that Auslan Video Relay become a 365-day, 24-hour service. The outreach program, a vital community education and NRS training program, was dramatically defunded in 2017 and will not be in introduced in the next NRS contract. Additionally, the new contract will require all deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind and those who are speech impaired relay users to register to use the NRS; however, people wanting to contact those relay users will not need to register to use that service. Many NRS users believe that this is a breach of fundamental disability antidiscrimination principles, requiring only people with a disability to register in order to access what is an essential service.

Kyle Miers, Chief Executive of Deaf Australia, has said that the government and Department of Communications took no notice of consumers' concerns with the essential service definition, adding that 'the new National Relay Service will not address the issues of isolation and social exclusion'.

Australian National Relay Service users call on the federal government to ensure that the National Relay Service of the future does not decrease their access to this vital service. Yesterday in this place, I certainly called on the Marshall government to ensure that South Australians are not disadvantaged by this new tender. If one simply looks at the app for the National Relay Service, on the phone, it is summed up by the very first user review, 'The NRS has opened up a whole new world for me.' It allows people to make communication with the vital services that we all in this place no doubt enjoy being able to access—things such as calling the police for assistance or contacting Service SA to undertake your business. Any particular government or community service that we need day to day, every day, 24/7, 365 days a year, is currently under threat if you are deaf, hard of hearing, blind or have a speech impairment.

I echo the words of the now former member, the Hon. Kelly Vincent, wishing us all well on the first day of parliament on Twitter, and noting that the responsibility of every one of us in this place is that social reforms enabling independence bring economic gain and that no-one is voiceless—there are only those we have not yet learned to listen to. By not listening to these voices and these concerns about the National Relay Service we would be closing those doors on South Australians. I urge us all to step up and ensure that this service is maintained to the standard that is required 24/7, 365 days a year.