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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-11-12 Daily Xml
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Motions

Disability In All Policy

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (16:29): I move:

That this council notes that—

1. In responding to the everyday treatment of some South Australians living with disability and their family carers that equates to an existence as second-class citizens, that the government implement central leadership for Disability in All Policy (DiAP) through a leadership group of the executive committee of cabinet Chief Executives Group (CEG);

2 This group will report to the executive committee of cabinet, charged with overseeing the development, implementation and evaluation of DiAP across government;

3. A memorandum of understanding should be developed between Disability SA and the Department of the Premier and Cabinet (DPC) to describe the relationship, roles and functions in supporting CEG to oversee DiAP;

4. Disability SA and DPC should undertake a priority-setting process in the third quarter of each calendar year for the DiAP work into the following years, with a three-year time frame for implementation across all portfolio areas;

5. Priority targets should—

(a) be policy focused;

(b) have an evidence base linking target to disability;

(c) have current strategic political relevance, for example, Council of Australian Governments (COAG);

(d) consolidate/leverage/build on existing Disability SA projects;

(e) have opportunity to link early in policy development/planning processes;

(f) address the existing capacity available within Disability SA, other relevant agencies and South Australian universities; and

(g) address issues of equity and access for people with disabilities; and

6. An extensive cross-government consultation process should be undertaken, with input from policy experts from numerous government agencies, together with DPC and Disability SA.

I would like to start my contribution by quoting from Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Article 9 is the particular article that deals with accessibility and it states in part:

To enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life, States Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure to persons with disabilities access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, to transportation, to information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public, both in urban and in rural areas. These measures, which shall include the identification and elimination of obstacles and barriers to accessibility, shall apply to, inter alia:

(a) Buildings, roads, transportation and other indoor and outdoor facilities, including schools, housing, medical facilities and workplaces;

(b) Information, communications and other services, including electronic services and emergency services.

Today I rise on this matter because we at Dignity for Disability believe that the obligations of the government under this particular article have been overlooked and ignored for far too long in this state. There is something about the state of affairs in South Australia currently that has caused us to fall seriously behind our sister states when it comes to the everyday respect and inclusion of people with disabilities.

On a daily basis, my office is contacted by people who are facing crises of varying degrees. This occurs on a daily basis because people with a disability are battling bureaucracy in a bid to enable us to access the world. I have stated before and I will state again that it is in fact my aim to do myself out of a job when having a disability in South Australia is no longer a full-time job in and of itself.

To ensure that our governments act to improve the lives of people with a disability, it is necessary to seek the implementation of a disability in all policy (DiAP) initiative. Dignity for Disability understands that not every government bureaucrat has a working knowledge of the Building Code, nor the Disability Discrimination Act but, in order to change the thinking of all South Australians, including those in government, we need to implement a paradigm shift from the top down.

There is no excuse for not understanding that it is simply wrong that a person who uses a mobility aid, for instance, is required to telephone a bus operator either the night before planned travel or on the day of travel to find out whether an accessible bus will be available for them on their route. This is the reality of life for many of us without a private vehicle.

There are people in this state who literally have to beg for continence aids to be provided to them on a six-monthly basis and who are granted the essential item but who must apply again and again because someone simply does not understand that their condition is lifelong and it will not change and therefore the need for continence aids will not change.

There are people who, this very morning, will not have been able to get out of bed at their chosen time because a roster has not been updated for six weeks and what was intended as a short-term change of arrangements has not reverted to their usual routine. There are students who want to have face-to-face access to a TAFE course, but who are told that it would be easier for everyone if they just completed their course online.

This is not equity of access, yet this is the daily reality for far too many South Australians living with disability because for decades we have been forced to build our lives around the very systems that should support us to build our lives in the manner of our choosing.

Mr President, you and other members in this chamber may be thinking the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) will be the panacea to all that ails the disability community in South Australia. I wish I could tell you that this is the case, but it is not, because we need to see a whole-of-government approach to ensure that disability really matters and that it is understood and respected throughout all policy processes in this state.

Just as we have seen cyclists pilloried in the media in recent times, so too are there appalling rumblings about the rights of people with disabilities wanting to access services. On behalf of people with a disability, I am calling for strong leadership because I believe we can cause the change we need by including the lens of disability in the initial planning and review stages of all government policy.

The more we treat disability as though it is some kind of alien experience, or a specialist field, the more this ignorance—however well-meaning it may be—pushes we people with disabilities further towards the sidelines of society, and society, in turn, misses out on our opinions, skills and contributions. The truth is that we are all touched, in some way, by disability, and this involvement will only increase in the future. Ultimately, we are all contributing to support for disability through our taxes, so we all deserve a holistic, effective, human approach.

It is also important to remember that while, for many of us, deafness and/or disability forms an integral part of who we are—our identity and our culture—we are not only affected by services which have the word 'disability' in their name. We need access to health services, electricity services, water services—the list goes on. However, it is often on the misunderstanding by a particular department of disability-related needs which prevents us accessing these other services. It is time we worked together to end the frustration which many people with disabilities feel when we see our taxes going towards funding services which we, ourselves, cannot access.

1981 was proclaimed the International Year of Disabled Persons. Members will understand that at that time I was not even born, yet people worked very hard back then and expected to see changes in attitudes and accessibility. One would hope that the battles of the past would have paved the way for an easier life for people with disabilities by now—long before now—but in too many ways that has not yet eventuated. So, we need to continue to take solid, cohesive action.

There are some 320,000 South Australians living with disability in some way, including 100,000 in our community with a profound or severe disability, yet Dignity for Disability's call for a disability services commissioner has not been heeded. I feel frustrated that even with a seat in parliament the issues for people with a disability continue to pile up.

We have seen documents (such as the state's Strategic Plan) call for action on issues such as self-managed funding for people with disabilities. The targets are pathetically low and we need to be asking why and working out what it is that can be done to encourage more people to uptake the scheme and identify the barriers that have hitherto prevented people from moving to self-management, if they would like to do so.

Although South Australia has agreed to full implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme from 2018, for all people with disability under the age of 65 we must still take responsibility for the state-based policy that fails to recognise the needs of people with disabilities that exist in all areas of government. Targets for increased employment of people with disabilities will only be met when we can shift the knowledge and understanding of the community from ignorance and intolerance to a genuine welcoming, understanding and acceptance of diversity in all of its forms.

Incidents where highly-qualified brilliant people are searching for even menial work because no door is open to them are all too common, and it makes me wonder: where is the broader policy that will back up their entry to the workforce?

It is not acceptable that decisions are being made which affect the everyday access and lives of people with disabilities, including access to public spaces, without reference to the ability of all. This cannot be written off as ignorance, because it has to be somebody's job to make sure that such decisions take into account the needs of all South Australians. Good intentions do not create an accessible community: good policy does.

My office has been approached over the years by people in government seeking advice on issues of accessibility. This would indicate that people do not know where to go to gain knowledge of appropriate terminology, protocol, access and so on when you are working with people with disabilities. In a few weeks we will once again observe International Day of People with Disabilities. The focus this year is on technology and there will, doubtless, be many advances in the coming years that will transform the lives of some people living with disabilities through technological advances.

Yet, here in South Australia, we struggle to ensure that government websites, for example, host even the most basic accessibility features necessary to make them accessible to all at the same time as departments are pulling back on publishing and distributing hard copies of materials. These decisions affect people's lives in a real way. Surely we could expect that access to information is a fundamental right of modern life. Indeed, if Australia is to be a true signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, then the article that I cited in this speech points out that we have affirmed this and we need to continue to back that up with real action.

Other states have found the resources and had the sense to offer Auslan interpretation, and alternative formats to printing and accessible websites. South Australia has to shift into gear, and we need to begin at the top with decision-makers because, if the decision-makers remain ignorant of the needs of people with disabilities and the rights of people with disabilities, the fact is we have little chance of transforming the hearts and minds of those in the community.

This motion represents a mechanism designed to put active consideration of disability-related matters at the heart of the policy process. One could say it has been designed to prevent the failures of ignorance and to, by its very nature, ensure that our policy process is informed by people who know and understand the lives of people with disabilities—that would be us: people with disabilities. Dignity for Disability considers that Disability in All Policy forms a non-negotiable, essential component of modern, effective policy-making in South Australia. I commend this motion to the chamber and welcome further discussion and input from members.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. T.J. Stephens.

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