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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-10-14 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Disability Access and Inclusion Plans

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:20): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Human Services regarding disability.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: The Disability Inclusion Act 2018 requires state authorities to have a disability access and inclusion plan in place by 31 October, around two weeks from now. Before finalising their plans, regulations that were made by this minister require each authority to prepare a draft plan, publish the draft plan on a website that is accessible for people with a disability and consult with people with a disability, their families, carers and bodies representing the interests of people with a disability.

Searches show that many state authorities, including the police, the Attorney-General, Premier and Cabinet, Child Protection, Corrections, SA Water and local councils, amongst others, have published their draft plans and sought feedback. Indeed, the minister's Principal Disability Adviser, Kelly Vincent, recently said:

People with disabilities sometimes need extra time to give feedback…if you want it to be accessible and you want it to be genuine it's going to take a while.

The SA Housing Authority is a critical agency for meeting the needs of people living with a disability. More than half of all SA Housing Authority properties are home to at least one person living with a disability, and its largest single customer group are those who receive a disability support pension. It has been brought to our attention that there is no public record of the SA Housing Authority (an agency the minister directly oversees) consulting on a draft plan, let alone publishing a plan, as required by the minister's own legislation.

My question to the minister is: has your own agency that supports tens of thousands of people with a disability breached its own regulations? What measures are in place to monitor and ensure compliance with these regulations?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:22): I thank the honourable member for his question. We are indeed looking forward to the advent of disability action and inclusion plans, which will be required to be provided by 31 October 2020. Some agencies have indicated, and indeed local government have indicated, that theirs may be late, particularly due to COVID and some of the consultation time frames, but I do look forward to receiving as many of those as possible by the end of this month and thereafter being able to table those documents.

Disability action and inclusion plans need to support strategies to support people with disability to access environments, events and facilities, information and communications and to address the specific needs of people with a disability in its programs and services and employment.

Particularly in relation to the South Australian Housing Authority, they seek to have a minimum standard of, off the top of my head, 90 per cent of new builds to be built to a silver standard for disability access, as one of their own internal standards. I will double-check with the organisation to verify what their status is in relation to their particular DAIP.

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