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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-11-30 Daily Xml
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Disability

The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:44): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding disabilities. Can the minister provide an update to the council on how the Marshall Liberal government continues to clean up Labor's mess in the disability space since the last election?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:44): I thank the honourable member for her question, and indeed this is a very important issue in South Australia.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Leader of the Opposition is out of order.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: There are a number of things—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Leader of the Opposition is in great danger of doing himself an injury with that pencil.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Thank you, Mr President; I thank you for your protection of the Leader of the Opposition from himself. We have indeed been engaging in a range of activities to assist people with a disability. One of the most important things that we have done is to release media guidelines called Report it Right for reporting of people with disabilities.

This is particularly in response to the reporting of the death of Ann Marie Smith last year and a lot of public commentary, and indeed some of the commentary that has come from the mouths of members of the Labor Party, where it's my personal view that they have been ableist and patronising towards people with disability, particularly assuming that everybody who has a disability is vulnerable.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Order, the Government Whip! Order, Leader of the Opposition! The minister will continue.

The Hon. R.P. Wortley: Thank God it's your last week on government benches.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Wortley, order!

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Mr President, the Labor Party continue to show disrespect—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Hon. Mr Hunter!

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Ms Bourke, order! Minister, continue.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —to people with lived experience, given that this particular document has been embraced by people with disability. I do note—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: You have been in the job for four years and all you’ve got to show for it is a pamphlet. You should be ashamed of yourself.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter!

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Minister, continue.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I do not often play the female card, but I do notice that these members particularly like to scream at women.

The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister shouldn't be pointing, whether she's got a book in her hand or not.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: They won't let them ask questions in the House of Assembly and they won't let them debate their own legislation.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: Point of order.

The PRESIDENT: Order! I have a point of order. The minister will resume her seat.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: Point of order: I frequently scream at the minister also, so what she is saying is totally untrue.

The PRESIDENT: Well, that's totally out of order as well.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The opposition is in grave danger of losing the next question if we don't continue. Minister, I would like you to conclude your answer fairly soon.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: This is actually a really important issue, and people with lived experience have said to us that this is a really important issue, that they feel distressed when people use bad language, when they patronise people with disability, assume that they are all vulnerable and that they all need to be protected—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —and treated in the same way.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, leader!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: These guidelines are a really important part of addressing ableism in our community, which is quite prevalent, and people with lived experience reported to us that they often feel that the reporting of them in the media is inappropriate. As you would be very familiar with yourself, Mr President, we have had suicide guidelines for some time. We have also had, in relation to domestic and family violence, the websites and the numbers for people to contact when those stories are reported.

Common stereotypes for people with disability include that having a disability is a tragedy and that families, particularly spouses of people with a disability, are heroic. We need to respect the diversity of people with disability in our community and use the correct language. It's very important that these guidelines are adhered to. I would particularly like to draw to the attention of the Labor Party page 20, in relation to reporting on deaths. We had the very inappropriate manner in which the member for Hurtle Vale in particular in the Labor Party used the death of someone in one of our accommodation centres—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter, order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —without the permission of the next of kin, in the media, for their own base purposes. They are a disgrace.

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