Annette Ellis (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure for me to have the opportunity today to speak to the motion brought forward to the House by the member for Riverina. I congratulate her on doing that today and I join with her in what I understand to be a very strong passion of hers in relation to the representation of people with disabilities in our country. I recognise the work that the member for Riverina has put into making many members of the government and of this House more aware of the issues facing people with disabilities, their carers and their families. I think she may have had something to do with the backgrounding of the government in relation to the announcement made in October last year of the $200 million towards the establishment hopefully of some private trusts to help out in the future.

Can I very quickly say two things I wish to recognise of the government. The first is the $200 million that they made available from last October and the work that I understand is going on to establish that particular process. I also recognise the $244 million over five years that was announced through the COAG process to address the issue of young people in nursing homes. These issues are related, and I recognise and thank the government for those two initiatives. Any step forward is a step forward that we must recognise and acknowledge.

In relation to the $244 million for the young people in nursing homes campaign, can I say that I truly believe that that will only be effective if we see another $200 million or $300 million next year and another $200 million or $300 million the next year and the next year so that we have a cumulative effect. I am hoping very desperately that that $244 million over five years does not mean that we do not hear anything for another five years. My emphasis would be that the only way we could ever begin to approach that issue is to have that sort of government policy and that sort of government announcement.

In relation to accommodation for people with disabilities generally, there are a couple of things I really need to say. First of all, I would like the government to make available the numbers that exist around Australia of adults living with a disability in the care of an ageing parent or an ageing couple of parents. My suspicion is that there are many, many thousands of them—and this is just one category alone. Not all of them will be able to afford to set up trusts. There will be many who can, and they will be encouraged to save for the future needs of their children through this process, but there will be many who will not be able to.

We really need to understand the dimension of these numbers. I fear the high number and I am very concerned as to exactly what we as a society—I am not talking about governments here—are in a position to offer to assist these people into the future, because that is what we are talking about. There can be nothing more discouraging for an ageing or aged parent, particularly and generally a woman on her own. Her husband may have passed away, she is in her 70s or 80s and she has a 40- or 50-year-old son or daughter with a disability living in the household with her with no idea of what is going to happen in the future.

Several things need to occur. First of all, we need to be able to offer those families options. They may be options they can afford; they may be options they cannot afford and that we need to assist with. We cannot encourage these people to even consider that unless we have those options in front of them. One of the most difficult things is to encourage these families to believe that their child does in fact have the hope of an independent life outside that family. I know that many members in this place will be very aware of people who clutch their children into the bosom of their family because they believe that nobody else can care for them as they do. Why should we blame them for that when we have not given them anybody to care for them, when we have not provided that adequately in first place?

We really need to have a two-pronged approach to this. One approach is, yes, certainly, to set up these trusts—future savings for children of the future. If a child is born with a disability, why on earth do we run around like mad people 25 years later wondering how to house them when we have known they have been coming for 25 years? So the trust establishment is a very good idea, but it will only work if there are alternatives as well for those who do not have the financial ability or where there are other considerations, where society and government at all levels step in and help.

The previous speaker, the member for Kingston, had a bit of a go at the South Australian government. With the greatest of respect, we have to stop doing that. It is not any singular government’s fault; it is the society in which we live, the community that we represent and how we care for these people collectively that really matters. Pressure from people in this place is a very good start. I put my support behind what has been done so far, but I implore all of us to continue to support any initiative and to put the pressure wherever it is needed to improve this whole situation into the future. (Time expired)

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