Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Flinders may not be aware of these numbers, because I assume that he is not saying that they are wrong. Under the previous government, the proportion of people with a disability below 50 per cent of the median income rose, so the relative poverty of people with disabilities increased. The incomes of people with a disability relative to those without a disability fell under the previous government. Why does it take four years for the Building Code of Australia to be reviewed to ensure that access to new premises lines up with the Disability Discrimination Act? Why did we have people acting as a disability discrimination commissioner for 11 years? They are the people who speak up on issues. Why was it that, in Australia, for the last 11 years, it was not viewed as a scandal if you could not go into a shop, if you could not catch an aeroplane, if you could not get a job or if you had half the educational outcomes of people without disabilities? Why were things not done by the previous government to remedy these issues? If you could not access entry to a shop, if you could not get a job, if you suffered relative poverty because of your skin colour or your gender, there would be a hue and cry, but what about someone with a disability—the most vulnerable in society—over whom we are now seeing crocodile tears in respect of the one-off bonus payment issue? Where was the now opposition, the previous government, when it came to championing the rights and equal treatment of people with disabilities? I am hearing a debate about protecting the most vulnerable, yet I look at the second-class treatment that people with disabilities have received and I realise that there has been something terribly unfair happening in Australia.

It was an initiative of the now opposition to set up special trusts. It was not a bad idea, but the problem was that it was executed poorly. Only 22 families in Australia have been able to access the special trust opportunities to secure people’s futures. It was a good idea that was poorly executed, and it will be up to Labor to fix it. We welcome the suggestions of the opposition on how to improve it.

Why was it that, if you worked in what was once known as a sheltered workshop, now known as a business employment service, that the previous government paid you $25 less in mobility allowance? That taxi you get to that work site is no cheaper than the taxi you get when you go to open employment. Why is it that, under the current arrangements, if you are on the disability support pension, as you would have been under the previous government, and you wanted to do work experience, then you had to lose your pension? The opposition, when they were in government, created a culture of fear, so when we hear a debate today about standing up for the carers of people with disabilities, I want to understand where the now opposition was collectively, as opposed to the individual efforts of some in the opposition, on the rights of the disabled.

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