Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Let me make no bones about it: Australia’s treatment of those living with severe and permanent disabilities and their families or carers is offensive and discriminatory. In a society as advanced as ours, as wealthy as ours and as mature as ours, it is a failure of morality that we are not doing more. This is a group that crosses every culture within our community but remains significantly marginalised from participating in community life. There is so much that needs to be done. It is bigger than one minister, bigger than one government and requires us to recognise the need for bipartisan support. I first spoke on this subject in 1999 when speaking to the Assistance for Carers Legislation Amendment Bill. I said at the time, and it still holds true:

I cannot begin to imagine how difficult life as a parent could become while looking after the needs of three children with disabilities … There is no holiday pay, no sick pay, no workers compensation or superannuation. The job that carers take on is a lifetime one.

The carers in this country, ranging from a young child looking after a parent to the elderly parents of a severely disabled adult child, are treated as second-class citizens. These are people who should, in no uncertain terms, be revered and recognised as our heroes, but we have let them down. We have been able to get away with it because they are all too tired and too busy to fight us.

The huge surplus this government has been left provides an ideal opportunity for us to show we are bigger than the blame game. The Prime Minister has to be taken at his word—that he and his government will put a stop to the blame game. We need to ensure that choice is the key. Just as the Prime Minister has identified with the Indigenous housing problems, there is no such thing as a ‘one size fits all solution’. For too long disability services have been chopped and changed depending on the minister in control. A joint policy commission to end the handballing of responsibility needs to be established as a matter of urgency.

A joint commission must understand that organised advocacy groups are not the only voice for those living with disabilities. They are a voice, but to date they have often had too much say and control, with sometimes dire consequences for those affected but not consulted. This politicisation takes on a life of its own and eventually superimposes its needs over the primary goals of the group. The member for Maribyrnong, Bill Shorten, got it right when he said:

In this great country, if I were another skin colour or if I were a woman and could not enter a shop, ride a bus, catch an aeroplane or get a job, there would be a hue and cry—and deservedly so—but if I am in a wheelchair or have a mental illness or an intellectual disability then somehow the same treatment is accepted. Why should I be told to be grateful to receive charity rather than equality?

The Wikispace WhatCarersNeed is the perfect space for all carers to have their say and for governments to use as a resource. One contributor said:

I am a mother, a nurse, a therapist, a playmate, a teacher, a friend, a babysitter, a cleaner, a nutritionist, a psychologist, a secretary and other things. The person I am caring for would prefer I was just a mum and that others would enter his world and share some of these roles. There really needs to be a shake-up, as there is too much bureaucracy—too much ticking and flicking and updating databases with our personal information and no hands-on support. We need help at home, we need somewhere safe to take our kids when it is just too difficult. We want some tax relief for the special equipment we have to purchase, and extra activities that gives our children more opportunity in life.

Closer to home is the story of Gloria and Keith Masson and their daughter, Jenny. Mr and Mrs Masson have written to me imploring that something be done to help them because they were in desperate straits, highly stressed and with little prospect, if any, of finding respite. After detailing in their letter to me just their expenses for sending their 31-year-old daughter to a respite service in Canberra, they justifiably asked, ‘How can that be fair?’ It was a huge cost to them, $631 per night, which for a 10-day stay cost them $6,310. There are myriad stories out there, all pointing to the fact that not enough is being done.

The Labor Party is in government at both state and federal levels, so what better opportunity to enter into a pact and to actually get something done? In the end, any initiative must endure beyond the term of any one government and must be coordinated in such a way as not to be compromised by multiple levels of bureaucracy. In this matter, it must be a one-stop shop and must take away unnecessary pressures from the very people it purports to assist. This has to be a bipartisan approach, above and beyond the temptation to score brownie points.

We are a prosperous nation; we can afford to do this. We are also a nation with high ideals and morals; we must do this. We are also a highly compassionate nation; how can we not do this? I commend this motion to the government in the strongest possible terms.

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