Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Makin for his question. On Friday in Sydney, with the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services, the member for Maribyrnong, I attended a meeting of Commonwealth, state and territory disability ministers. It was a very productive meeting. In fact, it was one of the most productive meetings that has taken place for many, many years in this area. It marked a new era of cooperation, the type of cooperation that Australia needs—particularly people with disabilities, their families and their carers—if we are to move beyond the divisions of the past to make sure that we can deliver the services that vulnerable groups in our community need.

Thousands of people with a disability, their families and their carers will benefit from the $1.9 billion boost in funding that was agreed on Friday. State and territory disability ministers agreed to deliver $900 million in funding on top of the Australian government’s $1 billion commitment. The good news is that this is money on top of the service provision in the last Commonwealth state/territory disability agreement. This is a very significant step forward for Australia’s disability system, and I want to highlight the particular improvements to services that will result.

The $1.9 billion is going to deliver around 2,300 in-home support services, 2,300 supported accommodation places, 9,900 individual support packages and, very importantly, 10,000 much-needed respite places in a range of forms across Australia. Ministers also agreed to start delivering immediately the 309 new supported accommodation places with the $100 million in capital that the Prime Minister announced on 4 May would be given to the states and territories for this purpose. So in total there are going be 24,500 places that will begin to ease the anxiety of people with disabilities, their families and their carers, many of whom have waited far too long for this support.

There have been some positive responses to the announcement and the agreement that we arrived at on Friday. The convenor of the disability advocacy group the CSTDA Alliance, Sue Harris, said on Friday, ‘It gives people hope.’ Carers Australia said in a statement:

... the new agreement will bring greater certainty to the lives of families who had been left floundering for far too long.

Carers Australia President Pam Webster went on to say:

This is a fantastic achievement for everyone concerned. We would like to acknowledge all the hard work that has produced this important milestone.

I echo those remarks and, in particular, give my thanks to our state and territory colleagues and to the parliamentary secretary for disabilities—who, I have to say, is an outstanding advocate for people with a disability. It really does demonstrate what can be delivered when people work together.

I would note, however, that Pam Webster did go on to say—and I think she is right:

While this is a very significant announcement, the continual growth in the need for carer support means the job is not yet done.

We agree. The government do understand that this is just a first step. More does need to be done. There were other measures in the budget. In particular, I want to draw the House’s attention to the fairer rules for carer payment (child). This will help 19,000 parents of children with profound disabilities, something they also had been waiting a very long time to receive. Unfortunately, under the previous government, we had disability ministers meetings completely breaking down, with ministers unable to come to an agreement. And, of course, it was always descending into the blame game. The new government have an approach based on cooperation. We intend to get things done—to deliver for people with disabilities, for their families and for their carers.

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