Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

But not as good as Brisbane, obviously. This dinner was held on a Wednesday night in Brisbane. It was actually State of Origin night, and only a Victorian based establishment like the ACTU could hold a congress dinner on State of Origin night in Queensland! I was actually there with Richard Marles. We were a little bit late and we had to run into the convention centre. We did not go up the 100 steps at the front of the building; instead we went up an escalator on the side and made our way into the dinner. I do not want to be a name-dropper but I ran into a friend of mine called Kevin. As you know, Kevin probably is not known for his long connection with the trade union movement, although he was a trade union member when he was younger. Strangely enough, Kevin and I come from the same home town.

There we were, in the convention centre in Brisbane. I should stress that this man’s name was Kevin Cocks, not  the other more famous Kevin. Kevin Cocks is famous certainly in disability circles. I know Kevin from when I was a kid. He is the same age as one of my brothers; we both used to play football at St George. In fact, I was at the Rowden Park football ground in St George on the day that he was playing against St George. He had been a shearer and then he had joined the bank and went to another country town—Dalby, I think it was—and they were playing against St George. I vividly recall where I was sitting on the day that a scrum collapsed. I was in grade nine, so I was whatever age that is—12 or so. I remember there was a bit of a kerfuffle and they took him off in the ambulance and then we found out later that Kevin Cocks had broken his neck and was now a quadriplegic.

Fast forward quite a few more years, Kevin Cocks in his wheelchair had became an advocate for people with disabilities and the Queensland government, in their wisdom, had decided to build a brand new convention centre. Strangely enough, it decided to put 100 steps at the front of the building. It is about 100; it seems like about 500 when you walk up them. It is certainly not something you could take a person up in a wheelchair, like Kevin Cocks. So Kevin said, ‘Before you finish that building, maybe you should consider, rather than saying we can go around to the goods entrance at the side, making reasonable allowance for the fact that people in wheelchairs, maybe people who are getting on in years, or people with prams would find those steps a little bit hard to navigate.’ Obviously the Queensland government, in their wisdom, said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous—we are the government; we know what is best. It would cost a lot of money to make such an adjustment’.

Thankfully Kevin triumphed in his case at the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland and we now have a convention centre that, while not perfect, is much improved. Maybe if we had our time over some of those universal design concepts might have led to a slightly different design. Certainly every time I walk up those front steps I think of Kevin. So it was fantastic to be at the ACTU Congress dinner. I was at one table and there was my mate Kevin from St George there as well. I have ended up in federal politics, and my mate Kevin was there sitting near the Prime Minister. In terms of a tale of two Kevins, there were two people who despite their different lives were sitting in the same room. It was a very touching moment.

This brings me back to the reason I am on my feet, which is to talk about the report put forward by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. I am proud to be associated with that report. As the member for Blair pointed out, it was a unanimous report and there were some great contributions put forward. I acknowledge the great work of the chair, Mark Dreyfus QC, and the deputy chair and all the members of the committee. The report is called Access all areas: report of the inquiry into draft Disability (Access to Premises—Buildings) Standards. On the cover—it was my idea, actually—there is the idea of a backstage pass. It did not quite a translate, but the concept was that if you have a pass at a rock concert that says ‘Access all areas’, you can meet all the rock stars, you can drink all the drinks and consume everything in the green room et cetera.

That was the concept. Certainly for me the idea would be that we should be doing what we can with our design principles for everyone in Australia—whether you have a disability or not, whether you are young, old or in a pram—to make sure that we can all access all areas. Obviously, we start off in a pram and then, maybe, at the end of our lives our mobility may decline somewhat.

This report addressed public areas only. I have my own beliefs about the ideas of universal design principles eventually extending to all buildings, be they private dwellings or public buildings, but this report only looked at public buildings. It was a fantastic process in terms of hearing from witnesses, from people who had been affected by these governmental decisions and from people who count the beans when it comes to the cost of building design. I do believe that this report and the legislation which will follow are important steps towards the day when our ageing population and the 1.3 million Australians with a severe or profound disability will be able to access all buildings, be they private dwellings or public buildings.

Universal design is the simple and powerful concept of building homes that meet the needs of all people, regardless of age or impairment, and that can be easily and cheaply adapted to meet the changing needs of occupants. As I said, we start off in a pram and then our circumstances change over our threescore and ten—or whatever it is that we are allotted. The report certainly opened my eyes, as had Kevin Cocks when I met him and had a lot to do with him over the years when I started off my post-teaching career as a lawyer. He made the point that you can assist if you design properly at the start; then the costs are minimal when it comes to redesigning rooms later whether private or public.

I know that there were lots of confrontations in the corridors when we had these hearings throughout Australia—corridors that were sometimes a little bit too narrow and at other times were able to accommodate all. But it was a fantastic process and I thank all my fellow members on the committee for their input. I look forward to the legislation that flows from the report.

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