Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I second the motion put forward by the member for Ryan which highlights the issue of primary language disorder and, most importantly, calls for a review of the Better Start for Children with Disability initiative to potentially include primary language disorder in the list of categories which that initiative funds. I also commend the member for Oxley on his fine words just before me in providing very strong support for this motion.

Primary language disorder is in many ways a hidden condition that can have a significant impact on a child's ability to learn and engage. It is not easy to detect and therefore can sometimes go unnoticed. However, it is widespread and is said to affect a very high proportion of Australian school children. Some studies have suggested that as many as one in 14 Australian school children are affected by primary language disorder in some capacity. Clearly, there is a spectrum—from those who have very severe primary language disorder and struggle to communicate at all to those who just have difficulties communicating but can still, nevertheless, communicate some language to others. So the proportion of people who are potentially suffering obviously means that this disorder is having a significant impact on a large part of Australian society.

The disorder itself causes speech and language skills to be impaired. Therefore, a child with this condition has trouble expressing themselves—what they are thinking and how they are feeling. They also have difficulty in understanding when others are communicating with them. While this can seem fairly innocuous, it can actually have a severe impact on a child's growth and development, both academically and socially.

What assistance is there to support these children who suffer from this disorder? Sadly, there is no consistent assistance which applies across Australia to help such children but, as the member for Ryan highlighted, there is at least one school in Australia, the Glenleighden School, which does amazing work in this area. It caters for people who have severe primary language disorder. It does, as the member for Ryan pointed out, amazing things and ensures that those kids, after a couple of years, can move into a mainstream school and adequately cope there, socialise and develop fully just as any other kid can do. I commend the school on their fine work and on their commitment to raising awareness of this disorder around the nation.

However, I also believe that we must look at other ways of providing support to parents and schools catering for students who suffer from this condition. I strongly believe that the government must, where it can, provide assistance to those suffering generally from a disability including from the disability at question here. I understand there are so many needs which compete for funding. I generally think we need to provide more money overall for kids who have learning difficulties or disabilities generally. I think that funding needs to not only go to kids at government schools but equally go to kids at Catholic and independent schools; it should not matter which school you attend.

The Better Start for Children with Disability initiative is a good program which does provide funding for kids who do have disabilities. However, there is only a short list of disabilities which make the grade for this program such as Down's syndrome, cerebral palsy, and hearing and vision impairment. I by no means would like to see the funding for those disabilities reduced but I would like to see a review of this program with a view to expanding it and potentially incorporating primary language disorder in the list which it may be able to fund in the future. That is in essence the nature of the motion in front of us. The motion calls for a review to take a proper look at this particular initiative, assesses its adequacy and also determine whether or not primary language disorder should be incorporated in the list of disabilities which should be funded under that program.

I congratulate the member for Ryan for moving this motion this evening. Again, I congratulate the member for Oxley, the speakers on the other side of the chamber and also those who have brought this issue to our attention. (Time expired)

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