Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) people with dyslexia have difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters and other symbols;

(b) dyslexia does not affect general intelligence; and

(c) the primary symptoms of dyslexia are:

(i) problems learning the letter sounds for reading and spelling;

(ii) difficulty in reading single words, such as on flash cards and in lists (decoding);

(iii) lack of fluency;

(iv) reading slowly with many mistakes;

(v) poor spelling; and

(vi) poor visual gestalt/coding (orthographic coding);

(2) acknowledges:

(a) the hard work of support groups, educators and families in raising awareness of dyslexia;

(b) the many programs and services helping students to achieve their best every day; and

(c) dyslexia as a disability through the Disability Discrimination Act 1992; and

(3) calls upon the Government to consider:

(a) continuing to work with the states and territories to complete the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability program and implement the disability loading recommended in the Gonski report;

(b) developing a national program which encompasses accreditation and development of schools which specialise in dyslexia, including early identification, teacher training, school autonomy, assessment and examination;

(c) adopting models such as the United Kingdom model for dyslexia, the Education, Health and Care Plan; and

(d) Dyslexia Aware School accreditation education programs in South Australian schools.

Years ago when I was a union official I was called out to a prominent South Australian retailer, and the issue was that a carpet salesman was not filling in his dockets properly and the company could not read customers' addresses. It was causing all sorts of problems. This was one of their best salesman—he was on the highest end of their commissions and they simply thought he was working too quickly, going too fast, and as a result his handwriting was barely legible on the dockets. They would have to ring customers and ask their address. In the middle of this meeting, in which the managers were being pretty tough on the salesman, he burst into tears and announced to us all that he could not read or write. It was at that point that we found the real issue there in the workplace. It was simply that he was not equipped with the skills to read or to write down the suburbs on the dockets, and it was very, very distressing for him. Once the company realised, it was distressing for them as well because the managers realised they had been giving him a hard time—and it stretched back quite a while—on an issue that he really had no control over. I also remember being quite surprised, because I had not thought that this successful salesman could have been afflicted with this very serious problem.

I think dyslexia is something that is often hidden. It often affects very intelligent people and is often underestimated by the general community. I am fortunate in my electorate to have Dr Sandra Marshall, who is a prominent GP in Gawler, who is president and chairperson of the northern Adelaide group Dyslexia Action Group Barossa and Gawler Surrounds They were formerly known as DAGBAGS but they have given themselves a new name. They have gone around some of the schools—Gawler, Immanuel College, St Brigid's Catholic School and Evanston Gardens Primary School—with a consultant from the United Kingdom, Neil MacKay, who is the creator of Dyslexia Friendly Schools in the UK and a consultant to the British Dyslexia Association. Along with my old schoolmate Bill Hansberry, who is also a student of the Kapunda High School system, as it were, they have run a number of workshops for local educators. It has been about getting those schools dyslexia friendly by being able to identify dyslexia and help the children who are affected by it.

I think this is a very hidden problem, but in many ways it shows up in the statistics, which are disturbing, with 46 per cent of 15- to 19-year-olds functionally illiterate. I had to get people to double-check that figure, but that was the figure in 2011 from the ABS.

We know that there has to be a greater investment in education. Labor's 'Your Child. Our Future' plan does have a stronger focus on a single child's needs, more attention for students, better trained teachers, more targeted resources and more support for students with special learning needs. But we also know that we have to correctly identify dyslexic students in the school system and make sure they get the proper attention in a structured learning system. Phonics is a possible learning system, because it has a lot of one-on-one help. This is the sort of thing we need to do to combat dyslexia in our schools and in our society.

This motion before the House is the start of a long journey for the parliament, but it is a journey that Dr Sandra Marshall, her friends, fellow educators and fellow parents have been walking for a very long time. It has been particularly frustrating for those parents with dyslexic children to be battling a school system that is both underfunded and perhaps does not devote the time and attention to dyslexia that we would expect. I certainly commend this motion to the House, and I acknowledge that it is the beginning of a journey to address this issue for both this parliament and the education system.

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