Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to be supporting this motion moved by the member for Lindsay and to reaffirm my commitment to Labor's visionary National Disability Insurance Scheme. I am particularly concerned about reports that there are secret plans to remove support from those who have autism. We know that early intervention with autism is absolutely crucial to helping kids achieve the very best that they can and supporting parents to do this. Those reports are extremely concerning.

Today, I want to talk about the NDIS from the perspective of just one of the many people who has had to battle to have a fair go. Rachel Privitera is a young mum from Bligh Park in Hawkesbury in my electorate of Macquarie. She has an eight-year-old son, Cameron, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and epilepsy, is tube fed and is legally blind. Rachel is tough. She is a fighter. But she has been forced by an underfunded and unsupported NDIS to fight harder than she should have to just so that Cameron can have access to the things he needs just to get by.

Rachel has found the battle with the National Disability Insurance Authority all-consuming. When I met with her recently with the Leader of the Opposition, she described devoting every waking moment to fighting for her son. She was doing things like walking away from the car, leaving the boot open and accidentally leaving bags in places, all because of how totally consuming her battle with the NDIA was. She wasn't being selfish. She wasn't fighting for what anyone would consider to be luxuries. This was about keeping her son sufficiently hydrated. I'm not going to go into the personal medical details here, but Rachel did share them with us when she spoke with us, and it's clear that the NDIA and this government are not doing enough.

The reality is that this government doesn't see Rachel and Cameron as a priority. If they did, they would not be throwing money at big banks and big businesses; they would be committing resources to ensure that the NDIS was working effectively and working the way it was intended to, so that everyday mums like Rachel don't have to have their lives turned upside down repeatedly by bureaucracy. Rachel has fought her way through the inadequacies and the downfalls of a poorly implemented NDIS, and secured her son what he needs.

What is so impressive, though, about this young mother is that she's not satisfied to have adequate resources for her own son alone. She's concerned for every man, woman and child who doesn't have the ability to fight the way she fought for Cameron. She's concerned that many are not having their voices heard or their needs addressed because the system simply isn't accessible. You shouldn't have to fight for something that you have a right to. The loudness of your voice and the people that you know should not determine whether or not you access the NDIS.

Rachel has now gone even further in her fight: she's taking up the fight for all families who have children with a disability. I want to share with you her words about the sort of facilities she wants to see in our communities. She wants to see fully inclusive playgrounds, like Livvi's Place playgrounds, so families like hers can feel like part of the community, not separate from it. She says:

When our family goes to a Livvi's Place playground, we can stay for hours, we invite other friends from Cameron's special needs school, we have a BBQ! These are things that a normal family do. In a normal park, without equipment for Cameron, we can only stay for half an hour. Cameron cries, he's excluded, he can hear other kids playing & laughing.

They're the words of a mum who knows what our community needs. It's not Cameron's disability that holds him back; it's his lack of access to things that the rest of us just take for granted.

As many Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains residents know, neither place is completely accessible. In the Hawkesbury, we have bumpy and slanted walkways, a legacy of our heritage. We have heritage guttering, high enough to ensure that a trip down the street counts as a leg day at the gym. All of this is a challenge not just for wheelchairs but for prams and elderly walkers. The mountainous terrain naturally creates its own challenges, especially for people to access recreational areas. There is certainly a demand from the community for greater inclusivity in our play areas. I'm determined to see more inclusive facilities across Macquarie, and I'll be standing alongside Rachel and Cameron and other families to fight for what is their right and for a fair go.

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