Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2024-2025, particularly as it relates to the portfolio of social services and disability services. I will start with the royal commission that was held into disability services. This was established by the coalition in April 2019, and it was properly established in response to community concern about widespread reports of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability. It has now come down with 222 recommendations. It was a long road leading to the release of the royal commission's findings. Although released over eight months ago, we still have not seen a proper ministerial response to those recommendations.

Just to recap, the royal commission was far reaching. There were almost 8,000 submissions received, 17,824 phone inquiries, 14 issues papers published and 1,785 private sessions held. With all the energy that went into that royal commission, it is appropriate that it should be responded to by the minister. My question to the minister is: aside from budget commitments of $227 million from 2023-24 to replace the existing Disability Employment Services program and $23 million to establish a disability employment centre of excellence, how much is in the budget this year and across the forward estimates in response to the royal commission's 222 recommendations?

Secondly, what specific measures has the minister taken to improve outcomes for people with disabilities in response to the findings—222 findings—of the disability royal commission's final report? And how does the government plan to prioritise engagement and consultation with the disability community in formulating its formal response to the disability royal commission's final report? Most importantly, when will the minister release the government's formal response?

I want to turn now to education for students with disability. There is an increasing number of students with disability in our schools—they're an increasing proportion of our schools' students—and there's increasing demand for higher levels of adjustment for these students.

… Australian schools do not consistently deliver an inclusive education that protects students with disability from violence, abuse and neglect.

That's a direct quote from the disability royal commission's report. It goes on:

Students with disability face multiple barriers to inclusive education, underpinned by negative attitudes and low expectations.

We need to do far better in this space. Schools do systematically exclude students with disability. They do this by sometimes not providing appropriate adjustments and supports to enable those students' participation in classrooms and in the broader school community. However, there are many students who simply cannot be accommodated in mainstream schools, and—no matter the will of the teachers and the extraordinary work that the teachers and teachers' aides are doing in those schools—for some students, mainstream schools simply are not the answer.

We have some excellent segregated or special schools doing remarkable work for students with disabilities across our country. I particularly want to mention three in my electorate: Bates Drive School, the Minerva School and also the Cook School.

However, unfortunately, the royal commission's report did state that, in many cases, students with disabilities are channelled into special or segregated schools and classes. The commissioners were divided as to whether or not we should be proceeding to maintain systems of special and segregated education settings, separate from mainstream schools, or whether, instead, we should be further empowering teachers and better funding schools to move far more students with disabilities into mainstream schools.

It's an important issue for our community. It's an important issue for the students and for their parents. Therefore, my question to the minister is: can the minister provide any indication on whether the government is supportive of, or taking into consideration, the phasing-out of special education schools for students with disabilities? That's just one reason why we desperately need a response from the minister on that report. (Time expired)

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