Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I believe in the vital importance of people with disability being able to participate fully in our community, including our workplaces. Along with the Minister for Employment Participation, we are developing the National Mental Health and Disability Employment Strategy. The benefits of work for people with disability and for the workplaces are immeasurable. Mr David Cunningham is a case in point. Mr Cunningham has cerebral palsy and a passion for reforming the disability sector—a passion I share. He is in his late 20s, he has partial visual impairment and is in a wheelchair full time. He calls my office regularly and deals with my very professional staff to bring to my attention issues affecting people with a disability. Mr Cunningham is keenly interested in the Rudd government’s social inclusion agenda and was pleased to be able to share his views directly with the government during his local national disability strategy consultation. He and I both know that Australia requires a long-term view on how to empower people with disability and their carers. He says that people with disabilities need encouragement and there need to be options for them in the workforce and decent employer attitudes.

When Mr Cunningham’s carer father died in August this year, his son paid this moving tribute:

My father was a real trooper in the true sense of the word, just like so many other carers across the country like him. He made every sacrifice possible for the overall benefit of me and my brother.

Recently, Mr Cunningham was offered a job as a personal assistant for a disability sector organisation and is now doing reception and administration work two days a week. David says the organisation he works for looked at what he could do and not at what he could not do. ‘They did not look at my disability,’ he says. He is proud the organisation recognised his skills and hopes that other employers will give people with disability a chance.

Mr Cunningham has been doing voluntary work for 10 years. He says that voluntary work sometimes is not recognised but that it is a great way for people with disabilities to contribute to society and it is great for the organisations. David has always contributed to our community through his advocacy work. Now, with paid employment, he is contributing even more fully. Everybody benefits. Mr David Cunningham represents what I think is the true goal of disability reform in this nation.

Impairment is a function of living. It can be acquired through birth, through a catastrophic injury at work or in a motor vehicle accident in the blink of an eye or through the natural ageing process. What disables people with impairment are the attitudes of the community. Australians are not malicious but they are unaware, if disability does not affect them, of the impact that it can have on people’s lives. I think that what Mr David Cunningham and so many other hundreds of thousands of people with impairment who are endeavouring to participate in the economy and society demonstrate is that when Australians can look beyond the impairment to the whole person then in fact we will achieve the real goal of disability reform, which is an equal go in life for all Australians regardless of impairment.