Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In my first speech in this place, I spoke of my previous employment in the disability sector and the importance of providing assistance and support and as much normality to life as possible for people with disabilities and their families. Today I would like to talk about a constituent of mine, a nine-year-old girl, Sophie McAuley.

Sophie has cerebral palsy and would like to join her school friends in catching the bus to school. She has taken the bus for the last four years, but the right to catch a bus has recently been taken away from her. Under New South Wales regulations Sophie has been denied a bus because her mum is not working anymore and has the ability to drive her to school. All the other able-bodied school students in New South Wales in the same situation as Sophie would be given a pass with no questions or special tests.

Sophie does not want preferential treatment. She wants to be treated like all other boys and girls of her age; she simply wants a school bus pass so she can travel to school with them. I recently wrote to the New South Wales education Minister, Mr Adrian Piccoli, asking him to reconsider the criteria that has denied Sophie a bus pass. Surely, given the nature of the request and the special circumstances surrounding the matter, the New South Wales government can work for an expedited resolution that is favourable to the McAuley family.