Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises that 15 to 23 October is National Week of Deaf People which provides an opportunity for:

(a) deaf people to celebrate their communities and achievements;

(b) promote awareness of local, state and national communities;

(c) acknowledge of Federal Parliament's current pilot of captioning in the House and Senate;

(2) notes the rights of deaf people to:

(a) access Australian Sign Language (AUSLAN) as their first language; and

(3) acknowledges that:

(a) deaf people are a minority both culturally and linguistically;

(b) acceptance of the need for bilingual education of AUSLAN and English to promote equality and lifelong learning.

Yesterday marked the beginning of a week-long celebration for deaf people, their families and the deaf Australian community. It is a celebration for the community as a whole and highlights their unique language, culture and place in our everyday lives. We will see, in communities around the country, festival days, workshops, forums, quiz nights, theatre, debates and films. In Parramatta, we will celebrate once again on Saturday with the Deaf Festival on the banks of the Parramatta River. The theme for this year's festival is an adaptation of the theme of the World Federation of the Deaf International Week of Deaf People, 'With sign language, I am equal'—in Australia, of course, it is, 'With Auslan, I am equal', because Auslan is a uniquely Australian language.

It astonishes me that, in 2016—in a country like Australia, which is so good, relative to the rest of the world, in raising children with disabilities—we need to say, 'With Auslan, I am equal.' Yet our deaf community feels the need to say that, and this week I hope we hear them loudly and clearly: with Auslan, they are equal.

This week is about recognising deaf individuals as primarily visual beings belonging to a linguistic minority and calling for Auslan to be recognised and available for deaf persons at all stages of their lives, including from birth. I spoke last year of this: that, when a child is born deaf with hearing parents, the need for that child to learn language from birth is essential, and they cannot do that without a visual language such as Auslan. So it is incredibly important that our children are given, from birth, the ability to learn a language that is available to them, and, for many deaf children, that is Auslan.

This year's deaf week will focus on things that we should all take for granted—birth rights: the right of deaf children to access and acquire Auslan as their first language; deaf identity: deaf people are a cultural and linguistic minority who use Auslan as their primary language; accessibility: deaf people need access to public information and services through Auslan. And if we, as a nation, think we provide that, we should have a look at some of the official government websites and see how little Auslan there actually is on them. In fact, when I tried to get an interpreter this week in Canberra to do some Auslan messages on film, it became apparent that, even in Canberra, the seat of government, there is a serious shortage of Auslan interpreters who are able to work in the public domain. We have a long way to go before our deaf community can access the information that they need and can participate in government processes in the way that they should. We should all take for granted equal language: recognising Auslan as an equal language to other spoken/written languages; equal employment opportunities: removing the barriers where hearing is a requirement and promoting greater inclusion and opportunities for deaf people to realise their dreams; bilingual education: accepting the need for bilingual education for deaf children—that is, in Auslan and English—and for teachers and interpreters to be fully accessible; equal participation: deaf people being able to fully participate in the personal, public and political areas along with everyone else; and lifelong learning: deaf people having access to education, training and ongoing professional development throughout their lives.

Auslan is not English. It is an incredibly interesting language that developed over time. At present there are 62 handshapes listed in the Signs of Australia dictionary of Auslan—the Johnston 1998 edition. Of these 62, 37 are core, and some are used much more than others. In fact, four of the handshapes are used for over 50 per cent of all of the signs, and the most frequent handshapes account for 80 per cent of the signs, the next 22 handshapes for about 20 per cent, and six handshapes are only in one per cent. So it is a language with a small number of handshapes but incredible variety, because it relies on facial expression and body language as well. In fact, when I go to the deaf community—and I know my deaf community will not mind me saying this—I love it; it is the loudest silence you will ever hear. And I wish my deaf community all the best for this week.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and rise to speak in favour of it and in support of the National Week of Deaf People. I understand hearing loss is the most common disability in newborns, affecting approximately two in every 1,000 babies every year. So it is vital that we have groups and organisations to care for and prepare young deaf people to live without barriers despite their predicament. Just this month I was fortunate enough to receive a tour of the local Hear and Say headquarters in Ashgrove, in my electorate of Brisbane, with CEO Chris McCarthy. I was very privileged to meet the many caring and highly skilled staff working for this not-for-profit organisation, which has now been doing such tremendous work for 24 years. I was very interested to see how the exciting facility is utilising cutting-edge technology to work with parents and families as well as children who are deaf.

Between the Ashgrove centre and its other five centres around Queensland, Hear and Say provides services and programs to over 2,000 children, young adults and families including audiology, auditory-verbal therapy, occupational therapy and school hearing screening. They also provide services online, reaching out to rural and remote areas. I was also lucky to tour this centre with Councillor Steven Toomey, who represents the area of Ashgrove on the Brisbane City Council. Councillor Toomey's family has firsthand experience utilising the services of Hear and Say.

The visit to the Hear and Say centre was important for two reasons: firstly, to see how those in the Brisbane community with hearing impairment, especially children, are in safe hands at Hear and Say; and, secondly, to be shown how Chris and his team are ushering in what they call a new era of children who are deaf. I will explain what they mean by that. We have all seen videos of that special moment when the hearing aid or cochlear implant is switched on for the first time and a beam of light shines on the face of the toddler or infant. It really is inspiring and emotional to witness. But what Hear and Say and other similar organisations around Australia are doing is getting past the 'YouTube moment' and making sure that, if you are born with no hearing, you will have fewer limitations in adult life.

Over 90 per cent of children with permanent hearing loss are born to hearing—and thus listening and speaking—parents. New research and advances in hearing technology are now changing our realistic expectations for spoken language outcomes for children who are deaf. To put this into context: those born deaf more than, say, 15 or 20 years ago may have what is known as a deaf accent into their teens and adult years. That is often due to the limitations of the technology and techniques available at that time.

Due to technological and other advances, our expectations are becoming much greater. Children participating in a listening and spoken language (auditory-verbal) early intervention program perform better for spoken language and listening than a matched group of children in an auditory-oral (listening and lip reading) program or a bilingual-bicultural (Auslan and written English) program by three years of cochlear implant use. Technology has changed significantly and the use of cochlear implants, digital hearing and our understanding of auditory brain development and therapeutic techniques now means that, in 2016, there is a new generation of children who are deaf but can listen and speak and will not be limited by their hearing impairments. It is organisations like Hear and Say that are making that expectation a reality.

That brings me to the latter half of this motion. I note the assistance provided for deaf children under the Commonwealth government's Better Start program. The level of support required for a child who can listen and speak is significantly less than for one who will need ongoing one-on-one Auslan interpreter support. That is why Hear and Say is advocating for more funding to support children with all levels of hearing loss through classroom design, clever technology and teacher training rather than just Auslan support. This will make children who are deaf less of a minority, with educational and lifestyle outcomes equivalent to those of all other Australian children. I commend the great work of Hear and Say to the House and I sincerely thank Chris McCarthy and the whole team at Hear and Say for this tremendous work on behalf of the community.

Finally, a reminder to all that this Friday, 21 October 2016, is Loud Shirt Day. It is an excuse to wear your brightest clothes and raise money to help give the gift of sound and speech to deaf children. I encourage everyone to get involved and join me by wearing fancy stripes, florals, polka dots or paisley across Australian workplaces on Friday. It is a very worthy cause. There is still a lot of work to do and I look forward to continuing to work hard on behalf of Brisbane's deaf community of all ages including the clients, family and great staff at the Hear and Say centre in Ashgrove.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion by the member for Parramatta. I am very happy to speak about the National Week of Deaf People. Most Australians take their ability to hear for granted. It is the old story: you do not value something until you no longer have it. Approximately 30,000 Australians have total hearing loss. Currently, about one in six Australians are affected by some hearing loss; and, by 2050, that is likely to be one in four. It is not only the ability to hear that we take for granted; along with that ability comes a whole raft of inclusions in the community that we often do not realise excludes others.

In this National Week of Deaf People, we acknowledge and celebrate the deaf community, their contribution to society and their many achievements. There have been some famous Australian with hearing issues. Henry Lawson, one of my favourite short-story writers, became ill at nine and had progressive hearing loss, leading to major hearing loss by the time he was 14. Former Prime Minister John Howard suffered hearing loss from an early age but did not let that interfere with his time in politics—and I know that is the case for other MPs in this chamber. Could I also mention Jamie-Lee Lewis, daughter of Wally Lewis, who was born profoundly deaf and had a cochlear implant at aged four. Jamie-Lee has played touch football down here with her dad—who also played a bit of footy!—and is a very successful water polo player and a member of the Brisbane Barracudas in the national league. I have mentioned just a few of the many great Australians who have succeeded despite the difficulties they have faced due to hearing impairment.

But there is no doubt that Australians who are deaf or hard of hearing still face many barriers—in their working lives, accessing services and generally participating in community activities. Organisations such as Deaf Services Queensland, headquartered in Moorooka, just down the road from where I live in Moreton, help the deaf and the hard of hearing break down barriers to be more included in the community. They have been operating since 1903. They are a not-for-profit organisation that work with the community to enhance the services and programs that benefit deaf and hard-of-hearing people in Australia. Notwithstanding the great work that Deaf Services Queensland and other support and advocacy services do, sadly there are still some barriers that are insurmountable.

The High Court recently considered a Queensland law that prevents people who are deaf from participating in jury service. A Queensland woman, Gaye Lyons, who is deaf, received a request to perform jury duty. She was happy to participate. However, she was then notified by the deputy registrar of the court that she would not be able to participate and she was excused from jury duty. Ms Lyons, who wanted to serve her community, took her complaint to Queensland's Anti-Discrimination Commissioner. When this case eventually found its way to the High Court they concluded that Queensland law does not permit an Auslan interpreter to assist a juror while performing jury duty and it is, therefore, impossible for a juror who is deaf to perform the functions of a juror.

The history of the current Jury Act in Queensland shows that the state's lawmakers have tried to not generally exempt people who are deaf. The predecessor to the current act expressly exempted from jury service anyone who was deaf, but when the current act was legislated it did not have this express exemption. So, while the Queensland legislators may have attempted to be less discriminatory when the new act was made, the reality for prospective jurors who are deaf is very different. This decision of the High Court highlights the difficulties Australians who are deaf or hearing impaired face when it comes to participating fully in our society.

This motion notes that deaf Australians are a minority both culturally and linguistically. In my view, as a nation, we are generally doing a much better job of being inclusive of minority sectors in the community. But there is still more to be done. Communication is the greatest barrier preventing the deaf and hard of hearing from fully participating in the community. While Auslan is now recognised as a language in its own right, it is still uncommon for hearing Australians to be proficient in Auslan—and, as the member for Parramatta noted, it is hard to find translators, even in Canberra, the seat of government.

In this National Week of Deaf People we should all take the time to make sure we are doing our bit to help ease the barriers facing the deaf and hard of hearing. Perhaps learning some simple Auslan signing would be a good place to start. I commend the motion put forward by the member for Parramatta to the House.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party, Assistant Minister for Rural Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very proud to be showing my support for hearing impaired and deaf individuals during this National Week of Deaf People. It is a week of events, including forums, workshops and information, being coordinated by Deaf Australia. I encourage all my colleagues to celebrate the community, language, culture and history of people who are hearing impaired. I would also like to take this opportunity to recognise the incredible achievements and contribution that many of these people make to our communities. I will be supporting all the events being held this week, because it is such a good cause.

On Friday this week, 21 October 2016, Loud Shirt Day will be rolling in to the parliament and in and around Australian communities. It is a positive fundraising campaign, and I encourage all members of the House to take part. I encourage you all to wear your support by showing off your best loud shirt outfits. Let everyone know how easy and fun it is to be involved. This initiative is being driven by the work of the Shepherd Centre, the Cora Barclay Centre, Hear and Say and Taralye—organisations that have given deaf children a voice in our community. The initiative will raise funds that are needed to continue critical early intervention programs for deaf and hearing-impaired children across Australia.

Many people do not realise the consequences and the cost of delivering that early intervention. It costs more than $18,000 per year per child to provide these critical early intervention services. Providing access to these services means children are able to enter mainstream schools with language and speech skills on a par with their hearing peers and allows them to reach their true potential. It is something that every child deserves, regardless of their disability.

We would love it if every one of you could share a message of support via your online social media channels using the official hashtag #LoudShirtDay and encourage others to get involved in the day. Donations will give deaf children in your state access to sound, speech and language. Your support will open doors for the deaf and hearing impaired to better education and employment choices, social integration with the hearing world and the chance to contribute to the community. It is only through gifts like these that hundreds of deaf and hearing impaired children are now able to tell their mothers and fathers that they love them.

The many causes of hearing loss in young children are numerous. Many of them are no fault of anyone; they are just due to congenital infections that people are unaware of that they can pick up in childhood, developmental abnormalities, untreated glue ear from chronic suppurative otitis media through to the degenerative industrial causes of deafness that happen later on. But the many outcomes of deafness are really quite important for everyone to be aware of.

Not only is it socially isolating and a point of sadness if someone does not have their deafness picked up early; but if it is untreated or uncorrected it leads to poor educational outcomes as well as poor social outcomes, social isolation and poor employment outcomes. Behaviour changes as a result, leading through the spectrum to misbehaviour and even criminal behaviour if people go through life hearing-impaired.

I encourage all members to support Loud Shirt Day, help a really good cause and start looking now for your loud shirt. Somewhere in your cupboard there has to be one somewhere.

Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the motion put forward by the member for Parramatta in recognition of National Week of Deaf People. This provides an opportunity for those people with hearing impairment or deafness to celebrate their communities and their achievements and also the awareness of local, state and national communities to be promoted in this week. And, of course, the parliament's current pilot captioning program in the House and the Senate is also to be acknowledged.

I find it an absolute privilege to be here to speak about deaf week. It is also the 125th anniversary of Deaf Can Do of the Royal South Australian Deaf Society. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate them on continuing to provide such essential, vital, services to people who are deaf and hearing impaired in South Australia. I have seen the good work that they do firsthand.

According to the Bureau of Statistics, one in six Australians are affected by hearing loss. There are approximately 30,000 deaf Auslan users, with total hearing loss. Hearing loss, as we all now, can be acquired through illness, accident, exposure to certain drugs and chemicals, or as part of the normal ageing process. I am someone who does have a hearing loss—even though my wife says it is only through choice when I want to have a hearing loss; but that is not quite correct. I lost the hearing in my right ear back in 2007, when I was in this place in the first term, through illness. I had a very bad cold. As a member of parliament, you continue, like we all do, to go to functions—you do not stop. That cold then turned into pneumonia. I had a week off—the only week I have ever had off since being in this place. After the virus had gone, I was still very short of hearing in my right hear. I just could not quite hear. I went to the doctor and they kept on saying it will clear up. After about three to six months when it had not cleared up, I went to a specialist et cetera. I was one of those unfortunate people, one in 1,000, where the bacteria or the virus affects the cochlear. I have lost nearly 50 per cent of the hearing in my right ear. Even though it is only minor and I can still hear out of my right ear, I see the frustration—let alone how it must be for someone who has no hearing at all—that you go through sometimes when you are in a crowded room, in a restaurant, where it is very loud. That is why this motion is very important.

One in six Australians—30,000—are completely deaf. Between nine and 12 children per 10,000 will be born with a moderate or greater hearing loss in both ears. Around another 23 children per 10,000 through accident, illness or other causes will acquire a hearing impairment that requires hearing aids by the age of 17. Each year, Australian Hearing fits around 2,000 children with hearing aids for the first time. In addition, hearing loss is also part of the natural ageing process, as I said earlier, with over half the population aged between 60 and 70 having a hearing loss. That means all of us in this room at some stage will end up with some hearing loss. This increases to more than 70 per cent of those over the age of 70, and 80 per cent of those over the age of 80.

According to Access Economics, the most significant cause of hearing loss in Australia is exposure to excessive noise. We all know about this with people who have worked in factories. Even tax drivers whom I have met who have retired have acquired a hearing loss from having their right ear constantly exposed to traffic noise. These are things that you do not think about while you are working. Exposure to noise makes up around 37 per cent of all cases. Loud noise can cause irreversible hearing damage, as it harms the delicate hearing mechanism within the inner ear.

As members of parliament, we are privileged to attend many functions of many organisations, and one particular organisation in my electorate that I have attended is Kilparrin Teaching and Assessment School and Services, which has children with hearing impairment. It is located in Park Holme in my electorate. The school provides onsite preschool programs and state-wide support services for students with disabilities, including those with hearing disabilities. They do wonderful work, and I would like to congratulate them for everything they do for children who are deaf in my electorate.

Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the member for Parramatta's motion and to congratulate her, yet again, for never giving up on taking this most important issue forward. I note that in a bipartisan fashion she and I have spoken on this issue before and lobbied a previous speaker. I just had a chat across the table with the member for Parramatta, and it is with great excitement that I say that we are now five hours or a day—is it, Julie?—away from having closed captioning in parliament—which I think is only fitting.

In my maiden speech—and it has been ironic listening to all the wonderful stories in the maiden speeches that have been given by members on both sides of the House in the past few weeks—I spoke about my three beautiful children. I said it clearly then and I will say it again that I am doubly blessed because they not only look like their mother they take after her too. I spoke at the time a little cryptically. I used the term that my family had been touched with disability and that we were far stronger because of it. At that time, my youngest daughter, Analise, was 10. I had asked her whether she would be comfortable if I phrased it that way, and she said yes. Not long after that, I spoke at a function at the Shepherd Centre, and I asked her whether I could tell her story, and she said, 'Dad, will it help people?' And I said, 'I hope it will.' She said, 'Dad, if it helps people, you tell my story.'

Analise is my youngest child and was born when we already had a three-year-old and a four-year-old—so it was a busy time in our house. She was born before there was compulsory testing of hearing. She was such a clever little so-and-so that she taught herself to lip-read without us knowing. By the time she was two, the first thing that twigged with us was that she was not developing speech in the way that her older brother and sister had. We had a very close example of what that should be like. There were funny little things. You look back now and it makes sense, but it did not at the time. We had timber floorboards. She would lie on the timber floorboards with the back of her conductor bone sitting on the floorboards so that she could hear you coming up and down the hallway. We had grommets inserted in her ears.

We did all sorts of things, thinking that there must be something going on. It was at that stage, when she was two, that our GP suggested we get her a hearing test. I will never forget sitting there with her. I could hear the sounds through her earphones and this little doll was sitting there, not moving. She had been taught to press a button when she could hear something. It was very clearly evident that she had severe hearing loss—bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. We sat around the table that night and thought, 'Wow. What do we do now?' It was at that stage that we became part of the community that Julie referred to today, and thank God for them because we had no idea. We did not know where to go or what to do. They took us and held us in the palm of their hand, and they do to this day. Australian Hearing was our first port of call. Amazing audiologists reside there and look after Analise on a very regular basis. The fact is we had a two-year-old girl who could not talk. There is the Catholic Centre for Hearing Impaired Children at Strathfield, which is coincidentally in the main building at Del Monte, where I went to junior school. We gave them our two-year-old with no language and they gave her back to us as the vibrant, bubbly girl that she has become.

We kept her back from school for a couple of years but were determined to mainstream school her, and we are very proud that we did so. She really battles. She comes home after working twice as hard as any of the kids in her class to keep up, but she will die in a ditch trying. As to opportunities, if you are going to be deaf in any country in the world, this is it. A doctor said that to me not long after Analise was diagnosed. We thought our world had gone to hell in a row boat, and the doctor said, 'Craig, if you're going to have a deaf child, this is the country to be,' and I cannot agree more. This is an amazing community. There is the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, which provides itinerant teachers for not only my little girl but all kids throughout Australia; the Shepherd Centre; and Auslan. I so admire the member for Parramatta's passion for Auslan. The member for Moreton co-sponsored and he referred to the fact that in the last few weeks a juror was precluded from exercising their civil right because of a lack of resources. That is not good enough.

To the member for Parramatta, I rise in strong support of your motion. This community is one that we should never forget and should always support. I am thrilled, along with my family, to be a proud and loving part of it.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.