Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Given that I was denied an opportunity to give a second reading speech because of the shenanigans in here yesterday, I have not had an opportunity to comment specifically on children with disability and how this will affect children with disability in school. I was extremely disappointed and concerned to hear the comments from Senator Hanson yesterday in her contribution on how we address the inclusion of children with disabilities in school. So many people have been fighting for so long in this country to ensure that children with disability are included in our classrooms, to build an inclusive culture in schools. We know we are not there yet, and comments like that set us back even further. We know we are not there yet, because I was a very active participant in the Senate inquiry into the access of students with disabilities to school. We found some very distressing facts there, and some very distressing evidence.

As Senator O'Neill will remember, many parents articulated their daily battles with schools to try and get their children access to schools and build that inclusive culture. You would get some parents who were saying, 'They'll let my children go for a couple of days, but then there's not enough funding to enable them to go for the rest of the days, or there's not enough funding for them to go on the excursions, so they get told to stay at home.' We know this is still happening.

We also heard a lot of evidence about the lack of evidence for the nationally consistent collection of data. This was 18 months ago—around that time. Parents and teachers were already expressing their deep concern about the NCCD. They were saying, 'When it comes out, don't believe it!' I subsequently had teachers talk to me about the fact that they did not know where their school's data was coming from. Those were teachers who had students with disabilities in their classrooms, and they said, 'We're not contributing to that data. We did the first year, but not since.' I have had that said to me several times.

So this data is not reliable. We know from the evidence that the committee collected that there are still serious issues around children's access to classrooms so that they get the best education possible. That is why we need this additional funding. I am not at all confident that there is enough funding available to meet the needs of students with disabilities, so I am pleased that there will now be a commitment to a review of this process. We have had a lot of feedback about the issues around the data—around NCCD and the lack of funding.

In short, many people who are active in this place will be aware of the work of Children and Young People with Disability Australia. CYDA said:

Students with disability frequently experience discrimination, including denial of enrolment, imposed part time attendance and exclusion. Further, schools often lack the required expertise in developing educational programs for students with disability. Limited monitoring and accountability for the learning outcomes of students with disability is also a significant issue. Finally, experiences of bullying and abuse, including restraint and seclusion, are now shamefully common for students with disability in education settings.

I have to stop there and to say that this is an area where I have done a lot of work in terms of the issues of violence, abuse and the use of restraints. We also got a lot of evidence about the use of restraints.

That also goes, obviously, to issues where we need to improve our education system. Their submission goes on:

It is the experience of CYDA that it is rare for students with disability to be provided with a truly inclusive education experience.

That is the evidence that we actually heard through that inquiry, and I have subsequently heard it through other inquiries as well. This group works day in, day out with students with disability and their parents. I believed them. I know that they are looking out for the best for students with disability, and when they are concerned for funding we need to take that seriously.

Even if we do not have it tied down—we do not have it tied down because we do not have all the data anyway—it is not a good enough excuse to say, 'Oh well, you can't give us every dollar and cent to tell us how much we really need, so we won't give them any extra.' That is a flawed argument when you are talking about the need to improve our inclusiveness and make sure that we do provide the best education possible for children with disability.

I urge the Senate to support this amendment. It will provide the start of the additional funding that is needed to ensure that we have a truly inclusive education system.

The CHAIR: The question is that amendments (11), (14), (15) and (16) on sheet 8176 be agreed to.