Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

When the pandemic first became clear to disabled people and to the entire community there was a great ripple of fear that went through so many communities in Australia, particularly those in high-risk communities: older people, First Nations folks, folks who traditionally don't get good service from the health system at the best of times, and disabled people as well, because we knew that, when times are good, when the system is working as it should, we often struggle to get access to the services and supports that we need and to the health-care services and supports that we need.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the average life expectancy of an intellectually disabled person in Australia in 2020 is 25 years less than that of the average Australian. The primary driver of that differential in life expectancy is the poor health outcomes that intellectually disabled folks experience, and this was before the pandemic.

So we, as disabled people, knew that our lives were on the line and our community was at risk and that urgent action was needed. Across this country, disabled people and our organisations got to work, as underfunded as our organisations are and as beleaguered as we are as disabled people. And we were not alone in this. First Nations organisations got together; organisations representing older people got together—regardless of the threadbare funding that is often available for these national peak organisations to do work. We dropped everything that we could to get government to act, to take the steps and actions needed to safeguard the people that we love, because there was a terrifying realisation that dawned among us: that we had been forgotten in the plan—that the pandemic plan that was being actioned with great speed across the country did not include us, that the government was not willing to listen, and that we were being put to the back of the queue and told we were not a priority. All around the world, we could see the impact and the conclusion of this lack of consultation, as disabled people in Italy and in the United Kingdom were told: 'You will just have to do the best you can, because there will not be enough intensive care support to enable you to live.'

All these months on, our royal commission has finally delivered its report of the inquiry that it held into the Australian government response to the pandemic in relation to disabled people, and it is damning. It is absolutely damning. It finds, among other things, that no Australian government agency made any significant effort to consult with disabled people during the early days of the pandemic.

And I remember that. I remember those six weeks of terror as it dawned upon all of us that we were nowhere in the plan—that, to this government, our role was to do the best we could, and that if we died then that was an unfortunate reality of a global pandemic. I remember the late-night phone calls with advocates across the country as we tried to decide which group to prioritise, which conversation to have, which minister to try to get in to see the next day. It was awful. It must never happen again.

Twenty-two recommendations have been made by the royal commission. Twenty-two must be urgently implemented, because we are not done with this pandemic yet. A third or fourth wave may well come over the horizon at any point. And it is unacceptable that the government remains unprepared and unable to include disabled people in the response. Our lives should be valued equally. These recommendations must be implemented.