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

[by video link] For disabled people and our families, the pandemic has been a time of unparalleled fear and anxiety. Many of us have been trapped inside our homes, scared to go outside since the very beginning of the pandemic. Throughout this time, we have worked as hard as we can; we have banded together, we have collaborated, we have raised our voices to our state and federal governments. We have argued, cajoled, convinced, persuaded, presented discussion papers and expertise, and sometimes even pleaded for a plan that would vaccinate us and would give us what we need to be safe. And from the very beginning of the pandemic, the Morrison government has repeatedly failed to heed our advice, failed to engage with us effectively, and failed to provide us with the protection and the support that we need.

At the very beginning of the pandemic, we discovered there was not a single person in the health department whose job it was to make sure that the initial response supported and protected disabled people. Months into the pandemic, we discovered that there still was not a plan. Months later, there was still no plan. And now we discover that, as far as we are into this great crisis, no more than 26 per cent of NDIS participants have been vaccinated, and there are still about half of the folks living in residential settings who are yet to be fully vaccinated. This is absolutely unacceptable! It puts disabled people's lives at risk, and it must be urgently addressed effectively.