Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Disability Services and Inclusion (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2023, and in doing so I want to acknowledge the wonderful leadership of my colleague Senator Jordon Steele-John in advocating for changes to support disabled people in this place. This bill seeks to repeal the Disability Services Acts 1986 and provide legislative authority for new and existing spending on disability related programs outside of the NDIS.

The Greens welcome the repeal of the Disability Services Act. It's been nearly four decades since the enactment of this legislation, and since then we've seen a multitude of developments in the disability sector. We've experienced a shift in legislation, regulations, international agreements and the way disability services are provided. This has coincided with a growing awareness of the mistreatment, the neglect and the violence experienced by people with disabilities, and the absence of safety, quality and value in some disability services. Repealing the Disability Services Act presents a real opportunity, and we have to make sure that this opportunity doesn't go by without doing everything we can to end the cycle of segregation that too many disabled people find themselves trapped within. We need to ensure that the human rights of disabled people are upheld in all services that will be funded by this bill, and we need to ensure that disabled people are included in the decision-making processes.

As Senator Steele-John has said, getting this bill right could be transformational for the lives of disabled people. However, this bill fails to meet its stated objective to advance the inclusion and the social and economic participation of people with disability. It also fails to implement recommendations of the royal commission. The Greens are disappointed and frustrated by these failures, because we know how much time and effort the disability community has expended to share with governments the barriers to inclusion they experience and the services and the policy responses that are needed to break things down. As we outlined in our additional comments to the bill's inquiry report, this bill fails to put into action Australia's commitment to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Importantly, it fails to include key recommendations from organisations that represent disabled people.

The Labor government has also missed the opportunity to tangibly and immediately improve the lives of disabled people by making reforms to the disability support pension. I remind you that the objective of the bill is to advance the inclusion and social and economic participation of people with disability. To do that, you need to address the rate of the disability support pension. The disability support pension is completely inaccessible and inadequate. Not enough people can get it, and, when they do get it, it's not enough.

This was made clear in the Senate Community Affairs References Committee's inquiry that was undertaken in 2021-22 into the purpose, intent and adequacy of the DSP. I was the chair for most of this inquiry, and I heard the overwhelming criticisms about the rate of the disability support pension and how inaccessible it is. The current maximum base rate of the payment is around $71 a day, which is at least $10 below the poverty line. Without access to affordable health care and the necessary support, it's incredibly difficult, if not impossible, for disabled people to budget $71 across both the cost of living and the extra costs that go with having a disability, such as the medical costs associated with their disability.

Our inquiry also heard how the current income limits for the DSP were disempowering and disincentivising disabled people to work, as many people feared that if they re-entered the workforce they would lose the payment entirely. Being financially supported or working shouldn't be an ultimatum imposed upon people by our social security system. We should be empowering people with disabilities to find meaningful work that suits them, not making it even more difficult for them to gain employment.

Throughout our inquiry, the committee also heard clear evidence from disabled people, their families and carers and advocacy organisations about how difficult, expensive and traumatising applying for the DSP is. We heard time and time again that a key barrier for many people accessing the DSP is the impairment tables and how they systematically exclude many people with, for example, comorbidities and/or psychological disabilities. When people put the time and effort into applying for the disability support pension—these are people with disabilities, and for many of them making that application is incredibly difficult. Then they get knocked back. Then they apply again and get knocked back again. It is just heartbreaking. It is not supporting people with disability. It's certainly not advancing the objective of this act, which is to support the social and economic inclusion of people with disabilities.

We heard in our inquiry how unfair and unrealistic it is to require some applicants for the DSP to undertake 18 months of mutual obligations or the program of support before being eligible for the payment. In response to this evidence, the inquiry made some really important recommendations to improve access to and adequacy of the payment. Notably, these included recommendations for the government to improve access by removing the criteria to be fully diagnosed, treated and stabilised and to review the impairment tables. The committee also recommended that the government consider making the program of support voluntary and review the income test to better support disabled people entering the workforce.

But despite these very salient and very clear recommendations, out of a consensus report of our committee, the Labor government still has not officially responded to the inquiry report and has largely failed to act on its recommendations. I would have thought that putting up legislation today might have been an opportunity to incorporate some of those recommendations into legislation. I do acknowledge and note that last year the government did undertake a review of the impairment tables, which led to the removal of the condition applicants to be fully diagnosed, treated and stabilised and replaced it with the condition of 'diagnosed, reasonably treated and stabilised'. These changes were welcome and important, but they failed to holistically address the full remit of issues associated with the DSP, including the adequacy, the problematic interaction with workforce participation and the program of support. So now, despite the opportunity to improve the lives of disabled people again by reforming the DSP in this bill, the Labor government has failed yet again.

I want to state again that the Greens know how significant repealing the Disability Services Act is. So, we won't let this opportunity pass us by without advocating for the transformative change that's needed. So, Senator Steele-John and I will be moving amendments in the debate of the committee of the whole to improve the adequacy, the accessibility and the inclusivity of the Disability Support Pension. Our amendments seek to: raise the rate of the base payment above the poverty line, to $88 a day; increase the income-free area of the DSP for people aged under 21 to ensure that people are empowered to work if they want to, without fear of losing their payment; make the unfair system of mutual obligations within the DSP application process truly voluntary; and remove the requirement that a condition be diagnosed, reasonably treated and stabilised, which would then increase the accessibility of the payment by removing the need for a diagnosis to be corroborated in evidence found in discriminatory impairment tables.

These amendments actually respond to the recommendation of the Senate inquiry into the DSP, which the government haven't yet done. And they're a critical step for reducing barriers for disabled people within our social security system and fit absolutely squarely and in the centre of what should be in this bill if it is to meet its objective of advancing the social and economic inclusion of people with disabilities.

I want to note that while improving the access to and adequacy of the DSP is vital to improving the lives of disabled people in the social security system we know that we can't stop there. Right now we've got millions of people who are barely scraping by on youth allowance, older people increasingly becoming homeless, and people on JobSeeker having to survive o payments well below the poverty line. Our social security system is broken, which is having a significant impact on the wellbeing and lives of Australians, including particularly, as we're discussing today, disabled Australians. More than 43 per cent of JobSeeker recipients have a partial capacity to work, meaning that they are sick and/or disabled, and they can't access the DSP. So, while improving access to the DSP will decrease this number, it's critical that anyone who needs support is able to get it.

That is why the Greens are advocating for a guaranteed liveable income which would apply to everyone. This would mean raising the rate of all income support payments above the poverty line, to $88 a day; abolishing from our social security system punitive measures like mutual obligations and all forms of compulsory income management; and returning the provision of employment services to the Commonwealth. This sits side by side with our plans to build and create affordable homes, to increase wages and to reduce the costs of essential services by making them free.

The Australian Greens believe that disabled people have a universal and immutable right to agency, safety, bodily autonomy, privacy, education, employment, housing, social support and health care. These rights are inherent in all disabled people and must be prompted and recognised in all interpersonal community and structural settings. That's why we are pushing for a guaranteed livable income and why we are seeking to amend this bill. To truly advance the inclusion and the social and economic participation of people with a disability, we need the Greens amendments that we are seeking to make to this bill to be passed. Then we would really have change and disabled people would have a real ability to live decent lives and thrive in Australia.