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

Minister, I say this with genuine personal respect for you, the dedication that you bring to your portfolio and the engagement that you have with your portfolio: I must draw your attention to the way in which your answer, given in good faith, draws our attention to the problem that the amendment that the government has just voted against is trying to solve. You just identified for the chamber that Ministers Shorten and Rishworth are two cabinet ministers around the table with primary responsibilities relating to disability. That's not actually accurate. Your health minister has significant responsibilities for disability. Your minister for mental health issues, Minister McBride, has significant responsibilities for disability. Your employment minister has significant responsibilities for disabled people. Last time I checked, so does the Attorney-General, under their responsibilities to administrate the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. So does your Minister for Women and your minister for health in relation to the elimination of forced sterilisation in Australia. Your minister for transport has responsibility for the accessibility and inclusive nature of our transport system in Australia.

If I sound like I'm a little bit frustrated, it is because disabled people—the vast majority of us—do not receive supports via the NDIS or via programs administered by DSS, and so there is a need for a minister in cabinet whose job it is to champion our rights everywhere they exist. My frustration is also because your government applies deep double standards to this question. You recognise the vital need for a minister for women. You recognise that the whole of government has responsibilities to ensure that the rights of women are upheld and that there should be a minister within your government with responsibility to champion policy that is important to Australia's women. You also recognise, as you should and as we in the Greens do, that there is a vital need for every element of the Australian government to be coordinated in its response to the needs of First Nations people and that there must be a minister for First Nations affairs. In First Nations affairs, you rightly have not only the Hon. Linda Burney in her position in the House but also Ministers Dodson and McCarthy. These are good things you have done. Yet you do not apply the same principle to disabled people, who are constantly passed from pillar to post within your government, with people passing the buck and with personality and political conflicts between ministers causing delay and malpractice in administration of programs and policies. All of this would begin to be solved if there were one person in your government with the responsibility of championing disability rights. Your response to this, Senator, has just highlighted that. So I would ask you to reflect upon the very example you have just given the chamber and attempt to identify for the Senate again the precise source of your government's opposition to the establishment of a disability minister.