Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about one part of the disability royal commission and its findings. It's one that's got a lot of publicity and has also set off a lot of panic among the parents of children with significant disabilities. This is in regard to special schools. There were a lot of recommendations that were unanimous amongst the commissioners, but this was not one. This was one that was a fifty-fifty split among the commissioners and the chair. They did not all support this, but there is a group that is pushing for special schools to be disbanded—for them to no longer exist.

This is within an environment where we have high schools for academically gifted students, for athletically gifted students and for those that excel in the performing and creative arts, yet, somehow or other, children with a disability, particularly those with complex needs, are now meant to just be tumbled into the mainstream environment. This, quite frankly, does not work for a lot of students. There are students who have significant issues that require significant levels of support. Particularly when kids get to high school, there is no way that kids with significant intellectual and cognitive impairments have the executive functioning skills and capabilities to flourish within a mainstream environment.

What we need to remember is that it is all about choice and control. All the commissioners agreed that one of the big functions and fundamentals within disability policy should be choice and control, yet three of these commissioners have come out and said, 'But, you know, we're going to remove one of those choices.' I speak from experience. I've had a son in mainstream school. I've had him in mainstream school in an autism stream, and we now attend a special school. The changes, growth and development within my son have been extraordinary, and the fact that families may be deprived of this as an option is absolutely shameful.