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

My question is directed to Senator Fifield, representing the Minister for Social Services. As I hope you know, this Sunday, 3 December, is the 25th International Day of People with Disability, with the overarching principle being to 'leave no-one behind'. Given the unemployment rate for people with a disability in Australia ranks 21st out of the 29 nations of the OECD and that only 53 per cent of Australians with a disability are employed compared with 83 per cent of all working-age people, what is your plan for getting people with a disability into stable employment rather than continuing to leave them behind?

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Steele-John, for your question. I well recall from my period as the minister for disabilities that, if you were an Australian with a disability, you were twice as likely as other Australians to be unemployed. There are a number of things that the government is doing to help improve the levels of employment of people with disability. I should obviously at the outset mention the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Although it is not an employment scheme per se, the supports that the NDIS gives individuals, which are matched with the needs that they have, will put many Australians in a better position to consider entering the workforce and to do so. That can be from some very straightforward things, Mr President, that you and I might take for granted but which can be impediments to people engaging in the workforce.

That's at a general level. More specifically, the government has the Disability Employment Services Reform, and in the 2017-18 budget we included a comprehensive package that includes significant reforms to the DES to help more people to keep and find jobs. The government will continue to invest over $3 billion in the DES over the budget and the forward estimates. These reforms follow extensive sector consultations in 2015 and 2016 and seek to improve the overall performance of the program through which currently around one-third of participants remain employed three months after a period of assistance. But, clearly, we do want to do better.

Scott Ryan (President, Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Steele-John, a supplementary question.

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

The low employment rate of people with disability in Australia means that one in two Australians with disability live in or near a state of poverty. With Australia ranked last out of the 27 nations of the OECD for people with disability living in poverty, I ask the minister how he would justify Australia falling so far behind the rest of the world in terms of poverty and supporting people with disability.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Steele-John, for the supplementary question. I don't think that there's anyone in this chamber who would be or could be satisfied by the rates of unemployment for Australians who have disability. The best way to address the situation that people find themselves in—

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

Mr President, on a point of order: I welcome the fact that the minister feels sad about the issue, but I asked him what he would do not how he felt.

Scott Ryan (President, Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Steele-John, I do consider the minister to be answering the question as asked. I cannot direct the minister how to answer a question, and I call the minister to continue his answer.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wasn't indicating anything about feeling. I was making the policy-related point that, as a government, we are not satisfied with the level of unemployment, and I know there wouldn't be a colleague in this place who was. As I was about to say, the best thing that any government can do for someone with a disability who is unemployed—or someone, whoever they are, who is unemployed—is to help create the circumstances for them to have a job.

Scott Ryan (President, Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Steele-John, a final supplementary question.

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

If a young person living with a disability can effectively represent their state here in the Australian Senate, surely you can see the value in getting more people like me into employment across the country?

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There's absolutely no debate on that point, which is why, from 1 July, the reforms that we'll be introducing will improve participant choice and control through the DES, engendering competition and contestability in service delivery, improving incentives for providers to place jobseekers in employment, and introducing indexation to provider payments and a trial of expanded DES eligibility for students in the last year of school. Obviously, we do have arrangements in place for the disability support pension, as that is there as a provision for people who do not find themselves in a situation where they can obtain work. But we have the disability support pension, the DES program and the National Disability Insurance Scheme. We always want to work to improve and refine these arrangements so that we can see more Australians with disability in work.