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

When Michael and Sharon Camac entrusted the care and support of their son, Eden, to the Bundaberg based Community Lifestyle Support service provider, they expected him to be treated with care, dignity, professionalism and respect. On the night of October 2018 they discovered, however, how extraordinarily that provider had failed in their obligation to support Eden.

He was found in his bed in extraordinary pain, having lain there for no less than 10 hours before an ambulance was notified and the family was informed. Arriving at hospital, he was found to have suffered injuries consistent with a severe car crash, having had his pelvis crushed and requiring a significant reconstruction of his hip ligaments, including the insertion of multiple pins. This is a 25-year-old man. If anybody was watching 7.30 last week and witnessed the video taken by his terrified mother, Sharon, as he writhed in pain, I'm sure you will share with me a sense of outrage and moral indignation that goes soul deep.

The result of this horrendous mistreatment was only that a support worker was let go. Police dropped charges against that support worker, and the service provider never even reported the incident to the relevant Queensland department, leaving it to his mother to make that report. The department then decided not to pursue an investigation, causing his mother to lodge a complaint.

The Camacs have shown incredible courage in telling their story, and so many other stories like theirs are exactly why the disability rights movement, along with the Greens, have been calling so long for a royal commission into disability abuse. The experiences such as they were subjected to are the wellspring of strength to which we have gone back, year after year, in the face of indifference and dismissal.

Finally, before the election, the government and the Labor Party were dragged, kicking and legislatively screaming, into a royal commission into this issue. And, finally, after such a long fight there was hope in our community. I cannot describe the joy that was within me at the moment of that announcement. Our community was disappointed that we had not been consulted on the exact composition of the commission, but we were willing to give the government the benefit of the doubt. We were so quickly proven to have been misguided in this trust, as we discovered that there had been two individuals appointed to the commission whose presence jeopardise the entire integrity of a process for which we have so long fought.

Now, these are not bad people. They have both been committed public servants for most of their careers, but the reality is that they have conflicts of interest that are unmanageable, and they have in the past behaved in a way which gives our community every reason to call into question their ability to undertake these roles. I want to outline these concerns to the Senate briefly.

First, in relation to Barbara Bennett, PSM, who is a longstanding and experienced public servant. But it is for this exact reason that she is inappropriate for this role. The capacity in which she served was that of a member of the Department of Social Services—a senior member of the department which oversees the NDIS and so many other institutional programs and processes that will be the subject of the royal commission. In addition to this she has in the past shown failures in judgement around her engagement with the political side of this place, having once fronted the WorkChoices campaign for the Howard government.

The second appointee with whom we are incredibly concerned is John Francis Ryan, a senior executive member of the bureaucracy of the former New South Wales Department of Community Services. For context: New South Wales and its provision of support for disabled people has resulted in horrific, continued and systemic abuse of such a pervasive nature that the only like example is that of the sexually based child abuse that was experienced by members of the Ballarat community at the hands of the Catholic Church. New South Wales is ground zero for disability abuse in Australia, and John Ryan was an executive member of the public service which was part of that process. Indeed, the programs over which he had direct authority were, unquestionably, linked in an ombudsman's report released last year to the death of two disabled people and the serious injury of a third.

Mr Ryan is well known to the disability community, and when we called him out on these conflicts of interest—when we confronted him with the reality of his past behaviour—he did not listen to us. He did not offer to stand aside, but instead engaged in combative online social media commentary with some of the most senior disability advocates in this country, continuing a pattern of social media interactions stretching back for nearly a decade which have very much called into question his ability to be an objective public servant. This includes very worrying commentary about the Islamic community and the role that they play in the so-called need to call for every single Muslim person to condemn continually the actions of Islamic State.

We have been fighting for this process for so long. We have poured our blood and sweat and tears into it for decades. Our community simply asks that we receive a disability royal commission that has integrity and is able to deliver the justice that we so desperately need. That cannot be done with these two individuals within their places. The disability community is in unanimous agreement. Sixty organisations have signed a joint letter calling for their immediate removal and for their replacement in line with criteria set out by the community. Our demand is simply that you listen to us, that you stop this process of silence and dismissal that leads to our very abuse. That is our simple plea to this government.

The reality is that our community cannot continue this fight alone any longer. It is time for the crossbench and for the Labor Party to assist us in this fight. I tonight call on the Labor Party and on the crossbench to join with the Greens in our effort to ensure that these two individuals step aside from their positions and that we have the opportunity to appoint folks who do not have conflicts of interest. People like Eden who have suffered as he has suffered deserve nothing less than absolute integrity, complete justice from this, their royal commission.