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As the social services minister, how would you describe the mood among those advocating for the rights of people living with disability at the moment?
Look, I have a really positive relationship with the advocates of people living with disability. They do an amazing job. I'm really proud to say I'm not scared of their voices. In fact, we've doubled the funding for disability representative organisations so that they can tell us what they think. Obviously, we're in a really significant period of reform when it comes to disability. I've been really focused on making sure that Australia's disability strategy are not just words on a page.
For example, we've been reforming the Disability Employment Services program because that was not providing necessary individualised, tailored support, or supporting people to achieve their goals and career aspirations. When it comes to, for example, the Disability Royal Commission, we've been working through those recommendations with states and territories and seeing how we can make a difference.
I am really proud of the government driving change across the whole portfolio, and a good example of that is the commitment to have disability specific standards in the Aviation White Paper, and airports and airlines because I know so many people have been really frustrated.
I've really enjoyed my working relationship with disability representative organisations. I know there's a lot going on, and I know that many of them do feel that we are making a lot of reform, but you don't get into politics not to make a difference.
Now, I spoke with one advocate, Carly Findlay, who is absolutely phenomenal in her field. As someone who's being treated for cancer, she has received incredible care in hospital, compared to when she's treated for her disability. Why is there such a difference between general health care and disability care?
Look, I think that when it comes to mainstream services like health services and education services there is a lot to be done to them to make them more inclusive.
When it comes to mainstream systems, there's a lot more to be done to make sure that they meet the needs of people with disability, but also making sure that the supports people receive, particularly disability support, are high quality and are meeting the needs of those they seek to serve.
I think there's two things. There's the disability specific services that we need to make sure are available and high quality, but also in our mainstream systems like our healthcare system, they need to better meet the needs of people with disability.
Do you think the healthcare system should have a learning module introduced in order to educate doctors on specific forms of disability?
I do think there does need to be greater awareness between health professionals about disability.
One of the examples I've talked about a number of times have been our Down Syndrome health ambassadors who have talked with medical professionals about what it means to have Down Syndrome, and exactly how they would like to be engaged with.
I do think that better awareness about how to be inclusive and how to better meet the needs of people with disability really helps. It can be enhanced by lifting the experience of healthcare professionals through their training. I think it needs to be ongoing training because the needs of people with disability change, and they are dynamic. We need to make sure that we're always striving for best practice in both our health and education system.
The Disability Royal Commission heard from countless individuals living with a disability, but with the response from the government, a fair few of us found it largely underwhelming. Put yourself in our shoes. Do you think enough was achieved for us?
What I would say is the Royal Commission gathered evidence over four and a half years. I didn't see the initial government's response as the set and forget. That was the beginning of our work that will take many years to implement. That doesn't mean that there isn't the momentum and commitment to work on these issues.
One example was there is a commitment, and we've put in already an extra 39 million, to individual advocacy. We're redesigning that program to make sure that's fit for purpose.
But a lot of the recommendations that were agreed to in principle were joint recommendations from the Commonwealth and States and Territories. It would have been really easy for us to ignore the States and Territories and for them to ignore us. And we would have been at a stalemate.
In terms of the government's initial response, we worked really hard to work on what is the next piece of work that we can do. And so I think the government's initial response has set us up for working with disability representative organisations for a long term solution, which we will be reporting on every six months.
I do understand that people wanted to see tick, tick tick, but that would have been just saying, “yeah, we'll do that,” without showing how we were going to do it.
I think our initial responses showed the steps we need to take. The first initial steps have been outlined to how we get to the end point, but I don't think if I just gave a glib response that it would have been taken seriously.
I can assure people, I've taken this very seriously and this is going to be a level of work that we need to all work together to achieve the outcomes that the Royal Commission wanted to see.
Is the government looking at more of the recommendations? Seeing as the recommendations that were accepted seem to be a ratification of already existing policies.
There is conflict within the disability community about which type of act they'd like to see. While we are working through that issue, we've said in the short term, we should do a review and modernise the Disability Discrimination Act. So that is an example where we've taken a short term piece of work, with an eye on what might come into the future on a recommendation that has people divided.
So I think, yes, there will be work that are ongoing work that will be done with states and territories within the Commonwealth. That's ministerial councils that have state and territory and Commonwealth ministers on. And we need to coordinate work across the 16 different ministers and government, different parts of government departments.
That takes a lot of work. It doesn't mean we should say it's too hard to do that work. Many of those in principle agreements, the how is really important, and we'll be reporting every six months on the progress that we're making.
Can you talk to me through how some of the recommendations have been labeled “subject to further consideration” such as forced sterilisation?
That is a joint recommendation and primarily the responsibility around sterilisation sits with the states and territories.
We can't as the Commonwealth, say to states and territories, you're going to do that. Where there's been further consideration, there has been probably different perspectives, which means there is more work to be done to get a common approach and a united position across the different jurisdictions.
The Commonwealth doesn't have a really significant responsibility in that area, but states and territories do. They are at different starting points in that discussion, but we haven't said we're not going to do anything about it, so that keeps a commitment to continue to work with state and territory colleagues about that issue.
We want to see the rights of people with disability front and centre in terms of some of the specific recommendations and how we move them forward. That is something we need to work with states and territories.
When it comes to many of these areas with disability, if we don't work and get a consistent approach between States and Territories, along with the Commonwealth, we're not going to get change.
In the final stages of making a policy, what is the consultation like for people living with a disability?
What I do is consult with a variety of disability organisations. We have a whole department of people working with disabilities that worked on our team. As I said, eight ministerial councils, 16 different departments.
We have a really large section with diverse lived experience working on the work we do. We definitely need to have people working in the department and various departments with lived experience. The Australian Public Service, we've noted can do better in terms of employing people with lived experience.
What would success as a minister in charge of disability look like for you?
I would like to see more people with disability feel included in their communities, having access and participating in their communities just like everyone else Whether that's when they catch a plane, when they access health care, when they go to school. Getting a career that they want. Getting access to a job they want. That is what success looks like. Being included in community across the board.
How has the federal government's role in disability changed since you've taken office?
What we've really been doing is looking at how we elevate Australia's disability strategy. We've redesigned the whole of the disability employment services so that quality was at the heart. I could not believe that disability employment services were measured on outcomes and efficiency, but not on quality, and so we put measures of quality in there. It was a recommendation from the Royal Commission.
I would also say that the Disability Services and Inclusion Act was updating a piece of legislation that governed services outside the NDIS. It had not been changed since 1987, and we actually brought in a new disability inclusion that governed services, that put safeguards in place. More importantly, it put individual rights of people with disability at the heart of that piece of legislation.
As we move to provide more services and support that will be outside the NDIS, having that legislation in place is going to be critical not only for safeguarding, but putting people with a disability at the centre.
So putting people with disability at the centre again and elevating that Australia's disability strategy off the page has been really critical to me.
What does access granted look like to you?
Access granted means that people can participate in what they want to do. That they're part of that community, and don't feel othered. That's ultimately what I think it is.
It may be physical access, but it's also discrimination. Community attitudes that are often holding people with disability back from accessing health care and participating fully in their communities. And so, for me, Access Granted is breaking down some of those barriers. Whether they be physical or non-physical barriers, including things like community attitudes and breaking stereotypes to ensure that people can just be part of their community.