Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion and thank the member for Riverina and all previous speakers from both sides of the House who have spoken about this issue constantly. It is an issue on which I have also previously spoken in the House—on at least three occasions over the course of the last 10 years—and one that impacts on many of my constituents in Gilmore. In 1999 I moved a similar motion welcoming the then government’s commitment of over $1.7 billion to the Commonwealth State Territory Disability Agreement to assist the states in their support for carers of people with disabilities. Since then there have been a number of inquiries into disability support, the latest in 2008, reiterating the difficulties under which carers and their charges exist on a daily basis. It is an issue that has been well canvassed, yet the situation is still unacceptable today. According to a government report commissioned in November 2009 there was an unmet demand for accommodation and respite services for 23,800 people in 2005. I wonder what the figure is now. Clearly the matter will get worse rather than better unless something is done urgently.

I know of many carers in Gilmore who are living in abject poverty, with little opportunity for respite. The stress under which they live is soul destroying simply because of the limited options available to them. There is no shortage of evidence, but there is a profound lack of will on the part of all governments to help those least able to help themselves. I recall that following the much vaunted 2020 Summit there was a statement suggesting the creation of a national disability insurance scheme. That is one concept which I would work with the government to support, if it ever gets up. It was a good idea at that time and it is still a good idea today, but we need more than a good idea.

In 2005 the Howard government put in an extra $200 million to assist parents establish private trusts for the future care of their disabled children. Given the very obvious need for intervention that was stated at the 2020 Summit and again through the latest House inquiry, it is a fair question to ask what this government has done so far to progress the establishment of the private trusts. To my mind, the immediate priority has to be the provision of longer term accommodation to ease the pressure on parent carers, especially those who are ageing and perhaps ageing prematurely through want of relief.

The second issue is to make preparations for when the carer dies and the patient is left on their own. What can a highly dependent disabled person do to fend for themselves? It is a thought that must weigh heavily on the minds of the elderly carers and patients. In a submission titled ‘Disability reform: from crisis welfare to a planned insurance model’, the authors, Bruce Bonyhady and Helen Sykes, described the situation as a crisis in care and support—and they are spot on. We are not adequately addressing this chronic problem; we merely continue to sweep it under the carpet. If this government were sincere about easing the plight of thousands of carers and their children then surely there was an ideal opportunity during the period of the great stimulus spend across the country. Would it not have been better to assign some of those billions of dollars to addressing the crisis in the disability services? A crisis is exactly what it is; it cannot be called anything else. Imagine how much accommodation that money could have bought and built while stimulating economic activity at the same time. I know it would have brought considerable relief and gratification to many weary and ageing parents living in the Shoalhaven, Kiama and Shellharbour regions of New South Wales. What is needed is an ironclad undertaking, fully funded and with a specific and measurable time frame, to implement reform; and an accountability process that has the confidence of the public must be put in place to guarantee targeted delivery of funding by the state governments.

This government is predisposed to a centralist role in the areas of workplace laws, hospital administration, education curriculum and global warming, so why not in regard to providing accommodation for disabled children? The crisis is so severe that some children are being accommodated, unsuitability, in adult institutions because there is nothing else. But we have heard all of this before. Now that the global financial crisis is over, I call on the government to divert some of the billions from its schools stimulus package into a crisis that is still with us. Put that money into building accommodation to take pressure off carers. It is a far more humane and compassionate gesture that will help deliver an improved quality of life to these long-term sufferers. There is just one condition: I cannot stress enough the need for recipients to be allowed every opportunity to freely determine their own destiny with regard to the choice of services required. In a statement to the House in early-2008, I quoted a statement by the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services. He said:

In this great country, if I were another skin colour or if I were a woman and could not enter a shop, ride a bus, catch an aeroplane or get a job, there would be a hue and cry—and deservedly so—but if I am in a wheelchair or have a mental illness or an intellectual disability then somehow the same treatment is accepted. Why should I be told to be grateful to receive charity rather than equality?

I hope the Commonwealth and states will now agree to work together to achieve that goal as soon as possible.

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