Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I heard the member for Bennelong talking about perceived, alleged Labor government waste. I want to tell him this: under the Howard government profligate spending was rampant. John Howard never found a middle class welfare rort he did not want to fund. We have made $83.6 billion in savings in the last three years—far more than the Howard government ever made. Yet those opposite spend most of their time in the red chamber trying to knock off our savings measures. And they come into this place and have the gall to make statements like those of the member for Bennelong!

When Paralympian Kurt Fearnley crawled onto an airline flight in 2009 after refusing to be pushed around in an airline wheelchair, all Australians shuddered. Kurt had just crawled the Kokoda Track and earlier had won his fourth New York wheelchair marathon. I applaud the member for Fremantle for moving this disability inclusive development aid motion and speaking in support of it. Kurt Fearnley demonstrated to us that people living with disabilities can determine what they need and what services should be delivered to them. And domestically the federal Labor government has shown its commitment to antidiscrimination against those suffering from disability by the legislative law reforms we have undertaken and by our commitment to support disability support pensioners and their carers with massive increases in the pension and through secure and sustainable redevelopment of the pension. Our commitment to carers, carer payments and carer allowance is exemplary and it is far more than those opposite ever did during their many years of tenure on the Treasury benches. 

This motion recognises the importance of active participation by people with disability in the formulation of policy and the monitoring of funding. The federal Labor government is committed to ensuring that people with disability have the opportunity to reach their full potential as equal citizens and not just objects of charity, which was how they were so often thought of by the Howard coalition government. Just this week the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs launched the National Disability Strategy, a 10-year national plan. Those opposite never had the wit nor the wisdom to do such a thing. It is a plan to improve the lives of Australians with disability, their families and their carers. This is a particularly significant undertaking, done in partnership with the states and territories under COAG. The strategy acknowledges that successful implementation requires collaboration with people with disability. That is what is happening here in Australia.

The World Health Organisation tells us that 10 per cent of the world’s population is living with a disability, and 80 per cent of those are living in developing countries—many in our neighbourhood, in the Pacific rim and in South-East Asia. Southern Asia is the world’s second most populous region and the World Health Organisation estimates that about 140 million people of all ages in this region are living with a disability. Thirty per cent or 42 million of those are children. High levels of illiteracy, gender disparity and inequality, poverty and child labour may define the socio-economic context of the region and also contribute to the risk of disabilities.

In South Asia large numbers of children with disability, who struggle daily with additional hardships, are not getting the chance to improve their lives through education. They are the world’s largest marginalised group. In 2008 the federal Labor government ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability, formally ratifying our inherent belief that people with disabilities are entitled to have the same rights as many others and are citizens, not objects of charity.

All people, including children, deserve the right to full participation in the community. The devastation recently experienced in my home state of Queensland and in Christchurch in New Zealand, and which was climaxed in our thinking in the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear threat, highlights the timeliness of this motion, and I commend the member for bringing it. Past experience demonstrates that people with disability are more likely to be left behind or abandoned during evacuation in disasters and conflicts. We saw that in Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in the United States.

During the Pakistan floods in 2010, 20 million people were affected, killing 1750 and submerging an area larger than the UK. In Australia and New Zealand during the recent crises local governments responded to communities without essential services. However, from time to time we even saw people with disability unable to use the portaloos. It is important for AusAID and the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Defence to continue their engagement with disability-inclusive development policy, particularly when you consider the work that goes on internationally during disasters and conflicts. I commend the member for this motion and I wholeheartedly support it and I condemn those opposite for their failures with respect to disabilities.

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