Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My grievance tonight is that very few people with disability get to enjoy the things that those without disability can enjoy. To demonstrate this I will tell the story of two very special young women who break the mould. They are the first two people with intellectual disability to get a home loan and purchase the unit they live in. I have known Peta Lambert for many years and I know her mother, Laurel, very well. I went along to a session that Laurel had when Peta still lived at home. It was a circle of care to which everybody who cared for Peta was invited. This was a step towards her transitioning to live independently in a unit with her friend Natalie. It was a wonderful experience to be part of this process.

It is absolutely fantastic to know the two young women, Peta Lambert and Natalie Howland, who have become the first young people with intellectual disability in Newcastle to be approved for a home loan. They got the loan through the Newcastle Permanent Building Society, and the sale was settled on 2 December last year. To achieve home ownership they had to go through the most rigorous assessment you can imagine—something that I do not think a person without disability who was purchasing a home would have had to go through. The lengthy process started in June 2013 when they first applied for the home loan. They work together. They had support from House with No Steps, where they both work. Both Nat and Peta get support from the NDIA and have packages. After they went through the process of moving from home to their unit they fell in love with the place they lived in. I have been there. They have served me afternoon tea and have taken me around their house. It was a very good experience.

I will go through their story from the perspective of Peta's mother, Laurel. Her 40-year-old daughter Peta decided that she wanted to purchase her own home, and of course it was the unit that she had fallen in love with. But it was quite a challenge. Peta is one of those people who never let disability stand in their way. She is a person who does not like to be stereotyped because of her disability. She asked why, as her sisters and brother owned their own homes, she should not. She wanted to have an ordinary life. That is what the NDIS is supposed to deliver: an ordinary life. Laurel, her mother, pondered and mused about it and it became embedded in her thoughts. All she could think about was how she could assist her daughter to own a home. How does one go about acquiring a mortgage for somebody with intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, hearing impairment and epilepsy?

This has been a precedent and a road map. It is one thing for services and governments to support community inclusion, but here was a real opportunity for it come to fruition. Laurel decided that she would assist her daughter to apply for a mortgage. They happened to choose the right agency to go into and they received support from the community loans officer who they saw. They underwent a financial test and were deemed to be more financially capable of repaying their loan than many other people. They would be in a better position than they were prior to taking out a mortgage.

So the community loans manager came back and gave them a pre-approval to take out the loan, but it was tempered by the knowledge that they had to undergo a number of assessments before that pre-approval could actually lead to an approval. That required a competency assessment by separate registered medical practitioners and an independent legal representative in respect of the mortgage component. Everyone gathered around and helped the young women to be in a position to show that they had the capacity to understand their contract. They did this with the support of their family and friends, who developed training programs to help them be in a position where they could show they understood these mortgage documents. They tested and retested until they were in that position.

They finally presented at this independent assessment, and Laurel said she felt it was like sitting outside a labour ward for the birth of a grandchild. They went in to have their test with the solicitor and came out after that. Before she even saw them, she heard the noise. They were positively joyful as they came out of the office, because they passed. So almost two years from the commencement of this journey it had ended in a settlement and obtaining a home of their own.

Laurel wrote that her anxieties about her own mortality and leaving her beloved children behind with the legacy of caring for Peta had always worried her. She was always worried about what would happen to Peta once she was no longer around. But this had demonstrated that Peta could be independent. Peta could have that ordinary life that everybody aspires to. Peta could really own a home. She has a job. She has an independent life. I bump into her at the shopping centre, and she is really able to enjoy things that we take for granted but to her are like winning the lottery.

Laurel goes on to say: 'I am able to continue. I always saw Peta as a silver thread, but now Peta is no longer a silver thread. She, together with my other three children, illuminate my life, and I carry a shameless pride for each of them both for who they are and who they've become.'

The thing that really makes this so special is that, when we talk about a person with a disability, people and society as a whole tend to stigmatise and stereotype them—put them in a little box and say: 'This is what they can achieve. This is the life that they should aspire to. This is all that they can look forward to in the future.' But what Peta and Nat have shown is that the sky is the limit. Set your goals high. Go for what you believe in. By trying to limit people, society as a whole is not really giving credence to or recognising the power of motivation. That motivation will help people get around their disability. Nat and Peta are real champions.

I will add that there is another group that Laurel has been involved with. It is called ANSA. They are providing support to carers each year. There have been 15 members with disability in that group, and each and every one of them except one have been able to make a choice about their lifestyle. They are living exactly where they choose to. I think that, as members of parliament, that is something we should be reaching towards.