Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services and Disability Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the parliament for the honour and privilege of representing the people of Australia at the United Nations 11th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was held in New York from 12 to 14 June 2018. While there, I was able to deliver our national statement on our progress in furthering the rights of people with a disability in Australia, which I would also like to share with the House tonight. The statement read:

It is my honour to represent Australia at this eleventh session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Australia commends the Committee for their continued work promoting the Convention.

Disability is a priority for Australia's international engagement in development, humanitarian action and human rights.

We continue to play a leading role internationally including as co-chair of the Global Action on Disability (GLAD) Network alongside the co-chair of the International Disability Alliance. This unique collaboration continues to enhance international cooperation towards more disability-inclusive development and humanitarian action.

Australia is a leading global advocate on disability data.

The ability to collect accurate disability data enhances the visibility of people with disabilities and we welcome the decision to identify data as a cross-cutting theme for this years' conference.

Australia is committed to protecting and strengthening civil society.

We continue to support people with disabilities and their representative organisations in developing countries to advocate for their rights under the CRPD.

Australia supports Ms Rosemary Kayess' candidacy for the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Her appointment to the Committee, alongside Australia's current seat on the Human Rights Council, will strengthen Australia's ability to promote and protect human rights both domestically and internationally as well as meaningfully work towards leaving no one behind through the full implementation of the CRPD.

Domestically, all levels of Australian government remain committed to improving the lives of Australians with disability through the overarching framework provided by the National Disability Strategy.

The development of the Strategy is the first time in Australia's history all governments have committed to a unified, national approach to improving outcomes for people with disability, their families and carers, and to providing leadership for a community-wide shift in attitudes.

It is the key mechanism for driving a more inclusive approach to the design of policies, programs and infrastructure so people with disability can participate in all areas of Australian life.

The Strategy focuses the efforts of each level of government to not only improve the performance of the disability service system but importantly, to improve mainstream systems for people with disability.

Work has already commenced on the development of a national disability framework for beyond 2020 that responds to a changed disability policy landscape that includes a fully implemented National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme now provides reasonable and necessary supports for more than 160,000 people who have a permanent and significant disability, including nearly 45,000 receiving support for the first time.

Once fully implemented, the National Disability Insurance Scheme is expected to support more than 460,000 Australians with a permanent and significant disability, enabling choice and control over the support they need to achieve their goals, objectives and aspirations for social and economic participation.

Australia also has a long-standing commitment to support jobseekers with disability into long-term employment through the Disability Employment Services (DES) program.

Since the commencement of DES in March 2010, we have achieved more than 400,000 job placements for people with a disability.

We are making changes to DES to empower the individual participants in the program, with the aim to increase the number of long-term employment outcomes for DES participants.

Australia's commitment to implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities remains unfailing and we look forward to the discussions over the coming days of the Conference.

A key part of my speech was expressing our support for Rosemary Kayess, Australia's candidate for the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. I'm happy to report to the House that Ms Kayess was successful and was the third elected candidate out of 19 candidates. It is wonderful to have more women on that committee. Ms Kayess is an accomplished human rights lawyer, researcher and academic. She is currently chair of the Australian Centre for Disability Law and director of the Disability Innovation Institute at the University of New South Wales, and I know that she will be an outstanding committee member and advocate.

During my time in New York, I was also able to meet with a number of our colleagues from around the world to discuss and share a wide range of disability policy issues. It was a great opportunity to listen and learn from other countries. I was also pleased to see that in a number of areas Australia is leading the way. It was also an honour to deliver the MIKTA statement on behalf of our partner countries Mexico, Indonesia, Korea and Turkey. Also notable was that Colin Allen, an Australian, stood down as president of the International disability Alliance, and he was honoured in this year's Queen's Birthday honours.

Attending the United Nations 11th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has further highlighted Australia's commitment to ensuring that the rights of people with a disability, and I want to thank the hosts.

House adjourned at 20:00