Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to oppose the Business Services Wage Assessment Tool Payment Scheme Bill 2014, unless the very sensible amendments that Labor has put forward can be agreed to today. It is the Abbott government's shame that we cannot stand here today and have bipartisan agreement on an issue which is so important.

It seems, as we have stood many times as an opposition opposing the harsh cruel measures of the Abbott government, that anyone in our society who needs a little more support or consideration, that that support and consideration is simply not given. Their agenda is to seemingly say to our community as a whole: 'You're on your own. It's up to you. Make your own way, because we're not there to provide that additional support that groups may require.'

All the heavily lifting on issues around people with disability has been done by Labor. We had bipartisan support then as we have seen in aged care, NDIS, child care and a whole range of other areas, but the Abbott government is simply seeking to undo some fundamental principles around helping those in our community who need that additional support.

In speaking to this bill this morning, I looked back at our recent history of people with disability. It is true to say that in the past—and I hope we are long past this—people with disability have been ignored, hidden, and locked away in asylums and other specialist institutions. If we look even further back, people with disability have been subjected to public ridicule through appearances at circuses and the like—a shameful history, which of course has left its mark.

Our most recent past is to view those people with disability as a problem which society has to deal with. We did that by placing people in institutions and/or prisons and the appalling practice of sterilising women and girls. I sincerely hope as a society we are long past that culture, those practices and those beliefs.

Looking at Australia's history, there have been some major milestones. The first of those was in 1908 when the Australian government introduced the invalid pension, which of course increased the independence of people with disability as well as providing them with the acknowledgment to some extent of being recognised members of society. That is from the People with Disability website, which provides a really good history of people with disability in Australia.

Our involvement in World Wars I and II and indeed the Vietnam War forced Australian society to be more inclusive as people came back with injuries which prohibited them from participating in their communities in the way that they had previously. Indeed people also came back with intellectual impairment. So it forced us to recognise that people with disability have the right to live a decent life and be properly supported in leading that decent life. Just saying that people have a right to live a decent life, without putting in the underpinning supports, is paying lip service. It is talking the talk; it is not walking the walk.

I turn now to the particular bill before us. The Australian disability enterprises are, of course, commercial businesses. They employ people with disability who need support to stay in paid work. We all know that enabling decent, respectful employment assists everyone in our community, and people with disability are no different. Work enables them to participate more fully in community life, as indeed it does for all Australians who seek work. There are almost 200 Australian disability enterprises across Australia, and they support 20,000 people with disability. I think the recent stats say there are about half a million Australians who have some sort of disability living in our communities.

Labor believe—and not only believes but has a strong and proud record—that more needs to be done to support people with disability into employment, which is why Labor introduced the National Disability Insurance Scheme. That is the most significant reform to disability services in this country's history. It will become the Medicare of the future. It is something that should be above party politics and should be supported by every single member of parliament and senator in this place. But of course that savage Abbott government budget continues to wreak havoc on all sections of the Australian community. We see in the 2014-15 budget that it is full of savage cuts to people with disability. I know the government will try to play that down, deny it and say it is putting more money in, but the facts are that it is full of cuts to people with disability, their families and their carers. They have been abandoned by the Abbott government.

The coalition government have a history of this. When they were last in government, the value of Commonwealth funding for disability services was cut repeatedly and dramatically. They capped the number of disability employment assistance places. Why as a government would you deny people with disability the opportunity to work? But that is what happened as a result of their capping. Many people simply missed out, fell on the scrap heap and were denied the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution that was good for society and good for them as individuals. Like Labor did in aged care and schools, Labor has done the heavy lifting to repair this. We invested $3.2 billion and uncapped those disability employment assistance places. As a result of that, around 160,000 disability employment service participants with disability found work.

Let's look at the bill, which will establish a payment scheme for supported employees with intellectual disability in Australian disability enterprises who previously had their wages assessed under the business services wage assessment tool, which was developed in 2003. It will determine the wages of about half of all workers in the Australian disability enterprises. Both the Federal Court and the High Court have determined independently that the business service wage assessment tool has discriminated against some people with intellectual disability. When that decision came down, I heard people with disability being interviewed, and I was appalled at how little they earned. That wage would have made no contribution to their wellbeing from the work that they did, failed to recognise the value of their work and did not enable them to lead independent lives. That decision found that a supported employee with an intellectual disability may never be able to meet the competency component measured by that tool, because it was set too high. Of course we know that further representative proceedings are in train.

This means that these Australian workers, some of the most vulnerable in our community, have been paid less than they should have, and to hear their stories was quite appalling. When listening to their stories, Australians who believe in the wellbeing of all Australians, as I do, should be ashamed. I was appalled to hear the sorts of wages they were receiving. They were certainly not wages anyone could live on.

Of course this issue is a complex one. The government tells us the idea of the scheme is to provide some reassurance to supported employees and their families and carers. That is a good thing. We should be providing a reassurance, and Labor supports that reassurance. But Labor cannot and will not support this bill in its current form. It goes back to the old days when people with disability were locked away, when they were not respected, when the value of the work they provide to our communities was not acknowledged. The government wants to just push this through the Senate without consultation with key stakeholders. We are way beyond that in this area. We do need the input of stakeholders. That is how we can inform ourselves correctly. That is how we can make good decisions. When governments make decisions in isolation without any consultation with expert groups and stakeholders, we get these mean-spirited decisions which actually will make life harder and will treat people with disability trying to make a living in the harshest way. That is what happens when governments make decisions in isolation.

So it is back to the bad old days when government knew best and there was no consultation with stakeholders: 'We'll tell you what's good for you.' I thought we were long past that. Certainly Labor is long past that kind of approach. That is why we called for the Senate inquiry. It is why Labor insisted there be a Senate inquiry. That was to give stakeholders some opportunity to give their evidence to government. Of course, as we know, the inquiry raised some real concerns with the bill, and Labor senators on the committee expressed very serious reservations and very serious concerns that the bill effectively extinguishes a person's legal rights. So that bill takes us right back to before 1908 when we first had the invalid pension. We are saying to people with disability, 'We know what's best for you.' To extinguish someone's legal rights is something that Labor senators will not stand for.

The bill stipulates that a person ceases to be a group member of any relevant representative proceeding at the time the acceptance of a payment under the scheme is lodged. Labor cannot support provisions in the bill that seek to extinguish a person's right to pursue compensation through the courts. It is extinguishing that right, whether you have a disability or not and whether you have a physical disability or an intellectual disability. We should not, as a parliament, be extinguishing anyone's rights to proceed to legal action if they believe it is in their best interests to do so. And for the government to put into the bill provisions that do that just shows that it is a patronising attempt—it is just saying to people with disability: 'We're back to the old days. We'll tell you what's good for you. And by the way, we're not going to allow you to appeal your rights.'

We have seen other legislation where the government has done similar sorts of things. This is a government that thinks it knows best and is patronising to a number of groups in our community, and today the target is people with disability.

Labor is determined to see workers with a disability receive fair pay, and we are determined to make sure they retain their legal rights as an absolute minimum. Labor stands here today to urge the government to get on with the very important job of developing a new wage assessment process, one that does not discriminate against anyone with any type of disability—a fair instrument—and, further, to urge them not to extinguish legal rights that workers have.

In giving evidence to the current Senate inquiry, People with Disability Australia argued that:

The Bill is a clear attempt on behalf of the Commonwealth to avoid implementation of the Nojin and Prior judgement, and to sabotage the current representative action for compensation by people with intellectual disability who experienced discrimination as a result of having their wages assessed using the BSWAT. In doing so, the Bill will exploit the vulnerable circumstances of people with intellectual disability who work in ADEs, by providing a payment in exchange for their consent to maintain a system of wage determination which has been proven to discriminate against them.

This absolutely clear assessment, this rich evidence, from one of the stakeholders of what the government's bill will do to people with disability—particularly those with intellectual disability—would have been completely missing if we had not had a Senate inquiry, because the government, again, simply failed to consult with those who are advocates in our system. There is just that failure to consult. And why? Because they knew, I can only presume, that this is exactly what would happen, and they did not want this evidence on the public record; that would be the only reason you would not consult with stakeholders. They did not want to create a fuss and thought they could slip this in through the back door. We have seen them do it in a whole range of other areas, to try to avoid the scrutiny of the parliament and to try to avoid the scrutiny of the work of the Senate in the committee. Here we have a real, live example of exactly why the government wants to do that, because their bill absolutely and categorically seeks to extinguish the legal rights of workers with an intellectual disability—and not only that; it wants to keep their pay as low as possible. Who knows why? Maybe they think that these commercial enterprises should make a big profit off the backs of people with disability. And, if they make a profit, good on them. But, in the meantime, let us pay people fairly and use a tool that is independent and fair, and that absolutely adequately and properly assesses somebody's ability to work. But, no—government knows best! It is out there saying: 'This is the way we will move forward.' Well, Labor is not going to support that unless our amendments are absolutely considered and taken on board by the government.

Labor senators of the committee recommended that the provisions of the bill which seek to extinguish a person's right to pursue compensation through the courts be rejected. I mean, that is the essence of what the government is trying to do: extinguish someone's rights. What sort of government would do that? Who is advising the government that this is a good course of action? It is not. And where does it stop? If we extinguish the rights here, who is the next group to have their rights extinguished? I know the government might think that it might be able to get on with its harsh, cruel agenda more freely if it was able to just extinguish rights here and there and not allow anyone the right of appeal, but I can absolutely assure you: Labor will not stand by and allow any workers or any people to have their rights extinguished in this harsh, cruel way. To not have a tool that properly assesses somebody 's competencies which will lead to a decent and fair pay is quite disgraceful. We are going back to the old days, when people with disability were not respected.

Of course, we are also very concerned by any rules that do not ensure that nominee provisions are used as a last resort. The nominee rules under the NDIS Act are underpinned by principles of supported decision-making and by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Labor signed up to in 2008. Certainly Labor remains very concerned that nominee provisions in this bill are not premised on this principle of supported decision-making. The Human Rights Committee has sought advice from the minister as to whether the decision-making models in place are compatible with the rights to equality and nondiscrimination, and Labor urges the government to publish the proposed rules as soon as possible and undertake extensive consultation on them to ensure that they are consistent with the principle of supported decision-making and consistent with the NDIS, which they claim they are signed up to.

To extinguish someone's rights and to not pay a fair wage are not principles that Labor will support, and I am saying to the government today: take our amendments seriously, otherwise we cannot support these bills.