Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Bilyk for her question on a very important issue—that is, the respect with which we treat all Australians, particularly those who live with disability. For that reason, the government welcomed the interim report of the disability royal commission. We believe that absolutely everybody, but most particularly the government, has a huge role to play in stamping out violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability, so we thank the royal commission for the work it does. We set up the royal commission because we wanted to shine a spotlight on what is going on and to make sure that some of the actions of the past didn't happen in the future.

I also acknowledge—and I hope everybody else in this chamber acknowledges—that this year we saw a once-in-a-century pandemic hit our country and we acted as quickly as we could with every resource that was available to government to support all Australians and to make sure that, in the first instance, we put in place the health protections that they needed. We acknowledge that the pandemic was traumatic for all Australians, but it clearly was particularly traumatic for those people who live with disability.

Senator Steele-John interjecting—

Senator Steele-John, I absolutely acknowledge that. I take this opportunity to assure all Australians, particularly Australians who live with disability or who look after and care for people with disability, that this government has them front of mind. I'm happy to go through the list of consultations that I've had with the disability sector over the last nine months. I thank the disability advocates, in particular, for their amazing work. This has been an extraordinarily hard time for them. I congratulate them on the engagement they've had with the government to make sure that we look after people with disability. (Time expired)