Sue Boyce (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I want to speak about two issues related to disability. Firstly, I want to talk about World Down Syndrome Day, which occurred on 21 March. The 21st day of the third month of the year was specifically chosen for Down Syndrome Day because Down syndrome is caused by having three copies of chromosome 21. Thank you to the people who helped here to support the development of it. For the third year in a row, a UN sponsored day was held and a conference was held at UN Headquarters in New York. The theme of the conference was 'Access and equality for all'.

I must admit I was delighted, looking through the material on the website for World Down Syndrome Day, at how far things have come. I remember attending a world Down syndrome conference in Singapore about 10 or 12 years ago and having parents in Singapore come up to us, being very grateful that we were simply walking the streets of Singapore with our children with Down syndrome, something that they did not feel that they could do. The stigma attached to having a child with an intellectual disability was still such in Singapore that children with Down syndrome were locked away in back rooms, not mentioned in the community or to the family. They took great strength from the fact that in other countries children with Down syndrome were simply treated like people.

So it was really refreshing to look at the litany of countries that were involved in World Down Syndrome Day this year. They included places such as Kosovo, which is certainly a place that, from our perspective, you do not think of as being able to have the sort of everyday celebrations that we might have. Indonesia had a great day. Oman was another country that I perhaps did not think would have celebrated World Down Syndrome Day. Lithuania was on the list, as was Costa Rica. I was quite interested to see, when looking at some of these countries, that there had even been suggestions that perhaps the day should not be held and that the community would not join in, yet in the end happy and successful comments were made on the website, saying: 'We shouldn't have worried. People did care. People did support us in doing this.'

As part of World Down Syndrome Day, Down Syndrome International made 13 awards to individuals and organisations for outstanding work. Among those 13 was an Australian organisation called e.motion21. It is a dance and fitness program run for children and adults between four and 40 at seven sites across Victoria. Currently the e.motion21 organisation supports 190 dancers. As we all know, dancing is a fantastic form of exercise and certainly one that I know my own daughter and many of her friends enjoy. So it is great to see an Australian organisation winning one of these 13 awards and developing very innovative programs that can be brought across the world and rolled out everywhere.

I would like to finish on that topic by pointing out that Down syndrome occurs across all genders, races and socioeconomic groups. It is a chromosomal abnormality. Worldwide it is thought to affect one in 800 live births, although of course the statistics are not particularly good in that, like Australia, many countries do not collect specific statistics on specific disabilities. But the calculation is that there are currently about seven million people worldwide who have Down syndrome and who, because of the actions of groups like Down Syndrome International and millions of families all over the world, are now living productive, quality lives just like everyone else.

The second topic I wanted to raise is not as happy. I must admit I have become extremely disappointed, saddened and even angered by the attitude of the current shadow social services minister, Ms Jenny Macklin, towards the government's work with the National Disability Insurance Scheme. I cannot believe that she can stand with a straight face and continue to try to undermine the work that this government is doing in the area by frightening people who are involved in the NDIS by claiming at every turn that this government is not serious about the NDIS, does not want to implement the NDIS and will not implement the NDIS. I do not know what she is trying to achieve—well, I do know, but it is a very sad thing that she is trying to achieve. It is not worthy of anybody in this place to behave as she has in recent months, challenging every discussion about the NDIS by trying to suggest that somehow everything that is ever said about the topic is this government trying not to do it.

She urges the government to stick to the deadline for full implementation. She says people have waited their whole lives for the NDIS. She is quite right, and certainly in my view the current opposition leader, Mr Bill Shorten, deserves credit for being the one to kick off the development of the NDIS. But we need to remember that the Productivity Commission report that was produced as a result of that suggested a quite different timetable to the one that was implemented in the end by Ms Macklin for no reason other than political gain.

The Gillard government was not as patient as the Productivity Commission thought they should be. They simply rolled it out. We now, of course, have a report that says that, because of the shortened timetable set by the Gillard-Rudd government, under Ms Macklin, the way the rollout occurred was so tight that, as the review says:

The Agency is like a plane that took off before it had been fully built and is being completed while it is in the air.

Now, if you contrast that with the way the Gillard-Rudd government went about setting up one of its other pet projects, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, the difference is very telling. The ACNC had a CEO before there was even legislation to establish it. The ACNC was even advertising jobs before it was established. The National Disability Insurance Agency, under the previous government, did not have that luxury. They were trying to get premises, appoint staff, develop programs, set up an IT system and begin to service people with disabilities as they went. It is no wonder that there have been some teething problems.

But, whatever else, the government is committed to rolling out the NDIS. We will deal with the teething problems as they come up. Ms Macklin is attempting to use any problems that now develop—to have the cheek, the hide, the nerve—to try to scare people with disabilities and their families, when the problems that are developing right now are the result of her wanting to roll out the NDIS before an election. That was the only reason she wanted it out there in 2013, instead of in 2014, which was the schedule set by the Productivity Commission. (Time expired)

Senate adjourned at 19:31