Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Saturday, 3 December marks International Day of People with Disability. Now in its 24th year, International Day of People with Disability has been celebrated on 3 December every year since 1992. The day is set aside to celebrate and promote the participation and inclusion of people with disability in society. It is a great opportunity to raise awareness of people living with disability and the barriers they face within our communities. It is also a chance to celebrate the achievements and contributions of people with disability. Across the country, events will be held to educate, celebrate and break down barriers. I congratulate all those schools, workplaces, businesses and community groups that have already held and are holding barbecues, street stalls, workshops, talent shows and other community events to celebrate the day. I encourage everyone to get online and find an event near them this weekend. These events provide us all with an opportunity to think and talk about and to acknowledge people with disability in a positive way. They also give us the chance to reflect on the work still ahead of us to increase the participation and inclusion of people with disability.

Each year, the United Nations identify a theme for International Day of People with Disability to provide a focus for consideration of barriers that exclude people with disability from inclusion and participation in our communities. The theme for 2016 is 'Achieving 17 goals for the future we want', which draws attention to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and how these goals can create a more inclusive and equitable world for people with disability. The Sustainable Development Goals were developed to succeed the Millennium Development Goals, whose achievement period concluded in 2015. The SDGs address all three dimensions of sustainable development—environmental, economic and social. In announcing the theme, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said:

We mark this year's International Day of Persons with Disabilities in the wake of the adoption of the ambitious 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This global blueprint for action summons us to "leave no one behind".

The theme is about considering the role these goals will play in building a more inclusive and equitable world for people with disability. More broadly, the theme is about an inclusive future for people with disability and how this can be achieved. Disability is specifically mentioned in several of the goals, particularly in relation to education, growth and employment, inequality and the accessibility of human settlements, as well as data collection and the monitoring of the SDGs.

Goal 4, on an inclusive and equitable quality education and the promotion of life-long learning opportunities for all, includes a focus on eliminating gender disparities in education and ensuring equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for vulnerable people, including people with disability. This goal also calls for building and upgrading education facilities that are child-, disability- and gender-sensitive, and providing safe, nonviolent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all. We know that, even in Australia right now, too many students with disability are not getting the support they need to achieve their best at school. They are not getting the support they need to reach their potential and succeed at school. In fact, the Gonski review of school funding concluded that inadequate support for students with disability limits their achievements not only at school but also later in life. These students are less likely to graduate, go on to further training or be able to find a job.

Goal 8 of the SDGs outlines a vision for sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. Specifically, it sets out the aim of achieving full and productive employment, decent work for all women and men—including for young people and persons with disabilities—and equal pay for work of equal value by 2030. Here in Australia, too many people with disability are still excluded from workforce participation. They are not given the opportunity to contribute and to engage in work. Australia has one of the lowest rates of employment for people with disability in the developed world. The OECD ranks Australia 21st out of 29 OECD countries for the employment participation of people with disability. ABS data shows that the workplace participation rate in Australia for people with disability is 53 per cent, compared to 83 per cent for people without disability. In 2015, the unemployment rate for people with disability was 10 per cent—significantly higher than that for people without disability at 5.3 per cent. People with disability deserve the same opportunities as any other Australian to participate in our economy. However, achieving this requires a real plan and a commitment to overcoming barriers for people with disability, including bias and discrimination.

Closely linked to the objective of goal 8 is goal 10, which strives to reduce inequality within and among countries by empowering and promoting the social, economic and political inclusion of all, including persons with disabilities. Again, in Australia people with disability continue to experience unacceptable restrictions on inclusion and participation in economic, cultural, social, civil and political life. In 2015, around two in five people of working age with disability reported that their main source of cash income was a government pension or allowance. Around 45 per cent of people with disability in Australia live near or below the poverty line. This means that Australia currently ranks 26th out of 27 OECD countries for the percentage of people with disability living in poverty.

The exclusion of people with disability in Australia reaches beyond the mere economic. The objective of goal 11 is to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe and sustainable. Countries are called upon to provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of vulnerable people, such as persons with disabilities.

Further to this, the goal calls for the provision of universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible green and public spaces, particularly for persons with disabilities. Improving accessibility is critical to transforming the experiences and lives of people with disability and creating more inclusive communities. I am pleased that this issue will be examined by the Community Affairs References Committee, following the Senate's adoption of my reference on progress made under the National Disability Strategy to build inclusive and accessible communities. It is timely to initiate an inquiry into the efforts to address barriers to the inclusion and participation of people with disability, in the lead-up to International Day for People with Disability.

I would finally note goal 17, which stresses the need for accurate data collection to progress sustainable development. This includes the need for reliable data that is also broken down by disability. Often when we talk about sustainable development in Australia, we look at our role in assisting developing countries, especially within our region—and rightly so. However, we do not have to look too far to see people who are being excluded and left behind; people with disability within our own community are among them.

In spite of the bleak picture I have just outlined, there is much to celebrate on this International Day of People with Disability. So this weekend I encourage everyone to reflect on the work ahead and celebrate the abilities and achievements of people with disability. And I cannot miss the opportunity of putting on record my congratulations to Dylan Alcott, who this week became the first wheelchair star to win the Newcombe Medal, the highest honour in Australian tennis. Alcott is an exceptional athlete by any standard: world No.1 and triple Olympic gold medalist for wheelchair basketball and tennis. Alcott has had the kind of year an athlete dreams of. He successfully defended his Australian Open title, won singles and doubles gold in Rio and was crowned as Australia's Paralympian of the Year—collecting titles not just in Australia but also South Africa, Japan, France and Britain.

And while we might not all be capable of Olympic gold, everyone has abilities that should be celebrated. So this weekend get involved and celebrate ability. And every day that follows, recognise and value the contributions of people with disability. Start a conversation, challenge misconceptions and break down barriers.

David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If we can think of Australia's federation of states being like a family, there is one family member that needs more than a good talking to—it needs an intervention. South Australia needs intervention because its problems are self-inflicted and because too many South Australian politicians have developed a monstrous sense of entitlement. If the South Australia government were a person, it would be an obese 40-year-old man with awful body odour who lives with his mother, refuses to work and plays Xbox all day. He pauses only to demand more Cheezels and iced coffee, or to complain when the lights go out. It really is that bad.

Over the last five years, every category of private investment in South Australia has fallen. While population and employment growth in other states have risen steadily, the graph for both indicators in South Australia is as flat as the Nullarbor Plain. And it is heading for a cliff, as thousands of young South Australians follow the jobs interstate. Unless its course changes, South Australia risks becoming one big barren candle-lit retirement village. The economy of Western Australia left South Australia far behind years ago, and now it appears the tiny ACT could overtake South Australia within 20 years. And the ACT can achieve this despite its primary products being bulldust and hot air. The only economic competition left open to South Australia will be the race with Tasmania to the bottom. Sadly, the lone positive influence that South Australian politicians are having on Australia right now is to make politicians from other states feel better about themselves.

It is hard to say exactly why South Australian legislators are so consistently terrible. But there seems to be a sizeable voting bloc of whingeing wendys and doctors' wives who like to be represented either by doe-eyed Greens who have never grown up or shameless populists and protectionists. They are professional virtue signallers. They might fly economy and wear cheap suits, but they are costing us billions with the most irresponsible approach to governance imaginable. They claim to be servants of the people, but they are every bit as dodgy with 'other people's money' as the shonkiest crony capitalist. Even the most reasonable South Australian politicians these days seem to believe their constituents will be unable to stand unless propped up by elaborate government schemes. They insult them with their low expectations.

Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A point of order, Senator Sterle?

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have not got the standing order in front of me, but someone will remind me. Senator Leyonhjelm, as amusing as he can be, is casting aspersions on members of another parliament within Australia. I would ask if you could remind the senator of the standing order—which I have forgotten.

Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Leyonhjelm?

David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do not believe there is such a standing order, Mr Acting Deputy President.

Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will get some advice on standing order 193 from the clerk. But it would assist the chair if you did not cast any aspersions towards members from another place.

David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If all they did was turn their own state into an economic basket case, perhaps we could live with it. But the dysfunction of the state now affects us all.

This week, I was visited by Louise Burge, who is still counting the cost of floods on her property near Deniliquin in southern New South Wales. The damage was greatly exacerbated by releases from the Hume Dam as part of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. You can understand why she is so outraged by suggestions from South Australia that yet more water should be sent down the river. As chair of the recent Senate inquiry into the Basin Plan, I heard testimony from dozens of people in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria who have suffered greatly, losing their jobs, businesses and regional communities because of water buybacks in their area, turning productive irrigation farms into dryland farms. And yet the primary concern of some South Australian politicians appears to be that people visiting holiday houses in Goolwa might miss out on watching gigalitres of fresh water flow into the ocean every day.

Likewise, the submarine contract is no joke to the rest of us. While we need submarines, it will cost every Australian thousands of dollars to let South Australians have a crack at making them, despite the sorry history of the Air Warfare Destroyers. If you recall, in 2007 we ordered three such ships to be built in South Australia. Even now, not one ship has been delivered and costs have blown out by more than $1 billion.

I should at least acknowledge the South Australian Premier, Jay Weatherill, for recognising that something has to be done about his economy and opening up the debate about nuclear technology. Initiatives in the nuclear field could pull the state out of its malaise. A large-scale waste repository alone, by itself, could attract billions for the state, with little or no risk. Thousands of my constituents in southern Sydney currently live within a few kilometres of nuclear waste that is held temporarily in a shed at Lucas Heights. Because of the laws of physics, there is no increase in radiation beyond the gates of the facility. However, creating a permanent repository in South Australia, much further away from people than the deposit in Sydney is, sends South Australians and their representatives into paroxysms of rejection. With the recent backtracking from the South Australian opposition leader on the issue, I can confidently predict that a large-scale permanent nuclear waste repository will not happen in South Australia.

If South Australia is to become a useful member of the federation, it needs to change. Like other Australians, South Australians would be better off concentrating on areas in which we have natural advantages, such as agriculture, mining and tourism. No taxpayers' money is needed to support these. Simply reducing red tape would go a long way towards encouraging more investment. The potential expansion of Olympic Dam should have South Australian politicians bending over backwards to help the project proponents make the necessary cuts to their costs. And they should be bending over backwards to ensure that future approval processes will be less arduous than the processes of the past. But instead we have South Australian politicians promising that approval processes will be more arduous and costly.

Allowing farmers to grow genetically modified crops, like in WA and Victoria, would also be important. Genetic modification can help us feed the world's poor. Pandering to thoroughly debunked, antiscientific fearmongering about genetic modification is a luxury that South Australia, and indeed the rest of Australia and the world, cannot afford. South Australia desperately needs to reform its electricity industry. Poor electricity policy burdens its citizens, has made manufacturing in the state unsustainable, raises the operating costs of all businesses, including tourism, and leaves the state dependent on others.

It should allow all forms of power generation, including nuclear power, on equal terms and without subsidy, so that the lowest-cost suppliers succeed. The South Australian government should cut its spending, such as by abolishing the wide range of subsidies it irresponsibly doles out to home owning pensioners. These subsidies just reinforce South Australia's status as the world's biggest retirement home.

The South Australian government should reduce taxes so as to make South Australia a place where at least some people want to live and do business, and it should make it easier to establish and operate a business in South Australia than in any other state. Meanwhile, the best thing we can do to help South Australia get over its addiction to other people's money is to stop giving it to them. The federal government should provide fewer transfers and special payments to all states and tax them less but allow them to raise their own taxes. It would concentrate the minds of South Australians wonderfully if we started to return GST revenues to states based on what they generate, or at least if we doled revenue out on an equal per capita basis. But currently, when an average Australian gets $1 of GST revenue, each South Australian gets $1.42. We should respond less to all of their bleatings—their bleatings for money, for water, for power, and for anything else—until such time as they can demonstrate that they can behave like responsible adults in the federation.