Disability and Ageing Expo speech
12/08/2011
I am very excited to welcome you all here in a week which has proved to be one of the best the disability and ageing sector has seen in a long time.
I’m sure I’m talking to people who are in the know today – but I would like to take a little time to talk about some of the wonderful announcements we have heard lately and what they will mean.
Of course I am talking about what happened this Wednesday, when Prime Minister Julia Gillard stepped up at a press conference and announced her Government’s intention to make a National Disability Insurance Scheme become a reality.
As I hardly need to tell you, this is an announcement which we’ve all been waiting for. It is a red letter day.
A National Disability Insurance Scheme will mean that everyone with a disability, everyone who cares for a person with a disability, and anyone who cares about disability services can look forward to a better future. The scheme will offer us a GUARANTEE of life-long care, it will offer us CHOICE in how we access care and it will mean the quality of care we receive will rise as more adequate funding is provided to the system
Basically – the scheme will mean that human rights for people with a disability stops being a notion, and starts being something we can hope to actually achieve.
I am so excited about this announcement because it will mean a better life for so many people. It will stop the anguish for people who can’t live their life fully because there is no support for them to do basic things like showering. It will halt the “postcode lottery” which cruelly and arbitrarily excludes people from accessing help. It will move Australia in the direction of offering people with disabilities the same quality of life as everyone else.
And the most wonderful thing is that this reform comes in tandem with a planned aged care reform. We are now looking at an Australia which is prepared to care for all its citizens in a long term way, and which will plan for transitions between care services.
It really is a bright new future.
Of course – not everything is perfect. The details of both reforms are yet to be heard and we all need to be vigilant in making sure that as the plans get released we examine them carefully and hold the Government to account. We need to make sure that the rights of people with disabilities and the ageing are not compromised, and we need to make sure that the Government of the day does not shrink away from enacting reforms in a quick and efficient manner.
And we need to make sure that we are not forgotten during the transition period.
While this week is an exciting and special week, it is still tinged with sadness for me, because I know that for some people out there change will come too late. They will not survive the intervening years, and they will not get to experience the better life Australia will have to offer.
Progress is finally being made, but it is still decades behind the needs of people in our sector. We still face the fight to catch up.
However, I do not wish to dwell on the negatives because this week is a great week, and such a fitting week to have this wonderful expo in.
I want to open this wonderful event with some words about how valuable it is. To have this fantastic resource as part of the year, where people can come to untangle the various services on offer and speak knowledgably with those in the industry about their options is invaluable.
Events like this give people with disabilities and the ageing the ability to be informed and empowered by choice. That is something we all need and deserve.
So, I am very happy to officially welcome you all to the 2011 Adelaide Disability and Ageing Expo.
