Kelly Vincent – 5RPH Interview on Federal Cabinet Changes
23/09/2015
On Wednesday, 23rd September 2015 Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent was interviewed on radio station 5RPH to discuss the new Federal Cabinet and in particular the lack of disability specific portfolios. Here is the audio and transcript from the interview.
Peter Greco: Kelly is the member for Dignity for Disability in the Legislative Council. Last week the new cabinet was announced with the new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Kelly’s got a couple of concerns. How are you Kelly?
Kelly Vincent: Hi Peter, how are things?
Peter Greco: Pretty good, but like you I think many people are concerned about, well perhaps, the lack of recognition of disability in the new Turnbull cabinet.
Kelly Vincent: Well certainly the disability community at large has been very concerned by the lack of specific portfolios focused on disability and disability services reform. Particularly considering Australia no longer has a specific, designated Disabilities Discrimination Commissioner particularly not a person with a disability themselves. So I think it is significantly concerning quite rightly that disability as a portfolio isn’t getting the recognition that it needs.
Peter Greco: And perhaps a little bit surprising because one would have thought that Malcolm Turnbull would perhaps be more predisposed to looking upon disability as something that was important.
Kelly Vincent: well I think there is some hope that perhaps Mr Turnbull will be a bit more progressive than some of his predecessors but I guess that remains to be seen. But I have to say, I think it’s particularly of concern given that we are in such state of enormous reform under the NDIS in disability, so we certainly do need a lot of focus on this. Having said that, we now have Christian Porter who is responsible for the Social Services portfolio and it has been clarified that he will under that portfolio have responsibility for the NDIS. And I think regardless of whatever we call the portfolio the main crux of the issue is that we can’t afford to lose traction on the NDIS particularly in South Australia where we are significantly behind in the trial site in terms of the number and the age of children that we’re servicing under the trial site here in South Australia. And of course the fact that we’re yet to see a new bilateral agreement between the state and the federal government as to who will take responsibility for what under the next phase of the roll out. So whatever we’re going to call the portfolio, the fact is we can’t afford to lose traction. As the Dignity for Disability Party we’ll do whatever we can on the state level to make sure that we do get a bilateral agreement signed that states very clearly what state and federal governments will be responsible for under the next phase of the roll out.
Peter Greco: Actually I had a look at Christian Porter’s website and fortunately as far as trying to contact Christian there’s no CAPTCHA. I thought wouldn’t it be ironic if there was a CAPTCHA for people to contact him. But no, you can contact him without that. Kelly is it also a little bit, I guess concerning that I think Mitch Fifield was held in high regard by the sector. Now of course he’s moved onto Communications.
Kelly Vincent: Yes well I think unfortunately it’s not uncommon for some of the portfolios that need the most stability and most traction to have the most sort of flex and we see it in disability at both the federal and state level, and we see it particularly on state level with things like Aboriginal Affairs, we so those Ministers changing a lot. Unfortunately it does tend to be the portfolios where we do need to take the time and the investment to build those relationships with those communities for whatever reason they seem to be the portfolios that change Ministers and change hands the most often. It is unfortunate. But you know, you are right. Senator Fifield has moved on to Communications and Arts. This does seem to be an interesting time to be Minister for the Arts given that under his predecessor Senator George Brandis we saw some pretty unpopular decisions particularly towards the move to take funding from the Australia Council for the Arts and putting that towards the so called Program for Excellence.
Peter Greco: So perhaps Mitch Fifield might look a bit more favourably on that sort of aspect from, you know, his background in disability before this.
Kelly Vincent: Unfortunately, recent media reports would suggest that there’s not going to be movement on some of the decisions that have been made in the arts. But with the new Minister I think we can build up some pressure and maybe get some changes happening.
Peter Greco: Once again, looking at Christian Porter’s website or a little bit about him. He seems to have been very much involved in areas of Attorney-General and Treasurer in Western Australia so I couldn’t find too much that might have predisposed him to having information about disability through his previous workings.
Kelly Vincent: Well firstly, I’ll certainly say that I’ll endeavour to give that feedback about his website. It’s disappointing to hear that it’s not as accessible as it could be.
Peter Greco: Ah, sorry it is accessible. I may not have made that point clear. There was not CAPTCHA to fill in.
Kelly Vincent: Oh, I’m sorry I thought you said there was a CAPTCHA.
Peter Greco: No there wasn’t.
Kelly Vincent: Oh great. But certainly I think there’s some argument that maybe having no involvement in the disability sector will perhaps give us a fresh set of eyes. But again, given that we are in such a state of enormous reform, I think that we do perhaps need someone with some former experience. But perhaps dealing in Attorney General’s with the law and with the legal system arguably could put him in a good place to deal with legislative change under the NDIS so we’ll wait and see. But regardless it is Dignity for Disability’s ambition and role and intention to work constructively with Mr Porter to make sure that in particular we do get a constructive bilateral agreement between the state and the federal government.
Peter Greco: Because in recent times didn’t both New South Wales and Victoria sign up?
Kelly Vincent: Yes they have in recent days signed up to the NDIS so it certainly is an interesting time to be involved. But certainly my focus here as a South Australian MP is on the South Australian trial site and as I say unfortunately we still don’t have that new bilateral agreement. The current one I believe is due to expire in June next year and the fact is that we don’t yet know what shape the next phase of the roll out will take in South Australia. We don’t know whether it will deal with children or whether it will move to dealing with particular geographical areas and so on. So we are I think in a state of some uncertainty. So we’ll certainly keep pushing for that bilateral agreement to be signed. I was with the state Minister for Disabilities, Tony Piccolo just a couple of days ago and he certainly lead me to believe that there is going to be some movement on that in the coming weeks so we’ll certainly keep the pressure up.
Peter Greco: And of course the other thing is that even though the system or the pilot program has been going for a couple or so years here in South Australia. I think you mentioned at the start of the interview there is a bit of time lag or there’s a bit of a waiting list or not as many people we thought were going to be serviced are being serviced.
Kelly Vincent: Well unfortunately in terms of the South Australian trial which is aiming to service children aged 0 to 14 over a period of years. A few things have happened, I suppose the first thing that’s happened is that the number of children who would be eligible was significantly underestimated. So it was estimated originally that 5,000 children would be eligible under the trial site but actually around 10,000 have been deemed to be eligible. So that has cause significant delay in terms of the resources that have been there in terms of things like the number of planners and local area coordinators have been insufficient. So we’re not seeing children and families get the support they need at an administrative level to actually move onto the scheme in a timely manner. This is something that Dignity for Disability have been very vocal about getting the state and federal government to sit down together and sort out as part of that bilateral agreement.
Peter Greco: Kelly, I know you’re in the middle of your tea break from parliament, so thank you very much for speaking to us and we’ll certainly give Christian Porter at least a fair go.
Kelly Vincent: I look forward to working constructively with him and I will keep you updated.
Peter Greco: Yes, they were my personal views, not yours. Thanks Kelly.
Kelly Vincent: Thanks.
