Kelly Vincent – RPH Interview on community events and sex education
29/04/2015
Male announcer: On 1197AM 5RPH and digital radio its Question Time; a discussion with the decision makers.
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Hans Reimer: And it’s great to welcome Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent to Question Time again this wonderful evening. Kelly.
Kelly Vincent: Hi Hans, How’s it going?
Hans Reimer: Good, thank you. You’ve certainly had a busy schedule as an MP lately, what are some of the recent highlights from your diary?
Kelly Vincent: There are a few things going on at the moment, Hans, as I’m sure you can imagine. I must say it was a great pleasure to attend the Riding for the Disabled Centres Forum recently, where we spoke about the work of Dignity for Disability and the importance that volunteers play both in our organisation and in broader society. I must say the dedication of the volunteers in that group is quite incredible, they have volunteers there who have been there upwards of 10 to 30 years, so it’s quite extraordinary.
In that same weekend I also went for a bit of a fact finding mission around Port Adelaide with some Dignity for Disability members to find out first-hand about some access concerns that have been raised with me in the Port Adelaide area; things like footpaths, toilets, and other amenities. Certainly watch this space as we’ll be chasing those issues up with Council, there are some big issues there in the Port Adelaide area that are unfortunately not unique to that area, but a good place to start and to raise awareness.
The Social Development Committee has also been doing an inquiry into domestic abuse, and that has taken us to Mount Gambier, Murray Bridge, and Berri where we heard evidence from various service providers in the anti-domestic violence area about their work and their statistics around domestic abuse in regional and remote areas.
Another big issue of course is access to the Adelaide Oval. My discussions with the Stadium Management Authority continue, looking at some of the general access issues at the Adelaide Oval which have been raised with me, and I must say it’s wildly outrageous that we continue to have these access issues in a multi-million dollar development in 2015 in Australia. I look forward to hearing from anyone who’s having any ongoing access issues at the oval, to make sure that we do get this right over time.
And of course coming up this weekend I’ve got the Walk for Wheels event for Motivation Australia, raising funds to provide mobility aids and training to people with disabilities in regional and remote Australia as well as other countries in the Asia Pacific region. SO a lot of things on the go, and looking forward to another busy weekend.
Hans Reimer: And is there anything in particular that’s got you going this week then?
Kelly Vincent: Well I’ve quite a few things that I think you can imagine. I had the pleasure of meeting with a training office from People With Disability Australia when she happened to be in town, and she’s working with lots of different groups providing disability support training specifically for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse and the abuse of people with disabilities more broadly as well. So what really interested me about this meeting with People With Disability Australia is that they have some quite tailored and quite specific training for particular groups around sexuality and respectful relationships for people with disabilities as well as responding to sexual assault, and as I’m sure you’ve gathered from our previous conversations, Hans, the area of sexuality and sexuality education as well as respectful and healthy relationships is a big area that I’m very passionate about because often we see people with disabilities being very infantilised or deemed asexual and not getting the knowledge that they might need, and I think there’s a bit of a fallacy out there that by not talking about these issues we’re keeping people with disabilities safe, where in doing that we’re not going to take away somebody’s desires to have sex or have a relationship, all we’re doing is making sure that they don’t have information that they need to keep themselves safe when they get into those areas, and into those situations. So I’d certainly encourage anyone out there listening who might be interested to check out People With Disability Australia’s training in this area, and of course to look at the supports that are out there to help them give a submission to the Royal Commission as well.
Hans Reimer: Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent, thanks once again for joining us on Question Time.
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Kelly Vincent: Thanks Hans, that’s a pleasure. I’ll speak to you next week.
Male announcer: Be listening at the same time next week for Question Time; a discussion with the decision makers on 1197AM 5RPH and digital radio.
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