Multiculturalism and Disability
21/11/2011
Good morning all, and welcome to Adelaide, my hometown, for those of you from interstate. I’d like to acknowledge that today we meet on the traditional land of the Kaurna people.
Today I am going to speak to you about the layered complexity of disability and multiculturalism and the disadvantage it can cause. I’d like to talk about it from two different angles I guess – firstly, refugees, or humanitarian entrants; and secondly the general migrant and ethnically diverse community. Whilst I am obviously in a wheelchair and have a lived experience of disability, I certainly don’t claim to be an expert on ethnic or non-English speaking communities. I do not come from a particularly ethnically varied background, though I do speak two other languages, and I am passionate about diversity in Australian society. In my view, multiculturalism and the fact that people in our community come from all over the world and from many different backgrounds and situations, is one of the features that makes this country a unique and wonderful place! We need to embrace difference in all its many forms – whether it be ethnic divergence, cultural identity, disability – or all of these!
In terms of discrimination and disability, as someone who gets around on two wheels, I am all too familiar with the problems faced in trying to get into buildings, to access toilets, to use our social support systems. For example, our current court building down the road here in Adelaide’s city centre, does not have wheelchair access. This is very literally a barrier to justice. You can’t access the justice system, as a victim nor accused, or as a professional involved in this area, if you can’t get into the building! Anyway, I’m accustomed to this kind of problem, and each day I campaign to move forward in making our society more accessible for all. So, I guess I can only imagine the difficulty these that can be caused when there is a cultural or language barrier added to this equation for people with disability.
Refugees – and change needed in our public sector
I will move to the issue of refugees. I have a friend that was volunteering in the refugee sector here in South Australia. She was assisting a single parent family, a mother with seven children, from Sudan. Within the family, they were attempting to resolve multiple health issues associated with two of the younger daughters, in addition to the mother who had a chronic physical health condition that required daily medications and monitoring. The time that they had spent without adequate health care in a refugee environment in northern Africa had worsened the severity of all their health concerns.
One of the daughters had physical growth challenges, learning difficulties and behavioural issues – it was already causing social isolation for this eight year old, at school. Effectively, two of the eight member family would be defined as having a disability. The mother was struggling to cope with the daily pressures of parenting and getting seven kids off to school. She is in a country half way round the world from her homeland, her husband had disappeared in the civil war, and the language spoken here – English – was to be the fourth she’d had to learn to in her lifetime. I know this community, at a FECCA Conference, would be all too aware of this, but learning another language is particularly challenging when you’ve had limited education. To my friend it seemed that this was a family that would surely qualify for some expert assistance from within the state department of Families and Communities. A social worker eventually visited. She said she struggled to understand the limited English language that the mother had, that she was sure the family would survive (she said she’d seen worse situations) and rules prevented her from assisting with practical matters like shopping and transport to school. The social worker said there were no resources for a translator. My friend, the volunteer, didn’t speak Arabic either, but somehow she’d managed to assist the family on so many levels. Anyway, the case was closed – there was nothing that could be done. Now, to me, that just isn’t good enough.
Yes, we have to have rules in our public service, and no, we can’t provide resources to everyone from everything. But are we not setting up a situation where disadvantage upon disadvantage are being layered on top of one another? These people have already fled from situations so brutal, so harsh, most of us can barely imagine. Why not give them the best possible chance of flourishing in this country, of making a new and positive life?
Policies in our institutions, in health care, in our education system, need to be recognise our society in all the forms it comes. Whether you are white, black, Asian, Christian, Muslim, Spanish speaking or on two wheels, a robust public service will recognise and be able to adapt to your circumstance. One that is tied up in its own bureaucratic processes, will leave those that fit outside the ‘norm’ behind and create social isolation, the haves and have nots. In the process, we miss out on all the wonderful things that an Asian in a wheelchair, or a Hazara refugee that is deaf, or an African with chronic depression might bring to our community.
In South Australia we recently had a ‘Thinker in Residence, John McTernan, investigate public sector culture and function in this state. In his closing address, he noted that many public servants in health and education weren’t sure what they were there for, were hampered by their departments own red tape, and were risk averse because they were so worried about being rapped over the knuckles for breaking the rules. Now, clearly, if this kind of culture is endemic in our public service, we are not going to get the services we need. An African refugee, with mental illness in a wheelchair, trying to access education for their children, is going to struggle. Unless there is a culture of ca-do, of willingness to go the extra mile, to passionately want all in our community to thrive, to succeed, that person is not going to get what we need. We must change the ethic and culture in our public sector through the leaders, the dreamers, the believers in Australia today that want EVERYONE to have a fair go. When these reforms occur in the public sector, attitudes in the community and private sector will follow.
NDIS
So what can politicians and parliaments do? What can they do to help assist this reform in our public institutions and also lead the community and private sector towards a more holistic, positive, accepting and dynamic view of what constitutes an Australian and the services they should be provided?
I believe we urgently need a FUNDED National Disability Insurance Scheme – or NDIS – in this country. If we move to a system of no-fault funding, if we acknowledge that people with a disability should be empowered to make choices about their own support and care then we are going to be a lot better off in this country. It will be like a Medicare system for disability. It will mean the both government and non-government providers will be forced to compete for your dollar. For the ethnically diverse disability sector, I can only see this as a positive move forward. For example, if a carer agency doesn’t provide culturally or language appropriate care or support workers, consumers will go elsewhere with their dollar. If an agency doesn’t acknowledge that their service needs to account for a specific religious practice, such as differing meal regimes during Ramadan, they won’t hold onto a client that has those needs for long.
The Prime Minister, while busy this morning hob-knobbing with US President Barack Obama, has rasied in recent days, how important she believes the NDIS to be. In ‘The Australian’ last week, it was discussed that if Julia Gillard wants to be remembered as a policy innovator like that of the Hawke-Keating era, she needs to get this scheme happening. Now the NDIS would truly be a revolution for the disability sector, and it’s great to see so many people coming on board the Every Australian Counts campaign, but that’s not the battle won. The big issue is going to be stumping up the dollars to get this happening. We’re talking many billions of dollars here. This is why I would call on all of you to lobby your local MP, state and federal, to support introduction of the NDIS.
Migration Act – Legislative change
If I can move now to our Migration Act. I was privileged to hear Julian Burnside QC speak again last night – he was in town for the commemorative address of Amnesty International 50th year celebrations. I’m sure many of you will know this, but Julian is a long time, outspoken advocate for humanitarian entrants and asylum seekers in this country. I don’t really have time here to go into the many problems I see wrong with the way our federal government, present and past, treat people coming to our shores seeking political asylum, but it does raise the issue of our Migration Act.
I was absolutely horrified to hear the story about a nine year old Peruvian boy last week. His parents are now illegal overstayers from Peru – but they have lived, and made a life for themselves in Sydney for more than a decade. In that time, they have worked, and had twin sons who are now nearly ten years old. One of the boys is has autism and has been the recipient of education to suit the extra challenges to his learning and development that autism brings.
The family now finds that they have been removed from their home and placed in the Villawood Detention Centre. A cynical move from an Immigration Department that knows that once the twin boys turn ten they can legally apply to become citizens of the country they were born in – Australia. Leaving aside the fact that this boy is no doubt struggling to access adequate specialised autism services in that facility, there is the issue of our Migration Act and its exemption from the Disability Discrimination Act of 1992. Somehow, people with a disability that attempt to migrate to this country find that they can be thrown back out on the basis they might take up too many resources. We’ve had many a person told by this country’s immigration department that they, or their family member, just aren’t going to get a visa for this reason. Why is this? Just because someone has autism, or is blind, doesn’t mean they can’t be an active contributor to society. What does this country say about itself by denying help to those that need it most? Our immigration laws view people from other lands with disabilities as a burden, not as unique human beings with the same rights afforded to the rest of us. This is a disgrace, and should be changed. If we take this Peruvian boy as an example, how do we know he isn’t going to grow up and be an amazing scientist for Australia in the international community?
Look at someone like American Temple Grandin. She was labelled by Time magazine in 2010 as in the 100 most influential people in the world. She is a world authority on animal treatment and livestock management. She also has autism. It is time for this country to stop discriminating against people with disabilities in our Migration Act.
On that note, I’d like to thank you all for your attention this morning. I wish you well for the rest of your conference, look forward to campaigning for change with you in the future. I’m happy to take any questions.
Thank you.
