Multiculturalism | Motion
03/12/2014
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: On behalf of Dignity for Disability, I am pleased to take the floor to support this motion calling for a diverse and welcoming South Australia. Statistics from the 2011 Census show that about 350,000 South Australians were born overseas and approximately 220,000 speak a language other than English at home. South Australians come from about 200 countries, speak more than 200 languages, including Aboriginal languages, and believe in about 100 different religions, but culture is about more than country of origin, language spoken or the colour of our skin. I would like to touch on that a little later.
Unfortunately, racism, I believe, is still alive and well in this community, although there are many people working personally and professionally, through their work, to combat this. Aboriginal South Australians are an example of one particular people who are to this day severely disadvantaged.
The Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision has recently released the report titled Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2014. The Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage (OID) report measures the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, providing information about outcomes across a range of strategic areas and examining whether policies and programs are achieving positive outcomes for Indigenous Australians.
The report shows that nationally, because they do not have funding to give state-by-state breakdowns, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians economic outcomes have improved over the longer term, with higher incomes, lower reliance on income support, increased home ownership and higher rates of full-time and professional employment. However, improvements have slowed in recent years.
There remain several health outcomes that have improved, including increased life expectancy and child mortality; however, rates of disability and chronic illness and disease remain high. Mental health outcomes have not improved and hospitalisation rates for self-harm have in fact increased. Post-secondary education outcomes have improved, but there has been virtually no change in literacy and numeracy results in schools, which are particularly poor in remote areas.
Justice outcomes continue to decline, with adult imprisonment rates worsening and no change in the high rates of juvenile detention and family and community violence. If any member wants to look more at the document I am quoting from, those stats come from the Productivity Commission and the report is called, ‘Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2014.’
As I said, I want to touch on a culture that extends beyond the colour of our skin, beyond our gender, beyond our country of birth and beyond the country that we are currently living in. One such example of this culture is my culture: disability culture, cripple culture. I am a proud ‘crip’. I am a proud disabled woman. However, society has a long way to go in catching up with this pride.
I would like to, not so much quote as paraphrase, because I am not going to get the wording exactly right, a sentence that I recently read in a letter which well-known disability rights activist, comedian and journalist, Stella Young, wrote and published, a letter addressed to her 80 year old self. This is her imagining her looking back at the life she will have led as a proud disabled woman by the time she reaches the age of 80: ‘It was around the age of 17 that I realised that I was not wrong for the world, that the world was wrong for me, the world was not yet set up for me,’ and this remains the case for many deaf and disabled people living with disabilities in Australia.
If we want to be truly embracing of culture and welcoming of diversity in this state and this country, then it would be nice, to say the least, to be able to get through the door. It would be nice to be able to attend a function at the Adelaide Oval, for instance, as I did last week, without having to ask for directions and realise that the person giving them to you did not know how to direct someone without them using the stairs.
We have to wonder how welcoming the Adelaide Oval, as a brand new multimillion dollar development, truly is to people with disabilities. We have to wonder, even though the Stadium Management Authority claims it is adhering to necessary procedures and standards, if this is perhaps indicative of something beyond what standards can dictate, and that is our societal philosophical approach to people with disabilities.
If we are truly going to be embracing of diversity in culture then it is necessary for people with a disability to be able to visit small shops here and there on a whim and not be limited in where we can go and, hence, where we can spend our money. It is necessary for businesses to recognise the strong economic case that exists for embracing accessibility to people with disabilities.
I want to specifically acknowledge and recognise South Australians with a disability and deafness who play their part in shaping our state and whose influence has gone beyond state and national boundaries as they excel in their chosen field. In doing so, it is necessary to acknowledge the barriers that exist, especially for exemptions to the Disability Discrimination Act, which still allow airlines to refuse travel to wheelchair users. This is just one example. I see these examples every day, both in policy and in real life.
