NATIONAL DISABILITY INSURANCE SCHEME
30/11/2011
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (15:45): Today I will speak on a matter that is very close to my heart: the need for a national disability insurance scheme (NDIS). This week is Spread the Word Week for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Every Australian Counts Campaign. Many in the disability sector are out in the community trying to do exactly that: spread the word and raise awareness for the need for this positive and life changing campaign.
Last week South Australian Campaigner of the Week for Every Australian Counts was, in fact, the ferocious disability advocate Ronni Wood. I would like to congratulate her on that. This week we also have the International Day of People with Disability on 3 December. I am honoured to be attending a wide array of occasions that celebrate this day with disability organisations. However, due to the large number of events and also parliamentary sittings, I am certainly not able to attend them all. I do wish those organisations and events that I cannot get to very well and congratulate them on their work also.
I would like to put on the record my appreciation of the organisations, families, parents and workers that do the day-to-day work day in and day out in this sector. Working in the under resourced sector of disability is often challenging and heartbreaking but it is also rewarding and sometimes joyous. These events acknowledge the work done by so many in the sector and the work we still need to do to change cultural, social and economic perceptions and the outlook of people with disabilities.
Both Spread the Word Week and International Day for People with Disabilities is timely when we look at a report released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers. This report assessed how Australia rates in comparison to 28 other OECD countries on a range of measures related to people with disabilities. Unfortunately, this report is damning in its findings on how Australia measures up with the rest of the world in this area.
Australia ranks only 21st out of 29 countries in the report and has an unacceptable poverty rate of 45 per cent. Australians with a disability are also half as likely to be employed as people without disability, which is a great shame. To live full lives, to live to our full potential, to be included in the community, is something that I and all people with disabilities aspire to. At present this is largely not possible.
Every Australian Counts campaign manager, John Della Bosca, has been explaining the results of this report on radio and in newspapers today. He pointed out that if Australia was ranked 21st in the world of cricket or rugby, for example, we would do something about it straight away. On ABC radio this morning he rightly suggested that a national inquiry should be held if we fell down the ranking ladder this far in rugby.
I know John Coates, head of the Australian Olympic Committee, was pleading for additional funding for Olympic sports a few weeks ago in Canberra at the National Elite Sport Council Forum, claiming what a travesty it would be if Australia fell down the Olympic rankings in London 2012 after being ranked fifth on the medal tally in Beijing. So, I appreciate that we are a sporting nation and it is important for us to do well in the Olympics. However, on the issues of basic rights and access for Australians with a disability we are well down in the rankings. We have fallen well out of making the finals let alone the medal round on this matter.
Urgent implementation of the NDIS is indeed the answer, and I urge all South Australians to sign up to the Every Australian Counts campaign. A fully functioning NDIS could see far more Australians with disability employed, and give their family carers the opportunity to work as well. While the NDIS could cost $6.5 billion to implement, $9 billion is the expected economic benefit of allowing people with disabilities and their carers back into the workforce. So it is clear that this is a worthwhile campaign and something that I urge all South Australians to support.
