Disability Inclusion (Review Recommendations) Amendment Bill
Thursday 14 September 2023
Ms CLANCY (Elder) (16:03): I am very pleased to speak today on the Disability Inclusion (Review Recommendations) Amendment Bill 2023, which seeks to make important changes to the Disability Inclusion Act 2018. I am sure many of you remember my first speech in this place very well, so I am sure you will remember I spoke about growing up a couple of blocks away from a disability provider, where people with disabilities live on site and some received services in homes in the community.
Because my grandfather was superintendent there when my mum was young, she spent some of her teenage years living on the grounds of the disability service and formed connections with a number of people living there. As a result, when my parents married and bought a home a very short walk away, we had the privilege of being a place where some residents would stop by for a cuppa on a walk around the suburb, so from before I could walk or talk, people of all different abilities became familiar, friendly faces in my life.
In the case of Benny and Graham, they became family. Housemates until Benny passed away, Benny and Graham were regulars at our place. When I was going to Somerton Park kindy, Benny would often volunteer to walk me the few hundred metres there. He took the job so seriously that I remember sometimes feeling like my feet hardly touched the ground as he held my hand tightly and walked quickly. He did not want me to be late and he did not want to lose me.
Graham, who worked at Arnott's for many decades, would bring a huge clear plastic bag of biscuits over every Tuesday night when they came over for dinner. I can confirm you can never have too many Tim Tams. Graham attends every Crows' home game still with my family, and has from the Crows' inception, and is without a doubt one of their biggest fans. He also loved Bob Hawke, but never very keen on Mr Howard, so you can tell he really was part of our family.
Knowing and loving Benny and Graham, I never wanted to see them or any of our other regular visitors living with disability not have the same rights and opportunities as the rest of our family had, or anyone else for that matter. Now, as the member for Elder, I meet with people in my community living with disability, or caring for someone who is, and I am always keen to hear their stories and to advocate for them in any way I can.
The Disability Inclusion Act promotes the recognition of essential human rights in South Australia, in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and interacts with Australia's Disability Strategy 2021-2031. The act sets out a number of principles aligned to the United Nations convention and requires the creation of the State Disability Inclusion Plan, also known as Inclusive SA. In addition to the overarching statewide plan, the act requires almost 100 state authorities, including government agencies and all 68 councils, to develop their own disability access and inclusion plans.
I am part of the Suicide Prevention Council and the Premier's Advocate for Suicide Prevention, and part of the Suicide Prevention Act is that there are 10 prescribed authorities that need to develop their own suicide prevention action plan. When I speak with people about what that looks like, I often refer to these disability access and inclusion plans as a similar approach. Since the legislation was passed and enacted, state authorities have consulted and developed these plans that have been an important step in making our community more inclusive and responsive to the needs of people with disability.
Under section 32 of the act, the minister is required to review the operation of the act before the fourth anniversary of its commencement, so a review was undertaken in the middle of last year by independent reviewer, Mr Richard Dennis AM, PSM, who previously worked in this place drafting the legislation.
This work involved significant consultation with many parties, including Autism SA, which is in my electorate of Elder, in Tonsley; Professor Richard Bruggemann; Helen Connelly, the Commissioner for Children and Young People, who I had the pleasure of working with on the Suicide Prevention Council; members of the Disability Engagement Group from the Department of Human Services; Disability Rights Advocacy Service; JFA Purple Orange; and my incredible friend Ms Natalie Wade, founder of Equality Lawyers, as well as many others.
I had the pleasure of working with Natalie before this legislation was passed through the parliament, when I was working for the member for Reynell when she was the Minister for Disabilities back in 2017/early 2018. It was incredible working with Natalie on this, as well as David Caudrey, who actually knew my grandfather who I spoke about earlier—small, small world.
The consultation undertaken by Mr Dennis, during the development of his final report, indicated the act was working well, especially in connection with the development and implementation of the State Disability Inclusion Plan. A final report was provided, detailing 50 recommendations for consideration and it was tabled last September. Thirty of the 50 recommendations were not for legislative change, and so a number of them had already been actioned and completed.
Our government will now consult on the next iteration of Inclusive SA, the State Disability Inclusion Plan made under the act, which we are seeking to amend via the bill. Following the bill's drafting, further consultation was undertaken. Peak organisations, and those who had provided feedback in the first phase of consultation, were invited to provide written submissions.
Earlier this year, the Department of Human Services conducted a consultation through the YourSAy portal, seeking community feedback on the draft bill and to commence discussions on the State Disability Inclusion Plan more broadly. During the consultation period, the YourSAy portal had a total of 936 visits. Of those visits, 297 people downloaded the draft bill and easy read documents, while 30 people provided responses to the YourSAy survey. Overall, the feedback to the draft bill demonstrated community support. Specifically, the bill proposes to:
enact provisions currently appearing in the Disability Inclusion Regulations 2019 as provisions in the act;
include a definition of 'barrier' in the act, given the significance of the concept of barriers in the definition of disability and within the wider issue of achieving greater inclusion—I feel like the member for Adelaide has done a great job talking about that element of this;
include new paragraphs within the act to provide expressly that people with disability, regardless of age, have a right to be safe and to feel safe through the provision of appropriate safeguards, information, services and support;
amend sections within the act to enhance clarity and/or definition of the principles as they relate to people with significant intellectual disability or who have high levels of vulnerability due to disability;
amend sections within the act relating to the reporting requirements and time frames for the state plan and state disability access and inclusion plans, as well as the specific functions of chief executive of the Department of Human Services; and
finally, require consultation with people with lived experience and authorise the formation of groups to facilitate consultation.
Essentially, this bill aims to enhance the act, support greater access and inclusion for people with disability, and ensure the state government and local councils remain responsive and accountable. Accessibility is something that was raised during the community consultation and is of course—it is in the name after all—a core element of disability access and inclusion plans.
In January, I was really proud when visiting with Minister Cook public housing that is under construction in my community, specifically in St Marys, where homes are being built with accessibility in mind—wider doorways and corridors, no steps up and down from area to area, ensuring that whoever makes these houses their home, regardless of ability, they are fit for purpose.
It was great to hear from SAHA at this morning's Economic and Finance Committee meeting that accessibility is front of mind for all new builds. No-one should underestimate the impact of having accessible homes that exist within an accessible community, and we as a government can show the private sector that everyone benefits from more accessible buildings and spaces. On this note, it is also important to know that the Malinauskas Labor government has agreed to changes to the National Construction Code from October 2024 that will improve building accessibility.
Another amendment is around information and reporting mechanisms. Specifically, it has been proposed that an additional paragraph be included under section 9(1), as follows:
(ja) people with disability have the right to be safe, and to feel safe, through the provision of appropriate safeguards, information, services and support, and through appropriate and accessible reporting mechanisms in cases of neglect, abuse or exploitation;
We absolutely need to do whatever we can to protect and support people, particularly the vulnerable in our community. In South Australia and Australia more broadly there are various formal safeguarding mechanisms in place. These include the National Disability Insurance Scheme Quality and Safeguards Commission and the Adult Safeguarding Unit, but the state government will consider further improvements to safeguarding policy when the royal commission is handed down in late 2023 along with the NDIS review.
One of the other amendments we are looking at today relates to supporting people with significant intellectual disability or high levels of vulnerability due to disability. This is a result of a submission to the Dennis review that indicated people within the community with profound intellectual disability or who have heightened vulnerability need special recognition. Specifically, it has been proposed that additional paragraphs be included under section 9(5), as follows:
(5a) In addition to the principles set out in any other provision of this section, the following principles are to be acknowledged and addressed in the operation, administration, and enforcement of this Act as it relates to people with significant intellectual disability or who have high levels of vulnerability due to disability:
(a) people with significant intellectual disability or who have high levels of vulnerability due to disability have a right to feel safe, to enjoy dignity in their lives, and to participate in the community in meaningful ways;
(b) people with significant intellectual disability or who have high levels of vulnerability due to disability may face major barriers which they may not be able to understand and so need support from others to advocate on their behalf when seeking to remove, or deal with, those barriers.
The inclusion of this priority cohort reflects the additional challenges and vulnerability they face and ensures the act places greater priority on the needs of these groups.
The Dennis review identified those with profound intellectual disability or who have heightened vulnerability may need to rely on others to advocate for them or may face additional barriers requiring additional protections or assistance for them to lead their lives. This proposed amendment will support greater recognition of their situation. I think it is almost impossible to read this or hear this and not think of Ann Marie Smith and the horrific case of the treatment and neglect that led to her death. No-one should have to go through what she went through. We need to do whatever we can to ensure this neglect and abuse does not happen again. I commend the bill to the house.
