Page 2494 - Week 08 - Thursday, 30 August 2007
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Attention to these areas should provide greater scope for a future Citizens Jury to highlight the progress needed to make Challenge 2014 a living reality for people with disabilities in the ACT community.
I commend the council for this work. A huge amount of work would have gone into that. I have had several meetings with the former chair, Craig Wallace, a very diplomatic man indeed, but I can see through the almost veiled conversation we had how very disappointed he was at the lack of response and real appreciation from the government.
There are other key areas that continue to present concern for people with a disability. Eligible people with disabilities who use other disability services are being asked to contribute more from their own limited funds to get equipment from the ACT equipment scheme. I mention also the lack of an increase in the taxi subsidy scheme with voucher amounts that have not increased in line with taxi fares, hence the need for people to pay more cash from their own pocket per wheelchair accessible taxi ride. In relation to funding for individual support packages or ISPs, new rules relating to ISPs are more restrictive and/or onerous regarding individual planning. It seems that they serve the bureaucracy rather than the consumer.
There are certainly issues around employment. People with a disability make up over 10 per cent of the potential labour pool in the ACT but face major barriers to employment and long periods of unemployment. They are overrepresented in the second and third-lowest income quintiles for working-age Australians. More places need to be available in the post-school options scheme as well. These are just some examples where I believe the budget for 2007-08 before us does not seek to serve the disability sector well—if at all in some cases.
There are many other areas that this government has been acutely aware of for some years now, including such things as available funding for people with increased support needs, funding for newly disabled people, acquired brain injury, stroke and spinal cord injury. They have not really been given adequate attention. Another area that I know the previous minister was aware of but, unfortunately, did little to address, was the serious issue of ageing parents caring for their children with a disability. I hope the current minister is across this issue and is making some inroads to hear these parents’ concerns. We welcome initiatives to improve access to the Supreme Court and Human Rights Commission, although several key initiatives, including the increase in accessible buses and facilities for non-government schools, seem like short-term measures with decreasing funding in the outyears. Therefore, questions remain about this government’s ongoing and genuine commitment to improving access for people with disabilities.
I also note and welcome the announcement today that the government will be reviewing the availability and adequacy of disabled parking in the ACT. That is very good news. Perhaps more can be done to impose tougher penalties on people who insist on wrongly using car parking spaces set aside for people with a disability whilst the government is about it. More broadly, the budget fails to address systemic workforce and viability issues facing the community sector. Although budget allocations in some areas are designed to respond to client need, they do not address
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