National Disability Insurance Scheme

If elected PM, Tony Abbott told the National Press Club the other day, “I will spend at least a week every year in a remote indigenous community, because if these places are good enough for Australians to live in, they should be good enough for a PM and senior officials to stay in”.

What intrigues me about this pledge is the contrast it poses with Tony Abbott’s reaction when I invited him last year to spend just one day out of his entire life with an Australian with severe disabilities.

Last May, with both major political parties then beginning to consider their responses to the Productivity Commission’s call for a National Disability Insurance Scheme, it seemed to me – both as a journalist and the mother of a son with severe disabilities – that it would be helpful for various key federal decision-makers to actually spend some face time with a severely disabled Australian.

Continue reading "Come on, Mr Abbott - walk a mile in our shoes" »

Imagine this: A report finds without a shadow of doubt that the standard of schools in Australia are drastically below par. In fact, the first sentence of such a report suggests the nation’s schools are under-funded, under-resourced and under-valued.

The Government releases the report and says: “We know there is a problem, but we can’t do anything about it right now, because we can’t afford it. But don’t worry, we’ll do something in the next seven years, promise!” Every parent with school age children would be up in arms. Teachers would march on Parliament House in a riot. Principals would call it an outrage. It would make frontpage news. Certainly no one would welcome the Government’s “contribution” to the debate by finally recognising there was a problem.

Yet when the Productivity Commission released its report into Disability Support Services last month this was exactly what happened. Granted, not all were happy with the seven year timeline, but the great majority were satisfied that at least “something” was happening in the way of disability policy.

Continue reading "Doing “something” about disability isn’t doing enough" »

Imagine if there was a minority group in society that was less likely to finish school, less likely to get a job, was paid less on average, and faced a level of unthinking prejudice that meant they were not even able to enter some shops and public buildings.

That minority exists. They are the 800,000 Australians under 65 with a physical or intellectual disability. The lives they lead are shaped by both the misunderstandings of the general community, and the chronic lack of services and support they face.

Things are better than they were, we’ve moved away from the days of institutionalisation and there are now more options for people with disability.

Continue reading "Don’t let Australians fall through the cracks" »

This week’s Angry Cripple column is brought to you by the letter S. Simon McKeon is the 2011 Australian of the Year, part-time executive chairman of Macquarie Group, philanthropist, volunteer, father of four, internationally acclaimed competitive sailor, and has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

The time has come for a National Disability Insurance Scheme.

The time has come for major reform in the way services to Australians with disabilities are funded and delivered; not only to enhance the basic human rights of people with disabilities but to greatly enhance the level of participation in the economy by people with disabilities, their families and carers. 

Continue reading "Disability reform: For some it’s already too late" »