Disability Amendment Bill 2017

Mr J. BULL (Sunbury) — I am very pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to debate on the Disability Amendment Bill 2017. The Andrews Labor government is committed to making Victoria the fairest state in the nation. We are committed to investing in and improving the lives of those that need it the most. Our most vulnerable deserve the same chances and opportunities that are afforded to each and every one of us and each and every Victorian.

I have been particularly fortunate to form some wonderful friendships with some very special people who live with a disability. My mother, Lesley, worked hard at two Sunbury schools over a 15-year period in integration, and in this time I certainly watched how hard Mum worked and heard the stories about the many challenges her students faced, but above all I learned what an incredibly supportive community we have. Just last week I had the opportunity to meet Ernie Metcalf, the new CEO of Distinctive Options in Sunbury. Ernie, like so many, is passionate in this space. He and his team are particularly strong advocates for people with a whole range of disabilities in my community. Through the work of Mum and through the work of a number of the Sunbury schools, I became very familiar with the many barriers that those with disabilities face, whether those barriers be physical or emotional, barriers within society or barriers within community.

I became particularly close with a wonderful guy named Ryan Jans, and Ryan is sadly no longer with us. He was a truly remarkable person: funny, brave, honest and kind. He was a Blues supporter, but we will not hold that against him, and he taught me a great deal. Ry lived with cerebral palsy, and he had limited mobility and limited speech. He would drive his wheelchair with a head control and was able to put that chair into forward or reverse with the only working part of his arms, which was his left wrist. Remarkably he was able to operate his computer with that left wrist thanks to some incredible software that would help him work his computer — an incredibly important way for him to communicate when communication was so very difficult.

What I came to learn about Ryan, though, was that his courage, his resilience and his commitment to life and to always doing his very best were something that was truly inspiring. He had his wonderful mum, Karen, his sister, Lauren, and his Pa, and a very supportive network of family and friends in Riddells Creek and in Sunbury. Ry really did have to fight for everything that he ever had. As I mentioned, he had wonderful carers and a great support network, and he was well supported by the Department of Health and Human Services, but nothing was ever easy for him.

All too often we can get caught in the business of life, and our health and our mobility are things that we often take for granted, but it is when those things are taken away that we truly reflect on how important they are. Each and every day we know that thousands of Victorians suffer through disability. As a government, as lawmakers, we have an obligation to help the most vulnerable and those in need when and where we can — those like Ry and his family, who at every opportunity fought for the very best quality of life and truly worked to make his life the best that it could possibly could be. Sadly he is no longer with us, but the lessons that I learned from him were to be quick to laugh, to be quick to forgive and to do your very best to live with passion and courage.

The amendments to the Disability Act 2006 provided in this bill will work to improve safeguards for all Victorians with disabilities who are receiving important support from a whole range of services. This bill implements key facets of the government’s public response to the parliamentary inquiry into abuse in disability services, held last year, as a number of speakers this afternoon have mentioned. This inquiry shone a light on far too many incidents of abuse and neglect. I want to thank those that were on the committee.

The parliamentary inquiry into abuse in disability services found substantial evidence of widespread sexual and physical assault, verbal abuse, financial abuse and neglect across the disability sector. The parliamentary inquiry found systemic normalisation of abuse within disability services, and this is obviously of great concern to all involved. The inquiry also recommended that the office of the disability services commissioner be made the key oversight body for the disability sector in Victoria, including having responsibility for receiving mandatory reports about abuse and neglect as well as own-motion powers to inquire into reports of abuse and neglect.

We as a government responded to the parliamentary inquiry on 23 November 2016 and committed to amending the Disability Act 2006, and here we are this afternoon. The Disability Amendment Bill 2017 acts on this commitment by enhancing critical safeguards for people with a disability until, of course, the national disability insurance scheme and the national quality and safeguarding framework commences from mid-2019. These amendments aim to set a benchmark for the national framework. The rights, the dignity and the safety of someone with a disability are all at the forefront of this bill.

As I mentioned, this bill provides for new guiding principles around upholding the rights, dignity, wellbeing and safety of those with a disability. Importantly the bill will provide the disability services commissioner with new own-motion powers to initiate inquiries into cases of abuse and neglect and systemic or recurrent patterns of such abuse or neglect. These are important changes. They are important powers because they go to the protection, the security and the safety of those with disabilities. Obviously we as a government and as a Parliament have a very important role to ensure that we are doing all we can to prevent harm of our most vulnerable Victorians.

The powers of the Minister for Housing, Disability and Ageing and the secretary of the department will also be strengthened to request the commissioner to investigate certain cases of abuse. Importantly the act will now include a new guiding principle to ensure that disability services do not tolerate or normalise abuse, exploitation and neglect and should promote a culture that upholds the rights, dignity, welfare and the fundamental safety of a person with a disability.

These changes come as a result of the inquiry, but obviously there is a financial implication to them as well. I am very pleased the 2017–18 state budget committed $8.7 million in funding to facilitate the new powers of the disability services commissioner, fund training for community visitors, design a new registration and accreditation scheme for disability workers and implement stage 2 of the disability abuse prevention strategy, which expands the disability worker exclusion scheme.

You cannot imagine much worse than the abuse or harm of someone with a disability, but sadly, as uncovered through the work of the inquiry — the very important work of the inquiry — we know that it happens, and this bill is all about addressing exactly that. The Andrews Labor government does not tolerate the abuse or the neglect of people with a disability; it is simply unacceptable. We are as a government committed to improving the safeguards for people with a disability and working with people with disabilities and other stakeholders to achieve the highest possible standards.

I do want to take this opportunity in the time that I have remaining to commend the minister for the hard work, the dedication and of course the financial support that he is providing to the sector, as well as his passion for making the lives of each and every person with a disability better, safer and fairer. I think of all of the things that Ryan taught me and all of those values that he lived by, that drove him, that drove his family, and I am so very proud to have known him. It is bills like this that fundamentally go to the core, I think, of why we all come to this place — to make Victoria stronger, safer and fairer. I am very pleased to commend the bill to the house.