Source: ABC Radio National's Life Matters program [Richard Adey, Hon. Bill Shorten, MP]

Transcript

Richard Adey: Do you know anyone with a disability?  You probably do.  Well the government wants to hear from you.  Today in Darwin, the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities, Bill Shorten, begins the first of a series of public consultations on disability and work.  Late last week, Mr Shorten announced the creation of a Disability Investment Group.  This has made up of leading business people, some of whom have a personal connection with a disability.

It's a whole new approach to disability issues and Bill Shorten joins me now from Darwin. Welcome to Life Matters.

Bill Shorten: Good morning

Richard Adey: Now the Disability Investment Group... who's in it?

BS: Well, we've got seven people.  It's chaired by Ian Silk. Ian is the CEO of the highly successful Australian Superannuation Fund, the largest superannuation fund in Australia. We've also got Bill Moss who used to run Macquarie Property, Bruce Bonyhady from the ANZ who used to run significant parts of their investment operations.  We've also got a range of other people. It's a... it's a group  of people who are committed to trying to achieve good outcomes for people with disabilities but they've been very successful in their business walk of life.

RA: Bill Moss, I think you mentioned him who used to be at Macquarie, he himself has Muscular Dystrophy doesn't he?

BS: He does.  I think he's a very innovative thinker.  He has Muscular Dystrophy and can speak for himself.  It's a big challenge but he's in a relatively fortunate position.  He has some financial resources.  But what he's done in previous idorations of improving the position of people with a disability is he helped set up a taxi company.  One of the big problems which people with a disability face is transport.  Having transport which arrives on time and which can move you around.  I think it's something that people without impairment take for granted, the ability to have mobility.

RA: The kinds of investments or ideas that you're thinking about will include things like that, because we're not just talking about work-related issues are we?

BS: No.  Put simply, impairment is a fact of life and there's a lot of Australians who have varying degrees of impairment.  What I believe disability is, is they're the barriers which society puts in front of people who have an impairment.  If you like, an impairment's something which is there.  But that doesn't mean that people with impairment can't contribute, nor should they be treated as second-class citizens. 

By and large in Australia I've noticed since the privilege was bestowed upon me by our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to be the Parliamentary Secretary in Disabilities, what I've discovered is that disability is remarkably invisible, other than to people who have an impairment or to their families and carers.  And there's a lot of discrimination goes on and there's a lot of crisis management in disability. 

So what we need to do is how do we create more wealth?  How do we reframe the nature of impairment such that we acknowledge impairment but we don't deny people the ability to function and have a long life full of quality.  And obviously, tapping into the vast economic activity of Australia which is the private sector as opposed to just government I think is a very important proposition and that's why we've got some smart people looking at how do we leverage investment into disability? 

It's a fact of life that for every dollar government spends, families, communities are spending six or seven dollars themselves.  So just as it's important to try and increase the resources that government spends on disability, I think it's equally productive to see how we can reward and encourage and create incentive for all the families and the people who are spending that six or seven dollars in contrast to what government spends.

RA: You're listening to Life Matters on ABC Radio National with me, Richard Adey.  My guest is Bill Shorten, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and also for Children's Services.  And we're talking about the Disability Investment Group which is a way in which the government is getting private sector involvement in putting money hopefully into some ideas that will make a difference for people who have an impairment.  What are some specific examples of things that are happening or can happen?

BS: Well, going back to this idea that there's a lot of economic activity goes on in the care of people with disabilities and the support for people with impairment, it seems to me that there is some ideas worth investigating around the following. One of the biggest ways that people in Australia acquire wealth is the intergenerational transfer of wealth.  And there's a lot of ageing carers who are worried about what'll happen to their children who are now adults, if the parent predeceases the child.  So they're keen to provide financial security, perhaps houses, trusts for their children. 

So we are interested to see how we can make it easier for people to invest in the intergenerational transfer of wealth to children now adults, who have an impairment.  So that whole area of how do we reward people for investing in their children's future. 

In Canada they provide, and I'm not saying that we will do these things, obviously not... it's still all a matter of debate.  But in Canada they provide tax credits for people with disability.  There's a cost of disability which people without impairment never have to pay, from your wheelchairs to your hearing aids.  If you like, there's a higher threshold for people to get out of the door reach morning and participate in society if you have an impairment.  So how do we recognize that extra cost of living? 

And in Canada they've also tried savings accounts... it's a version of a superannuation co-contribution where in Canada they match what people put aside, so this is good for low income people as well as middle income people. If parents and people put aside a certain amount in a savings account which can't be accessed for 10 years, then what happens is that the government will match that up to a certain amount of money.  What we're doing is trying to create wealth and long-term investment in disability. 

Another idea which I know the group's contemplating is insurance for catastrophic events.  800 people each year acquire brain injuries, some through workplace, some through motor accident but some through domestic violence, sporting injuries, just mishap.  Now if there was some way in which we could create a life time care for people who have acquired brain injury and this idea came up at the Prime Minister's 2020 Summit. 

The states already look after people through worker's comp and motor accident in most jurisdictions.  If we could just extend those schemes to the other cohort of people who suffer catastrophic injuries then perhaps what we'd do is we can provide lifetime care for this group of people and free up scarce government dollars to look after other very necessary people who have impairment and disability.

RA: This would be a kind of no fault insurance?

BS: Spot on!  You said it better than me then.  But no fault insurance for people with an acquired brain injury, the numbers are pretty measurable.  The whole theory though is that in welfare payments in disability it's always the gravest crisis gets looked after and that's only fair at one level. 

But at another level, how do we ever let people get ahead?  I mean people with a disability have lower levels of education, they have a lower employment opportunities, and they have less home ownership.  Yet we are losing a whole group of people by virtue of them being treated as second-class. 

So I think this idea of redefining people with an impairment from being charity to being consumers, some of the state governments as have some jurisdictions overseas, they now provide individualised care packages.  What they do is they provide to the person with the impairment a package of resource, rather than just allocating it into programs that are asking the person with a disability to go and use a particular program, they provide the resources to the individual and let the individual choose what service suits their needs. 

So there is a lot of innovation potentially accessible for people with impairment but it all starts I think from accepting that merely because someone has an impairment doesn't make them stupid, doesn't make them charity, doesn't make them a cost.  In fact what we have to do is become a society which accepts diversity, which recognizes that just because someone has an impairment doesn't mean that they're not capable of doing extraordinary things.  And what we need to do is leverage that vast bulk of economic and family activity, is which is beyond the realm of government and reward it.

RA: What about work?  Has the private sector been pulling its weight in terms of disability employment?

BS: The answer is no.  By the way, the answer's no for government too so this is not some junior government representative giving a lecture to the private sector.  I think it's shared problem. 

Some do very well and an IBM or an ANZ are really good.  They've encourage the employment of people with disability.  But by and large, employers think that if you employ someone with an impairment, be it an intellectual disability or a mental illness or a physical impairment, that it's going to cost them a lot of money, there's no business case for it.  So I think there's a real opportunity to sit down with business, identify what their concerns are and then deal with it. 

I mean, let's never forget... I wonder how many modern Australian companies would even give an interview to someone who has a profound hearing impairment?  To someone who's in a wheelchair?  Or to someone who is, well indeed...or someone with one leg?  Now lots of companies do, but a lot more don't. 

Yet when I describe someone with one leg I'm talking about Sir Roden Cutler.  When I describe someone with a profound hearing impairment, I'm talking about Beethoven.  When I describe someone confined to a wheelchair, I'm talking about Franklin Delanor Roosevelt...

RA: Or Stephen Hawking... take your pick...

BS: Stephen Hawking.  I think what we've got to do is be able to look beyond the impairment to what a person can contribute.  And I should say that even though I sort of paint a bleaker picture about community attitudes, there's a lot of good things happening. 

But there's no point in all of us patting ourselves on the back when we see an act of intelligent fairness which sees someone with a disability given a go when too often we see discrimination.  So we've got to work through.  I mean a lot of middle managers and HR people, their jobs are busy enough as it is and they think, 'oh, it's just another set of issues to manage'. 

The business case for people with a disability is that they tend to not change jobs so frequently, they tend to have better attendance rates and I tell you what.  When you've got an impairment which means you've got to think up about how you get up in the morning, how you look after yourself, how you get to work, you tend to have people who are better at solving problems than people without an impairment because, frankly, they've got to work that much harder to just get to the starting spot.

RA: Now we've heard a fair bit on this show from disability employment advocates, that employers aren't even interested in accessing the currently available funds from government to make modifications at work.  How do you break down that resistance?

BS: Well I think we have to use the L word: leadership.  I do think there's lessons in how reconciliation has been adopted by many leading Australian companies.  How 20 years ago if you'd raised the issue of sustainability people would have said 'oh, that costs too much to be green... that's a luxury'. Now we understand that sustainability is fundamental to the value chain of successful organisations. 

So I think it is now overdue for leadership by Australian corporate CEOs and by that, what I mean is, that they have to send the message within their organisations that we see diversity as being an integral part of the success of our business.  That we see that we live in, you know, businesses are not islands separate to the continent of Australian society.  What Australian business leaders should strongly think about, and governments are there to help them do it, to enable them.  But business is the doing arm of society so we need to engage the leaders. 

What they should be saying is, we welcome diversity, we understand that in a globalised world, companies who can recognize that there are people with disabilities in their communities who are their stakeholders, who are their shareholders, that they've got employees who might either have a hidden impairment or indeed, have family members with impairment.  Companies that understand the diversity of society, to me are going to be successful in the long run.  So I think that disability and working with it is an opportunity for businesses to be successful.

RA:  I hope you're right and well, you've kicked off the process.  We'll leave it there.  Bill Shorten's Parliamentary Secretary for disabilities and also for Children's Services and the consultations begin today in Darwin and we'll have details of those on our website which is www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters