ABS International Day of People with Disability

I acknowledge the traditional owners of this land.

I have a dream that my children will grow up in a nation where they are not judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. Who said these words? Martin Luther King.

If I can adapt that quote, I have a dream that my children will grow up in a nation where they are not judged by their disability, but by the content of their character. And sadly, it is a dream, because we don't yet live in that nation.

Several weeks ago a small fashion chain called Globalize released a T-shirt on to the market with the word R-E-T-A-R-D-E printed across the front. I spell the word because it’s not a word I like to say. It has the same connotation in the disability field as the word N-I-G-G-E-R which I don't like to say either. It's a word used to bully children and young people with disability in school playgrounds around the country. It's a word used - often in a derogatory joking manner - to describe someone not liked, who looks different, or has just done something regarded by the speaker as not smart. And because of those uses of the word, and the pejorative meaning it has acquired regarding disability, it's a very damaging word. Despite the old saying about sticks and stones, the research confirms that the contrary is the truth- names and language can be very hurtful.

The biggest barrier faced by people with disability in Australia is the attitude barrier.  We are constantly limited by - to use the words of an academic in the disability field - the soft bigotry of low expectations. And the sort of disability hate speech I have described just reinforces that attitude barrier.

That's one barrier we face. Let me show you a film which demonstrates some of the physical barriers we experience. It's taken from the Twenty Years: Twenty Stories series produced by the Australian Human Rights Commission to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act earlier this year.

*Show Mark Hopper Ramped Up film*

These stories show how people with disability can change their own lives, and the lives of many others using the DDA. For those of you who would like to see more talk to me afterwards and I'll give you a bookmark with the internet address.

But the ABS is all about data. And my point today is to show you the importance of that data in addressing the barriers which block people with disabilities, and which we as a community should be seeking to remove.

The most significant achievement in the disability sector in 2013, in fact in this century, was the commencement of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Who has heard of that scheme? Well you should have. The Medicare levy we all pay increased by half a percent to help fund it. Data played a significant part in the achievement of that scheme.  Data showing the correlation between disability and poverty, and that Australia comes last amongst OECD countries on that measure. Data showing the dearth of support services for people with disability, and the variability of those services across State and territory jurisdictions. Data showing the variation in availability of accident insurance in those different jurisdictions. From these last two data sets came the conclusion that the acquisition of disability is a cruel lottery, but the impact can be different in different places around this country. And data showing that 18.5% of our population, or almost one in five people in Australia, have a disability.

The other important data set is on employment. Your figures, released recently, shows that Australia's poor track record for employment of people with disability continues.  When compared to data from the previous survey undertaken in 2009, the new data indicates declining rates of employment of people with disability across all measurements:

• The total number of people with disability in employment went backwards (1.086m to 1.052m)
• The workforce participation of people with disability went backwards from 54.3% to 52.8%, despite the overall percentage of the population with disability remaining the same at 18.5%
• The unemployment rate for people with disability went up from 7.8% to 9.4%. The comparison unemployment rate of people without disability in the report is 4.9 %.
• People permanently unable to work went up from 590,000 to 610,000

Lower employment rates, along with the older profile of people with disability, contribute to people with disability aged 15 years and over being more likely to live in a household with low income than those without disability (48% compared with 22%) further entrenching the risk of poverty.

The problems with that employment data set are many. Firstly, there are the problems of unemployment for people with disabilities. And secondly, there are the problems that this causes to our society as a whole. If we could move just one-third of the people with disabilities who make up that employment participation gap into employment Deloitte’s research tells us that our GDP would increase by billions.

The other significant contributing factor to the success of the campaign for a NDIS was people's stories- people just like Mark who you saw in the film. People who are only supported to the extent that they can have two showers a week or who only leave their houses several times a year. Kids waiting for wheelchairs for so long that by the time the chair arrives they have outgrown it.

In fact, data and stories make a very powerful batting partnership- surpassing partnerships such as those of Laurie and Simpson, or Haydon and Langer. Yes I'm sorry- the fact that I am a cricket tragic had to come out eventually.

I wanted today to tell you some of those stories, and to show you how what you do - in the collection of data - is so critical to policy change in this country. So it’s really important that you recognise the international day of people with disabilities this year, because this year the collection of that data has made a major contribution in all of our lives.

But don't think for a minute that you can rest on your laurels. Your work here is definitely not done. During Australia's appearance before the UN Expert Committee on the Convention on the Rights of People with Disability earlier this year I commented in my closing statement that Australia still had much to do in the area of data collection. I said- the National Disability Strategy incorporates implementation plans. They introduce periodic reporting to monitor the progress of National Disability Strategy. However, the draft trend indicators are the same indicators that were included in the original NDS.
We have aggregated data on people with disability. We do not have disaggregated data, on the basis of sex, gender, age, race, ethnicity, geographical location and so on.

What this means is that we don't know how well services will be delivered as the NDIS rolls out, so we can't fine tune the process and get the best bang for the buck out of that Medicare levy increase which you and I are paying. So, just like Langer and Haydon, we need a few more century partnerships in that area.

So, with my congratulations to you for playing a part in what has already been achieved, and my challenge to you for the part you need to play in the work that is to come, enjoy the international day of people with disabilities, and let's work together to make my Martin Luther King dream a reality.