Presentation to Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

I acknowledge the traditional owners of this land.

Thanks for the chance to have this discussion this afternoon. It's a relatively small group so I hope it can be quite informal.

We've just seen one of the films from the Australian Human Rights Commission's Twenty Years: Twenty Stories project. I wanted to show you this story because it typifies where we can be on issues around accommodation and disability, and where the work that you do in disability and development can have an impact.

I also wanted to show you the story because it is an example of what can be a great resource to you- the Twenty Years: Twenty Stories films.  They are all five minute films, similar to the one we have seen. All of them deal with disability, and most of them show how - through use of the Disability Discrimination Act - people with disability have changed their own lives, and lives of many other people. The bookmarks being handed around show you the address on the internet where they can be found.

I spoke to the Pacific Disability Ministers forum in the Cook Islands in 2009. This is how I began that speech.

Imagine a visit to your local market? The noise of trading, the wonderful smells of fresh food, the multitude and variety of colours. It’s at ground level, with wide corridors, and John moves around easily, managing his stall. Rick throws a heavy box of fruit onto his shoulder and, after reading the stall number printed on the box, carries it to that stall.  And Elizabeth enters stallholder permit details on her laptop, with an ear-piece in her ear. A society where people with disability are welcomed, and fully included. Where John is recognised as the friendly fruit stall owner, rather than the guy in the wheelchair.  Rick is the helpful labourer, rather than the man who is deaf. And Elizabeth is the market clerk rather than a woman who is blind. None of our countries have achieved this market yet, but we will achieve that dream by working together, as we are doing at this meeting.

I could talk to you today about the tools required for disability and development-
The Convention on the Rights of People with Disability, or the DisCo as I like to refer to it, Australia's disability and development strategy, our Disability Discrimination legislation, and its possible replication in overseas countries; and the tools which we used to report on Australia's progress in implementing the DisCo to the UN DisCo Expert Committee in Geneva earlier this year.

I could talk to you about those, and I am sure we'll refer to them in the discussion part of this session.

But I'd rather focus on that market place, or on the positive and welcoming environment at Dee's Place. I'd rather frame my comments in a mind-set which is inclusive of everyone, and which includes all people, including people with disabilities.

I do that because if we - as a rich nation - resource countries to establish conversations in which people with disability are the main players, and in which people with disabilities are empowered to play that included role in society, then we will have truly sustainable and positive disability and development.

Australia has provided services to people with disabilities for a long time. Until very recently, those services were charity or welfare based. And they were for people with disabilities, not with people with disabilities.

In many of the countries where Australia provides support, there are few services for people with disabilities. Many people both here and in those countries bemoan that fact. I regard it as a great opportunity to work in a green field site, and to avoid the mistakes that we have made in Australia. So what might we want to avoid-

• Any development which does not have, at its centre, people with disability in the conversation.
• "Special schools" which lock kids with disability away from other kids, or from their families.
• Accommodation which is separate and excludes people with disabilities from the general community- like separate institutions, or separate housing.
• Decisions in the development of infrastructure which exclude people with disabilities because of lack of access, lack of information, or lack of involvement.

And we want disability and development to be a key part of all development policies-

• If we're supporting a more democratic process in a country, then ensure that the voting process is accessible to everyone.
• If we're supporting the building of offices for administration and government purposes then ensure that those offices are accessible.
• If we're helping to develop communications infrastructure, then ensure that websites are able to be visited by people who use a voice-output screen-reader rather than just for people who can see a screen.
• If we're supporting education, then make sure it is for all children.
• And if we're supporting improvements in health services then making sure that the facilities serve everyone- that they are physically accessible, that the information about them is available in alternative formats, and that special efforts are made to target people with disability.

We know that people with disability are the poorest of the poor. So if we make them our particular targets, then we know we will benefit everyone in society.

I hope that these introductory comments provide a useful basis for our discussions.