Thursday, 4 May 2023

Disability and Social Services Regulation Amendment Bill 2023

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Ros Spence:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (12:11): It is a pleasure to rise and speak on the Disability and Social Services Regulation Amendment Bill 2023 following some of the really stellar contributions from members of the government this morning. If you want an example of the Andrews Labor government’s values and support for an inclusive Victoria, you just had to listen to some of those contributions, the reflections by members about lived experience, which is a really important part of the disability action plan and the work that we do.

This bill has its origins in the lived experience of people with a disability, the 1.1 million Victorians who need that extra care and support in our community. As an inclusive society we need to do all we can to make sure that our services are supporting people with disability and that we understand and appreciate their lived experience and strive for better outcomes. If anyone looks through some of those harrowing lived experiences of people who were subjected to horrific outcomes and abuse as part of previous reviews, they will see that we have so much work to do to protect some of the most vulnerable in our local community.

These reforms are part of a series of stages, and the second part of the legislative reforms were introduced last year to the Parliament. The first stage of course was the national disability insurance scheme, such an important thing for people with disability across Australia. Indeed Victorians’ lives and their outcomes are greatly improved from what the NDIS has delivered. That was a federal Labor government reform, its origins in the work of former Prime Minister Gillard and the member for Maribyrnong Bill Shorten, who has passionately talked about and advocated for strengthening that system into the future and making sure that we leave no Australian behind. All the elements of this bill are to make sure the safeguards are in place and the protections are in place to make sure people are supported and protected at all times.

I had the great privilege and honour when I was Parliamentary Secretary for Schools to work in the inclusive education space. For the one in five students in our education system, the million that interact with schools and kinders across Victoria, inclusive education is all about being more accessible and supporting kids with additional needs to get the very best outcomes. One of the best elements of that change and reform goes to the culture and the heart of supporting people with disabilities. That is a strengths-based approach to this policy area in consideration, not a clinical deficit model. It is a strengths-based approach that looks at what we can do to empower people with disabilities and to support them to achieve their ambitions, their potential and their outcomes into the future. It was great to travel around Victoria to see how schools and communities were more inclusive and supportive across regional and rural Victoria and in metropolitan Melbourne, whether it was the Inclusive Schools Fund or whether it was upgrading some 83 specialist and special developmental school settings.

What you find as well when you sit down with parents, carers, guardians, grandparents and elders is that our education system and our education support staff do such a wonderful, wonderful job in supporting kids with disabilities, but there is a real anxiety when you come to the end of high school years or the equivalent – what that looks like beyond and into the future and how we support Victorians with a disability who enter adolescence and then move on from our education settings. How are they supported as they grow and as they go through changes in life, and how do we support them as best we can? This is the heart of this bill. This is really at the heart of parents’ and guardians’ anxiety and concerns, and what is replayed to us as members of Parliament and as advocates in our community is: how do we support those family members who might be vulnerable? And then you see all the reports and reviews that have been undertaken and the abuses that we have seen uncovered and the lived experience that has been shared. This is what hopefully provides that comfort and reassurance. The Andrews Labor government – and indeed the Parliament, because I would see this as a multipartisan-supported approach as well – supports and provides those safeguards and protections. Some of those key elements of this bill, the Disability and Social Services Regulation Amendment Bill, go to that.

The bill clarifies residential rights and duties for people subjected to civil or criminal orders in disability residential care and the parameters for service providers in delivering residential and treatment services. This is a really vulnerable setting and cohort here, and we need to ensure that the rights and protections of residents are upheld as well. It also ensures that residents’ rights are protected for people living in specialist disability accommodation that does not meet the current definitions in the Residential Tenancies Act 1997, so that is a really important reform that my community welcomes in this change. It also improves services and the experience of people in this setting. The bill aligns and removes duplication and ensures accountability and consistency of approval requirements for the use of restrictive practices for both the national disability insurance scheme and the state-funded disability service providers.

We saw, quite significantly and importantly, in the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System the discussion, the evidence that was heard and the lived experience of people who were subjected to restrictive practices or subjected to various treatments as well that was put forward, and importantly, how the consultation and proper oversight and assessment of that should always be provided. So at the moment these legislative reforms work to address the gaps and clarify the criteria and processes for compulsory treatment and placement in residential treatment facilities to support clients and operational safety and strengthen clinical oversight of admission and extensions of admissions. We are going through that right now in the royal commission into mental health space, where the issues of compulsory treatment, of safety and the rights of individuals, is such an important area for consideration. We saw, as I was saying, that in the royal commission into mental health there were a number of recommendations of how treatment in that space should be really scrutinised and protected into the future as well.

This bill allows the minister to declare additional categories of disability accommodation so that community visitors can inquire into the quality and standards of support provided to residents. The other thing I want to place on record is something that the current Minister for Mental Health and former Parliamentary Secretary for Volunteers really showcased as well in her work with carers and families: 700,000 Victorians care for and support another Victorian. That is an extraordinary number of people each and every day who go about their business, without any fanfare or anything, in their support and love of others, whether it is family or friends or as guardians supporting their fellow Victorians. Obviously this sector in our community, the disability support space, is filled with wonderful Victorians who care for and support others. We acknowledge their work and their service with our gratitude for the engagement and work that they do in supporting others in our local community. We see that and hear their experiences; it is a really tough space to be in, but they do an incredible job, and we place on record our appreciation as well.

I want to also just acknowledge in this bill some of the things that have been discussed around where we are up to with the disability action plan and how this fits into the landscape of an inclusive Victoria. The most recent plan runs from 2022 to 2026. We really should be quite resolute and quite urgent in our work to get towards reforms in this space. So many people in our disability community in Victoria are still subjected to over-representation in disadvantage. Whether it is access to employment, whether it is the physical limitations in accessing various services or engagement, we need to do all we can to make sure that we are truly inclusive into the future to support the more than 1 million Victorians who are living with disabilities.

In conjunction with the support that comes through the national disability insurance scheme, we need to also make sure that in every segment of government policy the disability action plan is at the forefront of our efforts to support people with disabilities into the future. I talked about that in education and how powerful that is, but just to reiterate the anxieties of parents, grandparents, guardians and elders as people leave the school system and go on to adulthood, that is the challenge – that feeling of safety and security – and this bill goes a long way towards reassuring people and providing those safeguards into the future.

Vicki WARD (Eltham) (12:21): I also rise in support of these amendments. I would like to echo the sentiments just made by the member for Mordialloc in terms of the anxiety that parents can have regarding their children. We know that for any of us who have got adult children – for example, they get their car, we are anxious; they move out of home, we are anxious. To add another layer of vulnerability to that, which you can have when you have children with disabilities, is difficult. That anxiety never leaves you, that concern never leaves you. To know that our government is putting things in place to help alleviate that anxiety and help make the lives of those parents just that little bit easier or that little bit more comforting or to give them the confidence to know that there is a government that is trying to wrap support around them and their children is very important. I am very glad to be a part of a government that values this.

This bill is one of the key outcomes of the Disability Act review, which has been underway since 2018 and is a priority government reform aimed at ensuring our legislative frameworks are fit for purpose and create meaningful change for people with disability. We are promoting the rights of people residing in residential services and addressing how we can support them to be happier, safer and healthier.

A number of people in this place probably would not know that I have worked in the disability sector. It was a very long time ago; I was much younger and had different-coloured hair. I really enjoyed the work that I did at Kew Cottages and was really interested to see the environment that was there. This was just before deinstitutionalisation was brought in; that is how old I am. It was an interesting space. There was a wonderful community that was there in Kew for those people living there who were able-bodied, who were able to get around and who were able to have relationships with other staff, with admin staff and so on, but for a number of those residents, those people that were living there, their lives were extremely narrow, extremely limited, and they were not able to really get out into the wider community and learn and experience what was out there. This experience with Kew Cottages helped open up my younger eyes to another layer of inequality and another layer of where government is important in actually helping to construct scaffolding around lives that really need it.

We fast forward to now, where I have a nephew with a disability, a nephew that will indeed be quite likely to need supported housing or at least some kind of structure around him to help him in his adult life. I know the stresses that his parents have in thinking about the life that he will have as an adult, the kinds of supports that he will have and, most importantly, how a safe and supportive environment can carry him through his life. Knowing that we are making these changes, that we are putting through amendments that will actually give adequate protections for people with a disability and making sure that their rights and safety are paramount, is incredibly important.

With your indulgence, I also want to talk about Lachie. Lachie is a young guy who came to my attention last year. I am sure that there are others in this house who might have young people like this in their community who develop an affection for posters of politicians. Lachie, who is a vibrant student at Diamond Valley Special Development School, wanted one of my signs, which was really lovely, so we had a photo with Lachie; in fact we had a big billboard of me with Lachie. The joy that he gave by coming to our election night party and being a part of our celebration and just wanting to be a part of something that was fun and exciting and interesting and colourful – it was wonderful to have him there and to know that our government is supporting his family; that our government is rebuilding his school; that our government is going to put in place a variety of supports, including, as the member for Mordialloc was talking about, all of the work that we are doing within our schools, within both special development schools and schools more broadly; that there is a safety net; and that there is something there to help Lachie on his life’s journey. He is a fantastic young man – a beautiful young man with a wonderful smile.

There are so many people in our communities like Lachie who should not have to worry about advocating for themselves at every turn, especially when it comes to something as fundamental as addressing safe and secure housing. It is for us as members of Parliament to listen to people with a disability directly about the kinds of reforms that are required to improve our health and housing services, so I am very happy that this bill is yet another outcome that has come directly from the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.

I really want to thank, as the member for Mordialloc did, those many people working in the disability sector. I know through my own experience that there can be a lot of joy working in that sector, but it can be tiring, it can be difficult and it can be emotionally draining. These people who are educators, who are support workers and who are physical therapists are wonderful people who care so deeply, who give a great deal of themselves and who always go above and beyond to support this cohort, and I really do express my gratitude.

We have talked about Lachie, a young person, but I want to talk about older people as well. We had an opportunity in my community a number of years ago for Nillumbik council to be involved with some supported housing, which unfortunately did not go ahead, but it really exposed me to the grief and the fear that elderly parents in particular face around their adult disabled children who are living with them and what the future could hold for them. So I am pleased to see that we are still continuing to make steps. I am disappointed that Nillumbik was not able to facilitate that integrated housing, but I know that we will continue to work towards creating even more, and I welcome the social housing initiatives, for example, that this government has supported.

I particularly also want to talk about the Lower Plenty Dance Group. I had a wonderful experience a couple of weeks ago going and being a part of the Lower Plenty Dance Group’s Tuesday night. You might think that maybe there are people there learning how to do Pride of Erin or other dances, but no – this is the most wonderful night of unbridled joy, of people getting their disco king and queen on and shaking it out and just having the best time. It was wonderful, and I would encourage anybody in this place who has got something like the Lower Plenty Dance Group to please go and spend the night with them, because you will not get the smile off your face. To be surrounded by so much joy, so much energy and so much life was just fantastic. It is contagious. It is just wonderful, and to be able to have structures around people like those who were in the Lower Plenty Dance Group supporting them is fabulous. They gather weekly in Greensborough, and it is a safe and inclusive place for people with a range of physical and intellectual disabilities who come together and spend hours just getting their groove on. I was so pleased to attend it. We had their reconnecting celebration at the Rosanna Golf Club in March, and this was supported by the North East Link Program. I am really grateful to them for putting the money towards this. They were lucky enough to get one of their grants, and I can tell you, it was money well spent 10 times over.

By bringing people together through dance they provide social connections that are so important for people with disability, giving them an opportunity to express themselves through dance – and express themselves they do. I really want to thank the Lower Plenty Dance Group president Liz Mildenhall and secretary Cheryl Meredith for inviting me to be a part of the celebration and to all of the board members and volunteers who work tirelessly to continue to support people with disability by creating these safe and fun spaces. This dance troupe has been going for decades. It is amazing how many volunteer hours have been spent supporting this fabulous dance troupe. They are just terrific, and the work they do is wonderful. It is just one example of the wonderful people in all of our communities who are out there supporting people and just really making sure that inclusion is there, that people feel good about themselves and that they are part of the wider community. I really want to congratulate the Lower Plenty Dance Group and thank them for all of the work that they do, and I look forward to attending even more dances. Winding up, I just want to put forward again that I am so grateful to be able to support these changes and the work that we are doing as a government. We are out there supporting people who need us the most.

Juliana ADDISON (Wendouree) (12:31): I too am honoured to contribute to this debate in support of the Disability and Social Services Regulation Amendment Bill 2023. It is great to follow on from the member for Eltham, who showed her real passion for disability – those dances sound terrific. Likewise with the member for Mordialloc – another excellent contribution from him, which is always most welcome. I would like to thank the Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers in the other place, her ministerial office and the department for the work that they have done to bring this legislation to the house, as well as the previous minister and his office. The policy area of disability is very important to me, and I believe protecting the rights of people living with disability and supporting them and their families is a critical role and responsibility of government. I know this firsthand because my extraordinary mum Trudie Dickinson worked for more than 40 years as a physiotherapist in the disability sector in Ballarat and the region, particularly working in early intervention for young children with disability. I am very proud of the great work she did improving the lives of patients she treated and their families.

I wish to pay tribute to all workers in the disability sector, especially our Health and Community Services Union members and our teachers supporting students in schools. You are unsung champions of our community, and I thank you for all that you do. Just last week I was delighted to visit the Ballarat Specialist School, where our government is providing better facilities for students with disability with a $10 million upgrade to the school’s infrastructure. It was great to be at the Gillies Street campus with principal Sam Sheppard to see the building works well underway and to hear that the new bus loop is working very well at the senior farm campus in Norman Street. Thank you to the teachers and the students for welcoming me into your classrooms and sharing your experiences. It was wonderful to meet so many students and have a chance to hear about the great programs and activities being offered at the Ballarat Specialist School.

The Disability and Social Services Regulation Amendment Bill 2023 seeks to reinforce the right of residents in specialist disability accommodation through amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act 1997. It proposes amendments to the Social Services Regulation Act 2021 to ensure its effective operation in addition to improvements to the Disability Service Safeguards Act 2018 and other legislation. But its primary purpose is to improve the services, safeguards and protections legislated by the Disability Act 2006. This is in line with an ongoing review of the Disability Act, a three-stage process to ensure that relevant legislative frameworks are fit for purpose, modernised and creating meaningful change for people with disability. It forms a key component of our Inclusive Victoria: State Disability Plan 2022–26, which seeks to build a more inclusive and accessible community right across our state. The Disability Act review’s first stage was completed in 2019. It focused on defining the roles and responsibilities of both the Commonwealth and the Victorian governments, as well as ensuring the smooth transition of regulatory responsibilities regarding the national disability insurance scheme.

The current second stage of the review is strengthening safeguards, rights and protections for Victorians with disability as well as further clarifying rights and responsibilities. The bill before us today is a result of much of the work done in this stage to date. Additionally, as a part of stage 2 reforms, late last year an exposure draft of the disability inclusion bill, a nation-leading, contemporary, proactive disability inclusion framework, was released for public feedback. Following this, the third stage of the review is intended to consider more complex safeguards and forensic disability provisions within the act.

Returning to the bill before us today, the Disability and Social Services Regulation Amendment Bill seeks to implement several key legislative improvements which are grounded in the experience of service providers and participants. Together the proposed amendments will enhance rights, clarify responsibilities and improve regulation concerning the provision of disability support services. This includes providing for residential rights within specialist disability accommodation where they are not currently provided for under the Residential Tenancies Act. It additionally clarifies the rights and responsibilities of those in disability residential services who are subject to civil or criminal orders, as well as duties of the relevant service providers. This bill also simplifies various processes for service providers and workers alike. The requirement for approving the use of restrictive practices within state-funded services will be aligned with the requirements under the NDIS, ensuring clarity and consistency for services funded by both.

Duplication is further reduced for disability workers seeking voluntary regulation, who will no longer be required to undergo additional criminal history checks where they have already been cleared in NDIS screening. The operation of disability services will be further improved regarding compulsory treatment processes and oversight, facilitating and safeguarding critical information sharing between providers and the accessibility of a range of services by community visitors. Finally, the role, functions and responsibilities of the Secretary of the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing are clarified in relation to the management of both services and related land.

This bill and the broader Disability Act review form part of our government’s continued commitment to supporting Victorians with disability right across our state, and I have had the honour of seeing this in action on several occasions recently within my electorate of Wendouree and across Ballarat. Recently I had the opportunity to accompany the Minister for Regional Development with my parliamentary colleagues the member for Ripon and you, Acting Speaker Settle, the member for Eureka, to Ballarat West employment zone with the very good people from McCallum Disability Services. McCallum has recently merged with Ballarat Regional Industries, BRI, and is now the largest social enterprise in western Victoria, employing over 300 people with disability. I am delighted that McCallum will be moving into BWEZ, a precinct co-funded by our government and the City of Ballarat which will allow them the space and the modern amenities to continue their essential services. Once complete, McCallum will move into a new facility where it will have room to expand, creating 275 new jobs – exactly what our Ballarat West employment zone is all about.

I would also like to mention that Acting Speaker Settle and I will both be meeting with Pinarc Disability Support services next week. Pinarc are yet another organisation doing fantastic work to support people with disability in our community, and I am really looking forward to that meeting next week. I would also like to give a shout-out to the organisers of the Ballarat Community Fest 2023. On 18 February I had the privilege of joining a group of disability service providers as well as local businesses and community members at the Ballarat Community Fest 2023. My thanks go to Gellibrand Support Services for hosting this successful and thoroughly enjoyable day. Notably, the community fest was held at the Goods Shed within the recently transformed Ballarat station precinct, an accessible venue now well equipped to accommodate the phenomenal people and organisations that attended.

Elsewhere in the Ballarat railway precinct, in October 2022 our government committed $50 million to upgrade the accessibility of the 160-year-old Ballarat train station. This will include passenger lifts on both platforms as well as a connecting pedestrian overpass. I am so proud that we are delivering this important and necessary project which has been campaigned for by many organisations and individuals across Ballarat and the region, including Grampians Disability Advocacy, who do great work advocating for and supporting people with disability across the Grampians region. I would particularly like to recognise and thank Grampians Disability Advocacy and their amazing executive officer Deb Verdon for their leadership and the work that she does. I cannot overstate how significant the accessibility upgrade is and the benefits accessible and inclusive public transport at our central train station will bring to the Ballarat community and visitors to our city in the future. It is particularly important with the Commonwealth Games and the para events to be able to make sure that we have a very, very good accessible train station as people catch the train up to Ballarat for the Commonwealth Games athletics. I commend this important bill to the house, and I thank everyone for supporting it. It is a great step forward.

Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (12:41): I too rise to speak on the Disability and Social Services Regulation Amendment Bill 2023. I remember this bill was initially introduced in the last term of Parliament but lapsed at the end of the sitting period. In fact I recall speaking on the bill and its importance for the 1.1 million Victorians that are currently living with a disability. Since I was first elected to this place five years ago, we have seen how the Andrews Labor government has been committed to improving the lives of Victorians who live with a disability. When I last spoke on these changes, I made reference to the fact that we were delivering much-needed upgrades to every single specialist school here in Victoria, which at the time included Warringa Park School in my former electorate of Tarneit. In the Laverton electorate, which I currently represent, we are fortunate enough to have four of them – those being Sunshine Special Developmental School in Sunshine West, Rosamond school in Braybrook, and of course Jennings Street School and Western Autistic School in the suburb of Laverton.

Colleagues in this house will know I am very passionate about going to my local schools – meeting kids and talking to principals and teachers about what is happening there in the schools. Attending these specialist schools that are now in my new electorate of Laverton is something I feel very passionate about, and the visits that I do attend at these schools stay with me, because the type of work that the principals and teachers and teaching support staff offer very, very vulnerable students in vulnerable areas of Melbourne’s west is absolutely extraordinary. There are students and children there with a very diverse range of disabilities, but each and every single one of those children from what I saw was very well catered for and very well looked after. I was very pleased to be able to assist many of these schools in relation to a review of the bus services in the western suburbs that take students to and from these schools. It was something that was really important to me, and I hope it has been able to afford a better and shorter trip for those children – to jump on the bus in the morning like every other child and go to school.

Having gotten to know so many of these new specialist schools over the past year and a half, the work that they do quite often goes unthanked and is perhaps unnoticed by the broader community. A lot of people in our broader community may not have stepped inside one of these specialist schools if they do not have a child with a disability. It is such a special place to step inside and see the absolute care and dedication of teachers. I was very pleased to find out that at Jennings Street and Western Autistic in Laverton so many of the teaching staff are actual residents in the suburbs of Melbourne’s outer west, in Truganina and indeed Tarneit. It was wonderful to see faces that I had seen before and to learn and see in action the true dedication and commitment to the students in the room – helping them get the best possible education regardless of their disability and the best possible start to life to thrive in life no matter what these children and these students go on to become. Each and every single one of those schools is very much deserving of the funding that they have received to date.

In addition to this of course there is our government’s Autism Education Strategy, which is really important, and we introduced that in November 2020. The strategy aims to ensure that students with autism can go ahead and receive an inclusive education in mainstream learning environments, because they deserve the same education opportunities that every other child in Victoria does. I know this is something I have talked to many parents about, and particularly when I talk to parents who send their children to a specialist development school or indeed send their children to a government-funded mainstream school in Melbourne’s west, what strikes me is that parents like to have the choice depending on the impacts that autism has had on their child and that they are living with.

I have also spoken to many, many parents over the years who have really talked to me about the need to go ahead and deliver more specialist schools, particularly in Melbourne’s west, because as I have stood here and said time and time again – and as my good friends the member for Point Cook and the member for Tarneit will indeed stand here and talk about, and have talked about – the extreme growth in Melbourne’s west means we need to go ahead and build more specialist schools just as we are doing with our government-funded schools to keep up with that population growth. Every child is different. Every child has their own individual set of challenges but also opportunities, and it is really important to be able to address and harness both of those, whether your child will be at a mainstream school or indeed will go to a specialist school. So I was really happy to see a new specialist school – I think it is opening in Werribee next year – and it is something that provided a great deal of comfort to folks even in my electorate of Laverton that they would have another option if they chose to send their child there.

It is also really important for some of those kids, especially those who would absolutely benefit from mainstream education and thrive at their local school, that we went ahead and introduced our government’s Autism Education Strategy. It is really important that the teachers at these mainstream schools have the skills, most importantly, that are needed to help address some of the challenges, but to harness those opportunities and give the kids the best possible education that they can get.

Of course it is not just kids that live with disabilities. It is really quite interesting that when I talk around disabilities I think about the 1.1 million Victorians that currently live with a disability in this state and about my personal interaction with anyone in my family that was considered to have a disability. It is quite interesting because I always look at my nanna, Nanna Jean. Nanna became deaf at age 50 – completely; we used to call her stone deaf, so completely, completely deaf. She was never able to learn sign language and communicate through Auslan. She actually lip-read, and she was the perfect lip-reader. There was nothing that could possibly escape her. I even remember growing up, being quite young and seeing my mum, my aunt and my uncle sitting there as all good children do when they come to visit their mother with all of the grandkids. They would be trying to talk a little bit like this, with a hand over the mouth, but she could pick up anything. But Nanna never considered the fact that she could not hear a single thing as a disability, and it saddens me to think that she never actually ever heard any of the voices of her grandchildren. The funny thing about Nanna, and I think this is why we never saw her as having a communication barrier or a disability, is that she used to say, ‘I know exactly what you sound like. I know and I can feel the sound of your voice in my mind.’ I always thought that was an interesting way in which she lived her life. Going deaf at age 50 there would have been huge barriers that she had to overcome, but indeed being the very, very, very tough matriarch of my family, she certainly overcame and broke down a lot of them.

In the short time I have got left, I just want to reflect on a couple that I met that had quite a profound impact on me very early in the stage of my being elected here to this place as the member for Tarneit. I do want to mention them here again. It was an elderly disabled couple. I remember when they both came to my office. One was in a wheelchair but both were unable to speak. They were both deaf. We had an interpreter with us. It was quite incredible in a way, and the first time I had really communicated in this way – because remember I said Nanna could lip-read – was with this couple to help assist them. They came to see me because their private rental was in a state of disrepair because the landlord was unwilling to go ahead and accommodate the needs of her wheelchair. It was something that she came to us to assist her with, and we were able to assist with a better home for this couple to go to. I have not seen them since – it has probably been four years – but I quite often reflect on them when I talk about bills that come to this house, about trying to achieve greater fairness and equality and doing the right thing for people who are considered vulnerable in our community. That may also include people, 1.1 million Victorians, living with a disability.

These sorts of bills that come before the house are really important, and I am very pleased to stand here this afternoon to make a contribution. I commend the bill to the house.

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (12:51): I rise to speak on the Disability and Social Services Regulation Amendment Bill 2023, and in doing so I do want to acknowledge all the contributions that have been made from all sides of the house in relation to this debate, some very thoughtful, heartfelt contributions, particularly from the member for Greenvale, who I would like to acknowledge in that respect. Labor has long been committed to supporting and empowering Victorians with a disability, and since 2014 we have continued to work for Victoria to be a national leader in realising the social, economic and civic aspirations of people with a disability. As part of this, Labor has continued to drive outcomes so that people with a disability have full equality, inclusion and participation in our community. This is an essential and crucial part of building a community that is inclusive for all Victorians.

However, before I turn to the substance of this bill, I would like to provide some historic context in relation to how we arrived here today. I think it is important to touch on some of the history regarding the abuse, neglect, violence and exploitation that people with disability have experienced in years gone by, which demonstrates just how far we have come but still demonstrates how far we have to go. In this respect I refer the house to page 51 of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability: Interim Report, which states that:

For much of history in the Western world, people with disability have lived on the margins of society, subjected to discrimination, segregation, exclusion and violence … many 19th and early 20th century leaders in Australia joined others globally in attempting to remove ‘defective’ humans from society (that is –

basically –

the practice of eugenics). This occurred largely by segregating people with disability from the wider population and sometimes by sterilising girls with disability …

During the 19th and much of the 20th centuries in Australia, many children born with disability were taken from their parents and locked away for life in large residential institutions. Adults with disability were sometimes reduced to begging to stay alive. Adults considered ‘lunatics’ –

a category that did include people with mental health conditions and intellectual disabilities at those times –

were sent away to asylums. While the philosophy behind the creation of these institutions was that they would protect people from a life of poverty and exploitation on the streets, in reality they were oppressive and people with intellectual, physical and psychosocial disability had little or no control over their own lives. They typically suffered poor medical and health treatment and poor diets, and received minimal education. They were subjected to violence and sexual assault, and had no way to report the abuse and seek redress through the justice system. Women and girls with disability were sometimes sterilised without consent.

Through to the 1960s and in some cases beyond, people with disability living in the community were also kept out of sight, unable to access many public spaces. Those who were visible were pitied and often mocked, and sometimes paraded in circuses and ‘freak shows’.

That is a shameful, shameful, horrific history, but one that we must never forget because it was not actually all that long ago, and it is one that we as parliamentarians must remain mindful of as we continue to consider matters of fairness, equality and inclusivity.

However, as outlined in the royal commission’s interim report, through the disability rights movement that began to form globally through the 1970s and 80s, campaigns did begin to change attitudes and practices that contributed to discrimination against people with a disability. These campaigns led to a series of law reforms, including the development of anti-discrimination laws in Australian states and territories and the introduction of the landmark Disability Discrimination Act 1992 by the then Keating Labor government. The key objective of the Disability Discrimination Act of course was to eliminate discrimination against people on the grounds of disability and ensure that as far as practicable persons with disabilities had the same rights to equality before the law as the rest of the community. The Disability Discrimination Act was built on the foundations of previous keynote legislation, including the Whitlam Labor government’s historic Racial Discrimination Act 1975, legislation of historic significance putting Australia on the road to reconciliation with Indigenous people; the Hawke Labor government’s Sex Discrimination Act 1984, which reflected the commitment to the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women; and the establishment of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in 1986, again under the leadership of the Hawke government.

Standing on the shoulders of these historic Labor reforms, I am proud to say that I continue to be part of a movement that has very much a longstanding history of taking real action to help the marginalised and the most disadvantaged in our community. Whether it be recently through the Rudd Labor government ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2008 or the creation of the NDIS under the Rudd–Gillard governments, whether it is through Labor’s leadership and unity as we now strive to deliver constitutional recognition for a voice for First Nations people, which will culminate in a referendum later this year or whether it is through this bill, which will continue to improve the treatment and rights of people with a disability, Labor has always stood on the side of communities who need it most.

Despite these important advances, people with disability in Australia still experience a lot of disadvantage. People with a disability are two times more likely to live in poverty and six times more likely to have poor health outcomes. This was highlighted again by the royal commission in its interim report, which basically talks about how a lot of issues are still ongoing. One particular piece of work that was submitted previously by the National People with Disabilities and Carer Council tragically highlighted that for far too long the abuse of children with disability, violence against people with intellectual disability in group homes and the sexual assault of women and men with a disability are far too common. That work reported on human rights violations and the neglect of basic survival needs. This bill aligns our response directly to these key areas of focus by the royal commission, some of which I just touched on, particularly within disability accommodation and tenancy settings.

Following the full rollout of the NDIS the Victorian government commenced a review of the Victorian Disability Act 2006 to help ensure Victoria’s disability legislation remained contemporary and fit for purpose. It was through this process that various reforms and improvements were identified and are contained in this bill. It forms part of stage 2 of the Disability Act review, which will introduce critical amendments to enhance services, safeguards and protections. The main purpose of this bill is to amend the Disability Act 2006 in relation to the sharing of information about a person with a disability; persons subject to restrictive practices, supervised treatment orders and residential services; and the compulsory treatment of persons with an intellectual disability. The bill also seeks to amend the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 to promote residential rights in specialist disability accommodation, the Disability Service Safeguards Act 2018 in relation to worker screening and the Social Services Regulation Act 2021 to ensure that it operates effectively to protect the safety of social service users.

Fundamentally the aim of this bill is to ensure Victoria continues to have a contemporary and modern legislative architecture to complement the ambitious reform agenda that we have previously outlined in Inclusive Victoria: State Disability Plan 2022–2026. This bill is built on the strong and ongoing stakeholder and community consultation that the government has continued to be engaged with. I acknowledge and thank all involved, including the minister who has led this process and previous ministers who have been involved too. Indeed this bill complements a suite of commitments that the Andrews Labor government has been delivering to improve the lives and wellbeing of people with a disability across the state and also across my community of Pascoe Vale, Coburg and Brunswick West. In my community, as outlined by the 2021 ABS census as well as some work recently by the Merri-bek council in this space, 20 per cent of locals have a disability – or even around one in three households – and 18 000 of my local residents provide unpaid assistance for a person with a disability. That is 12.7 per cent of my local population compared to around 11.9 per cent across Australia.

Earlier I referred to the state disability plan, and I would like to draw the house’s attention to section 2.3 of the plan, which specifically outlines the government’s commitment around making housing more accessible for people with a disability, including through social housing. Along with this plan I am delighted at the real action and real investments that we have been delivering to make this aspiration a reality in my electorate through the Big Housing Build project and the Harvest Square project in Brunswick West. Formerly known as Gronn Place, which was home to 82 outdated and run-down public housing dwellings, the new Harvest Square project is a groundbreaking $86 million redevelopment proudly being delivered by the Andrews Labor government, which will deliver an additional 116 dwellings overall and consist of a total of 198 new social and community housing and affordable and accessible homes, with 111 social housing homes and eight community housing homes included in that. Currently it is supporting 770 construction jobs as it is under development. Importantly, it is a project that makes provision for a certain percentage of fully accessible homes that are consistent with the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.

Sitting suspended 1:00 pm until 2:02 pm.

Business interrupted under standing orders.