I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we are meeting on, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, and pay respects to their Elders, past and present.

Thank you Bronwyn for your introduction and thank you for your invitation to be here today. It is an honour to be the first speaker at Shaping the Future Today, and I wish my schedule allowed me to stay longer to hear the discussions you will have over the next two days. You have an important task ahead of you, which aligns with the reporting and evaluation requirements for the five year Young People with Disability in Residential Aged Care (YPIRAC) program, established by the Council of Australian Government (COAG) in February 2006.

Younger people in residential aged care has been a sensitive issue for a number of years. Accommodation support under the third Commonwealth State Territory Disability Agreement (CSTDA 3) was identified by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare as an area of unmet need.

Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) data shows that the number of people aged under 50 in residential aged care has varied over the last five years, within a band of between 900 and 1,100. The number of people under the age of 65 has varied between 6,000 and 6,600.

At the February 2006 COAG meeting, it was agreed that the Australian, State and Territory Governments would jointly fund and develop a $244 million program over five years, aimed at achieving a net reduction in the number of younger people with disability living in residential aged care, with an initial priority given to people aged less than 50 years. This was, I am sure you will agree, a terrific step forward, but it should not be the end.

COAG agreed that State and Territory Governments would manage the program on a day to day basis, as agreed in signed bilateral agreements made with the Australian Government. The program has three objectives, which I am sure we all agree are the key areas that needed, and still need, addressing.

Firstly, moving younger people with disability currently accommodated in residential aged care into more age appropriate supported disability accommodation. It is just absurd that a society like Australia, that prides itself on being the ‘lucky country’, has nothing more to offer so many younger people with disability than a nursing home. It was initially a temporary measure but for some people with disability, in an already over-stretched aged care system, the level of care is just not enough. The second program objective correctly identified that finding a long-term solution to that problem means we need to work to prevent future admissions of younger people with disability into residential aged care. And finally, as a last resort, for those for whom residential aged care remains the only available, suitable supported accommodation option, we need to enhance the delivery of specialist disability support services to those younger people with disability.

At the national level, the agreed initial target ranges over the life of the program, are:

• net reduction in the number of younger people with disability under the age of 50 in residential aged care of up to 689
• up to 288 people under the age of 65, who are at risk of admission to residential aged care, to be provided with services to divert them from inappropriate admission to residential aged care, and
• up to 247 people under the age of 65 to be provided with enhanced services within a residential aged care setting, where residential aged care is the only available, suitable supported accommodation option.

Many States and Territories have now moved a small number of people from residential aged care, typically where this could be achieved through realigned existing service arrangements. Jurisdictions have advised that, as a result of the YPIRAC Program, they have provided 83 supported accommodation places, and 72 home based support packages. NSW alone has committed 52 additional YPIRAC In-Reach packages, and 570 enhanced services in residential aged care. At this stage, funding has also been committed to provide around 169 additional supported accommodation places across Australia in 2008-09.There’s always a crisis in disability. By that, I mean, where do you get the money from? A number of people over the years have raised the question at state level, but never nationally: how about a lifetime care scheme for the catastrophically injured. Not, to begin with, for everyone with disability but for those who are catastrophically injured.

Nearly 800 people each year in Australia suffer acquired brain injury. Some of these tragedies occur at work, and some in motor vehicle accidents, but many of them occur through treatment injury, sport, or domestic violence. It doesn’t really matter how or why these injuries occur, what matters is that we need to look after these people.

At the moment, if you get injured at work in Victoria, chances are you will get better and more consistent lifetime care than if you acquire a brain injury by jumping off the end of a pier, or by being injured on the sports field, or through a road accident. There's no equity in this. The multiplicity of schemes and the variations in what you're entitled to is a complete and absolute lottery, and the gamble is on people’s quality of life.

It also depends on which state the accident occurs in. Victoria and New South Wales have pretty good no fault schemes where you don't have to try and establish responsibility. Regardless of that fact, you get lifelong care for workplace and motor vehicle injury. After that, it really tails away. In other jurisdictions the situation, even for some of these injuries, is even worse. My office is now looking at the idea of a national scheme, which I floated at the 2020 Summit in Canberra. That doesn't mean that Canberra runs the scheme, because some of the states are have good initiatives. We could establish common eligibility. It could be, but this is not by any means resolved, an agreed severity for traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury.

The services it could fund, if the states are willing to help find some of the money, are post acute hospital and medical care, aids and appliances, personal care, childcare, and nursing care. There's already been a lot of good work done on this by John Lenders in Victoria and by John Della Bosca in New South Wales. Having visited nursing homes and facilities all around Australia, I have seen people with acquired brain injury trying to have some version of a quality life while they're breathing through supported oxygen tubes, and in wheelchairs.

I do believe, even though my original training is as a lawyer, that what we need is the goodwill of everyone. We need to accept that what we want to do is find as many resources as possible to support these people. It is possible. Remember that acquired brain injury affects 800 people each year – that’s not a huge number of people. And the states are already doing some of the work. It is an idea that was raised and promoted through the 2020 Summit and was backed by our Prime Minister. I think it is an idea whose time has come. These injuries can happen to anyone. People deserve some chance of a quality life, even if they confront catastrophe. A decent safety net will ensure people’s care won’t come down to chance.

I would like to assure you that the Government is committed to providing disability services which meet the needs of people with disability, their families and carers. Our aim is to offer practical support to enable people with disability to participate, as fully as possible, in community life, both socially and economically.

On 17 July the Government ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, making Australia one of the first Western countries to ratify the Convention. Australia joins 29 other countries around the world in a move which aims to promote a global community where all people with a disability are equal and active citizens.

And we are working with State and Territory governments to help make funding arrangements simpler and more productive. At the Council of Australian Governments’ meeting in March this year, the Federal, State and Territory governments agreed to develop a new framework for financial relations. The reform will see five or six new national agreements instead of the current 92 Specific Purpose Payments. One of the new national agreements will be for the delivery of disability services. This will enable the States and Territories to use funding more effectively and creatively.

In May, the Prime Minister announced $100 million for capital investment in disability services. This funding will deliver an additional 309 new supported accommodation places. These places will be available to people with a disability who may not currently have appropriate accommodation.

At a meeting on 30 May 2008, State and Territory Disability Ministers agreed to match the Australian Government’s $900 million funding from the Disability Assistance Package. The matched funding of $1.8 billion will provide more than 24,500 disability services places. This includes 2,300 in-home support places, 2,300 supported accommodation places, 9,900 individual support packages and 10,000 much needed respite places.

This funding, together with the $100 million for capital investment will provide a total of over $1.9 billion in additional support for disability services across Australia over the next four years. The Disability Ministers agreed that access to services would be provided on a case-based approach, allowing people with disability to receive appropriate services when needed. The Australian Government is working with State and Territory Governments to start rolling out this significant investment, as all governments are committed to strengthening services for people with disability and their families.

More recently, at the Community and Disability Services Ministers’ Conference in Canberra on 23 July, my ministerial colleagues and I agreed to establish a new National Disability Reform Agenda, which will place people with disability, their families and carers at the centre of services across Australia. This reform agenda, which will fall under the National Disability Strategy, demonstrates a new commitment from the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments to stop the buck passing and deliver genuine and much needed national reform. National reform is crucial to improve the availability, flexibility, quality and consistency of services across all jurisdictions. 

The new National Disability Reform Agenda will:

• ntroduce national tools to identify service benchmarks
• plan for changing needs
• identify people at risk and
• work towards program and service delivery consistency across jurisdictions

We also agreed to develop a national workforce plan, identifying the national workforce requirements in 10 and 20 years. The Government has, with the States and Territories, committed to the development of a National Disability Strategy, as announced during the 2007 election campaign. The strategy will provide direction and focus at a national level for the development of disability legislation, policy and standards.

A key practical measure of the National Disability Strategy will be a national accessible parking scheme. This is a commonsense move that will improve access and availability of parking options for people with disability and their carers. I initiated the consultation process for the strategy at a forum in Melbourne on 15 April. The forum brought together individuals from the public, private and community sectors with significant experience in disability issues and other areas that impact on disability policy. This forum was highly successful and will play a key role in further developing the strategy.

The Strategy will deliver a whole-of-government, whole-of-life approach to disability planning, in consultation with people with disability, carers and other stakeholders in the disability sector. The Strategy will also seek input from groups within the disability community such as carers, women, Indigenous Australians, migrants and people in remote and regional Australia. A Ministerial Advisory Body will also be established in the coming months to assist in the development and implementation of the Strategy.  membership will include representatives of people with disability, disability peaks, carers, disability advocacy bodies and research and academic bodies

I’m pleased to announce today funding of $320,000 to improve access for people with disability to attend national and international disability conferences within Australia. 27 conferences which will receive grants under the National Disability Conference Funding Program and be held between 1 July 2008 and 30 June 2009.

This funding helps empower people with disability by enabling them, their families and carers to attend and be involved in disability conferences held within Australia. It’s an annual grant program designed to help conference organisers maximise participation of people with disability, by assisting with the cost of conference fees, accommodation and travel, engaging Auslan interpreters and note-takers, providing hearing loops and material in alternative formats their families and their carers at disability focused conferences.

Among the conferences who have received funding are the Convention on the Rights of persons With Disabilities Seminar, Teachers of the Deaf Annual Conference and The Other Film Festival 2008. National conferences will receive up to $10,000 in funding, while international conferences, held in Australia, will receive up to $20,000 in funding. Not only will this funding support the attendance of people with disability, it will also raise awareness in the community about people with disability, their families and carers. The voices of people with disability need to be heard, and that’s what this program is all about – ensuring people are able to participate and have their say.

While the Government is progressing issues in the disability sector in an enthusiastic manner, and in cooperation with the State and Territory governments, I recognise that much remains to be done. Having young people in nursing homes has been an ongoing an very sensitive issue, but one which has been recognised by COAG as needing urgent attention.