Archive for the ‘Disability’ Category.
I spoke this morning with Mark Parton about the federal budget, and the clear choice it presents for this year’s election: between Labor’s nation-building reforms in health, schools and DisabilityCare, and the Coalition’s threatened cuts. Here’s a podcast.
TRANSCRIPT – 2CC BREAKFAST WITH MARK PARTON
Andrew Leigh MP
Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister
Member for Fraser
15 May 2013TOPICS: The Budget.
On ABC666, I spoke with presenter Ross Solly and Liberal Senator Gary Humphries this morning about how DisabilityCare Australia will help change lives, and the importance of ensuring it has a stable funding base. Here’s a podcast.
TRANSCRIPT – ABC666 WITH ROSS SOLLY
Andrew Leigh MP
Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister
Member for Fraser
2nd May 2013TOPICS: DisabilityCare Australia, Medicare Levy
On the ABC Capital Hill program, I spoke with host Lyndal Curtis and Liberal MP Russell Broadbent about the opportunity for the new Victorian Liberal Government to reverse its savage cuts, and about the importance of treating asylum-seekers with dignity in our public debates.
I have an article in today’s Canberra Times about the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Let Many Shoulders Take Some of the Burden, Canberra Times, 20 February 2013
Disability touches the lives of millions of Australians. Almost one in five Australians either have a disability, have a family member with a disability or are a carer for someone with a disability.
Yet our response to disability has not reflected the scale or severity of its impact. In a prosperous nation like ours, it is profoundly wrong that heart-breaking, often shocking, stories of life with disability are not exceptional.
Continue reading ‘Let Many Shoulders Take Some of the Burden’ »
I spoke today about the federal government actions that have made a positive difference in my electorate of Fraser.
Appropriations Bills, 12 February 2013
There are several old chestnuts the Liberals can be relied on to trot out every election year, and one of those that we hear so often in the ACT is the line, ‘Labor ignores Canberra’—the suggestion that somehow Labor governments take Canberra for granted. But, unfortunately for the Liberals, the people of Fraser are a clever bunch. They are able to see through this line easily, because it is so demonstrably false. The investments that this Labor government has made in Fraser are visible everywhere, from the Majura Parkway to the National Broadband Network rolling out and the many schools enjoying new facilities thanks to the Building the Education Revolution program.
In fact, if you were to take the time to visit all of the sites where Labor has invested in my electorate of Fraser, you would be taking a pretty comprehensive tour of Canberra’s north. I can even provide you with a loose itinerary. You can set off from the flourishing suburb of Braddon, where my electorate office is located and where Minister for Human Services Kim Carr and I opened a one-stop shop for Medicare and Centrelink in October last year. The co-location of these facilities is a core part of Labor’s service delivery reforms. It is making access to housing, health, crisis support, education and training, and family and financial support easier for Canberrans.
I spoke in parliament today in favour of a bill to create the NDIS.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill, 7 February 2013
Last month, I received a letter from Denise Reid, one of my constituents. Ms Reid wrote to me about her son Tim, a 21-year-old man with Down syndrome. She has given me permission to share the contents of that letter with the House today, so I want to begin by reading part of it. She writes:
‘I receive a part payment, sixty-five dollars and fourteen cents per fortnight, with the remainder paid to my ex-husband. We share care of our son, who is 21. He has Down syndrome. From time to time, Centrelink reviews eligibility for this payment. I find this extremely frustrating. My son has an intellectual disability. There is no cure and he will never grow out of it.’
I have an opinion piece in the Australian today, continuing to prosecute the case that Labor is the true party of small-L liberalism in Australia (on the same theme, see also my first speech, this Global Mail article and this speech to Per Capita).
Liberals are conservatives while Labor is the true party of Alfred Deakin, The Australian, 10 January 2013
In the United States, if you want to insult a right-winger, call them a ‘liberal’. In Australia, if you want to insult a left-winger, call them a ‘Liberal’. In both countries, liberalism has become detached from its original meaning.
It’s time to bring Australian liberalism back to its traditional roots. Small-L liberalism involves a willingness to protect minority rights (even when they’re unpopular) and a recognition that open markets are the best way to boost prosperity.
Three ACT-based organisations have received funding from the Gillard Government to help people with disability, as well as their carers and families, adjust to the options available under an NDIS. Providing support for the sector to adjust to the changes is an important step in a transition to an NDIS.
JOINT MEDIA RELEASE
Andrew Leigh MP
Member for FraserGai Brodtmann MP
Member for CanberraLocal organisations to help Australia get ready for NDIS
Three ACT-based organisations, National Rural Health Alliance, Disability Advocacy Network of Australia and ACT Disability, Aged and Carer Advocacy will receive close to $300 000 in funding from the Gillard Government to get ready for the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Continue reading ‘Local organisations to help Australia get ready for NDIS’ »
On Sky AM Agenda, I spoke with host David Lipson and Liberal MP Kelly O’Dwyer. We discussed budget measures (including Labor’s focus on efficiencies over the Coalition’s job cuts), the resurgence of closed-economy thinking in the Coalition, and Labor’s important achievements over the past five years.
I spoke in parliament this morning about the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
NDIS, 12 September 2012
On 24 August it was my pleasure to join with parliamentary secretary Jan McLucas and member for Canberra, Gai Brodtmann, at the Griffin Centre in Canberra to hold a forum on the National Disability Insurance Scheme. It is the second forum in my electorate on the NDIS that I have helped organise. A previous forum in Belconnen was well attended by a range of carers, people with disabilities and people of goodwill who are committed to building a national disability insurance scheme. I also met in my electorate office with a range of people with disabilities and their carers to discuss what an NDIS will mean for them.
Continue reading ‘Talking about the National Disability Insurance Scheme’ »
Last Wednesday, I spoke with La Trobe University economist Jan Libich about some of my academic findings – from teacher pay & aptitude to child gender & divorce – and possible policy implications. If you want to read more, the research is available at my academic website: www.andrewleigh.org.
And if you’d like to watch Jan’s other interviews (including with Eric Leeper and Don Brash), they’re available on his YouTube channel.
Today, Gai Brodtmann and I held an NDIS forum at the Griffin Centre with Parliamentary Secretary Jan McLucas. Jan had three ‘asks’ of attendees: sign up at www.everyaustraliancounts.com.au, join the conversation at www.ndis.gov.au, and talk with your friends about the NDIS.
My colleague, Member for Canberra Gai Brodtmann, and I are hosting Senator the Hon Jan McLucas, Parliamentary Secretary for Disability and Carers, tomorrow afternoon to talk about a National Disability Insurance Scheme.
The forum is at the Griffin Centre in Canberra City between 2pm and 4pm. Tea and coffee will be provided.
The forum is open to the general public, so if you wanted to find out more about what a National Disability Insurance Scheme might look like, I encourage you to come along.
Please RSVP to me by 12 noon tomorrow on Andrew.Leigh.MP {at} aph.gov.au
I moved a private member’s motion in the House of Representatives today on the strength of the Australian economy, and the need to approach economic debates with facts rather than fear (avoiding phobophobia).
A Strong Australian Economy
18 June 2012I move: That this House:
(1) notes that:
(a) by historical standards, unemployment, inflation and interest rates are at very low levels;
(b) for the first time in Australian history, Australia has a AAA rating from all three major credit rating agencies;
(c) Australia’s debt levels, despite the hit to revenues from the global financial crisis, are around one tenth the level of major advanced economies;
(d) OECD Economic Outlook 91 confirms that the Australian economy will significantly outperform OECD economies as a whole over this year and next; and
(e) the IMF has said of Australia: ‘we welcome the authorities’ commitment to return to a budget surplus by 2012-13 to rebuild fiscal buffers, putting Commonwealth government finances in a stronger position’; and
(2) calls upon all Members to approach economic debates with facts rather than fear, and to put the national interest first when discussing the strong Australian economy.Economic reform in Australia has never been easy. In the postwar decades, the conservatives built up a tariff wall that helped make Australian industry uncompetitive and kept consumer prices high. In 1973, Gough Whitlam began the long process of breaking down Australia’s tariff walls—the 25 per cent across-the-board tariff cuts.
Continue reading ‘Putting Facts Before Fear in Economic Debates’ »
I spoke in parliament about my latest community conversation on disadvantage, which focused on intergenerational poverty.
Fraser Community Summit, 31 May 2012
Every six months or so I hold a conversation to talk about disadvantage in the Fraser electorate. On Tuesday, 29 May I was pleased to welcome 10 representatives from local community sector groups up to Parliament House for an early breakfast conversation. I call it a community summit, but really it is more of an informal conversation with people I regard as my brains trust on poverty.
The focus of this conversation was on intergenerational disadvantage and how to stop the cycle of poverty from replicating itself across generations. One of the attendees at the summit made the point that disadvantage itself is now more complex than it was in the past and is often interrelated with issues such as mental illness, poor health, substance abuse, domestic violence and addiction. Another attendee told the story of a child whose parents were addicted to hard drugs and who was never given anything by his parents; all he had were the things that he had found or stolen. Another spoke about families who eat McDonald’s every meal because it is simpler to get takeaway than to prepare a meal. Attendees were concerned about the impact of imprisonment on the children of those who are behind bars.
Continue reading ‘Intergenerational Disadvantage in Canberra’ »
On Sky’s Lunchtime Agenda program, I joined host David Lipson and Liberal Senator Arthur Sinodinos to discuss how a budget surplus puts downward pressure on interest rates, and why a National Disability Insurance Scheme is a higher priority than tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.
In a recent forum at the ANU Crawford School, I joined Reframe author Eric Knight, change.org‘s Rebecca Wilson, Liberal MP Joshua Frydenberg and Big Ideas host Paul Barclay to discuss the topic ‘Beyond Populist Politics and Policies’. A podcast of the show (from ABC Radio National) is now available.
I held one of my regular community forums at lunchtime today at the Belconnen Community Services theaterette (‘theatre@bcs’). I started off speaking about the mining tax package, which has just passed the parliament, and will provide for a cut to the company tax rate, an increase in superannuation, and more investment (particularly in the mining regions).
There were a wide variety of questions, covering the Gonski review of school funding, local arts facilities, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, refugee policy, the purchase of submarines, the lack of a letterbox at the Kangara Waters community, defence force and public service pension indexation, the adequacy of footpaths in the city centre, the merits of taking on debt to pay for fiscal stimulus, the frequency of grass cutting, household assistance in the carbon pricing plan, and the effect of federal pension increases on ACT public housing costs.
I enjoy the interplay of ideas at these forums, and welcome anyone who lives or works on the northside of Canberra to come along to a future community forum.
This forum was held on a weekday lunchtime, but there’s no perfect time of the day for a community forum, so I aim to vary the dates and times to allow as many people as possible to attend. For details of upcoming forums, click here.
After a Canberra forum on school funding, I spoke briefly about the recently announced Gonski Review. To read the report and have your say, log onto www.schoolfunding.gov.au.
I have a column today in the SMH on the new Lateral Economics/Herald Wellbeing Index.
Putting a figure on inequality adds to strength of statistical spotlight, Sydney Morning Herald, 9 December 2011
New numbers are to the press as shiny bottle caps are to magpies. Statistics have the power to shape a debate or provide oxygen to an issue. From a major bank’s survey of consumer confidence to a political party’s targeted release of ”internal polling”, numbers are often used to bring publicity to a company or a cause. When even condom manufacturers use surveys to get publicity, you know what the new maxim must be: statistics sell.
With the Herald/Lateral Economics Wellbeing Index, Fairfax has shone a statistical spotlight onto the issue of wellbeing. This is good. As all economics students learn on their first day of class, economics is about maximising utility, not money.
I wrote a column for the Chronicle newspaper recently about the proposed National Disability Insurance Scheme.
National Disability Insurance Scheme
The ChronicleIf you ever feel like you’ve had a tough week, try chatting with a parent who’s caring for a child with a profound disability. Chances are, they’ll be bleary-eyed and bone-tired. They may be struggling to make ends meet, and often contending with health issues of their own.
Like every parent, they love their children – but their parenting journey is harder than most. The regular cycle of life is that children leave home and start families of their own. But parents of children with a disability can find themselves caring for a 40 year-old with the mental abilities of a toddler. Many face a searing fear: what will happen to my child when I die?
I spoke today about the hard work of carers and the campaign to create a National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Caring and Disability
Adjournment
3 November 2011I rise to speak about the twin issues of caring and disability. It was my pleasure on 14 October to attend the launch of Carers Week, which was officially launched by the Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mark Butler. It was a moving event at Parliament House, where Carers Australia President, Tim Moore, spoke about his sister Amy. Amy has struggled with mental illness since she was 17 years old and Tim spoke about her in wonderfully moving terms, and about the fact that recently Amy had the great achievement of turning 30. With the care of her family and friends she has managed to keep her demons at bay.
Just a reminder about my community forum tomorrow night. The main focus of the forum will be Labor’s plan for a National Disability Insurance Scheme, but I’ll also be happy to take questions on any other local or national topics, from tax to terrorism, roads to refugees, postboxes to polio.
Details, details…
Venue: Belconnen Community Services, Swanson Court
Time: Tuesday 25 October 6.00-7.30pm
I hope to see you there. And in the event you can’t make it along, here’s a complete list of my coming mobile offices and community forums.
I spoke to parliament on both Wednesday and Thursday about the Tax Forum, and also about the challenge of ongoing tax reform to support the kinds of social policies society is increasingly demanding.
Statements – Taxation
12 October 2011It was my pleasure last week to participate in the Australian government’s tax forum, a forum designed to continue the important conversation about how to build a better taxation system in Australia. This forum, of course, does not sit in isolation. This government commissioned a once in a generation taxation report in 2009. The Henry review reported back with a range of important recommendations which this government is pursuing. In my own submission to the tax forum, I argued that among the core principles for tax reform should be the following: taxes should be shifted from mobile tax bases to immobile tax bases, taxation of savings should be more neutral and sustainable, polluters should internalise the social cost of environmental damage, disincentives to labour force participation should be reduced, and the tax system should be as simple as possible.
A few articles that have caught my fancy over recent weeks.
The last parliamentary fortnight wrapped up with a debate over a motion moved by the Liberal Party about Australia’s ‘forgotten families’. I spoke in the debate, and used it as a chance to discuss the government’s achievements and agenda, and contrast them with the relentless negativity of the Opposition Leader.
I gave half a dozen speeches yesterday, amounting to about an hour on my feet. Here’s one recognising disability volunteers.
Disabilility Volunteers, 22 August 2011
Today I rise to pay tribute to community sector workers in my electorate who are working with individuals who have a disability. I attended two community events recently that brought home to me the valuable work that this sector is doing. On 2 August I attended a DisabiliTEA event in Holt, hosted by the Sharing Places organisation.
I spoke in Parliament today about the ACT Community Living Project.
ACT Community Living Project, 16 June 2011
On Monday, 13 June, I had the pleasure of attending a barbecue to raise funds and awareness for the ACT Community Living Project. CLP is a not-for-profit community organisation seeking services for people with a disability, particularly those with a moderate to severe intellectual disability, many of whom have physical or health issues. The group also includes people with autism.