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Thanks to all who attended our member consultation with special guest The Hon. Bill Shorten MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services on 29th Feb 2008, in the spectacular offices of Sparke Helmore Lawyers. 
Key issues raised: - The employment of people with disability should be cost-neutral
- Development of an Australian business case
- Obtaining adequate statistics for disability metrics
- Balancing the supply and demand for people with disability in the workforce
- Existing programs exist in ‘silos’ and are not linked
- Australian businesses need tailored solutions
- More accurate portrayal of people with disability in the media – i.e. people with disability are not ‘suffering’, nor ‘superhuman’
- Consistent OHS guidelines required nationally
- Promotion of people with disability as an important customer market
- The need for effective leadership.
Mr Shorten was very engaging, and was keen to hear from as many members as possible. He also explained how he sees the current situation, and outlined the issues that he believes need to be addressed. Mr Shorten expressed his desire to see all people with disability living “long lives of meaning and quality”, with decent employment a central factor. As he sees it, disability is an ‘invisible’ issue – he plans to shed light on the subject and bring disability into the mainstream. The inflexibility of the Disability Support Pension is an issue Mr Shorten believes is essential to reform - there are 712,000 people with disability receiving the DSP who basically live on the poverty line. The average time on the DSP is 11 years. There is a great deal of fear associated with losing these benefits – people believe that it is better to have a regular income (no matter how low), than risk having no income at all. Mr Shorten stated that he believes it is essential to make the DSP much more flexible, allowing people with disability to work part-time, work intermittently, or undertake work experience programs or study without the fear of losing their benefits. Mr Shorten explained that he and Brendan O’Connor will be undertaking a review of the cross-over between welfare and work. He believes the ideal outcome would be for people with disability to be able to use the DSP more creatively, as a starting ‘base’ for moving into workforce participation. Mr Shorten also talked about the lack of good quality, independent and relevant support for businesses. He stated that business should be rewarded for doing the right thing, and said that the cost of employing people with disability should be cost-neutral.. He also talked about the need for business ‘champions’ in relation to the inclusion of people with disability – leaders in the business world who will put the employment of people with disability on the agenda. With these leaders in place, greater numbers of people with disability will be provided with opportunities for employment, as hiring policies will generally reflect management. Mr Shorten congratulated our members on already leading by example in this area. Mr Shorten used the decline in the number of people with disability employed within the Australian Public Service as an example of ineffective leadership – only 2% of the total APS workforce identifies as having a disability – and stated that this is unacceptable. Mr Shorten outlined the following areas that create barriers for people with disability trying to enter the workforce – access to premises, technology and IT, transport, access to information and training programs, and attitudinal barriers. Mr Shorten assured our members that he will use his influence to make sure disability gets on the agenda – he will be writing to the CEO’s of the top 30 Australian companies to start talking about disability and employment. Questions from members: Ruth Thompson, Westpac
It is important for us to understand our employees and customers – we need metrics/clearer data on disability, eg. What are the numbers of potential employees and customers who use Auslan? How many people with disability are looking for work and have specific job capabilities? Mr Shorten stated that there are currently 22,000 people who use Auslan as a first language. He is interested to hear more about collating clearer disability statistics to benefit businesses – both in terms of employees and customers.
Fiona Krautil, ANZ
We need an easy to follow guide containing business case data collated in a marketable package – something to take into the boardroom – we have data on women, on indigenous population but not on disability. Simple data, eg. Number of graduates with disability, number of employees with disability, jobseekers with disability, etc. Mr Shorten asked how much something like this would cost - the Employers Network is developing a brief to determine the kind of research required in the Australian market.
Julia Haraksin, NSW Attorney General’s Dept
It is important to stress the consistent disincentives and barriers that people with disability face everyday – not just the bricks and mortar, but financial costs (eg. Taxis), social barriers, etc. Lisa Barrett, Medicare
It is possible that the decline in the recorded number of people with disability in the APS is more to do with disclosure issues. Within Medicare there are definitely more than 2% of the workforce who have disabilities. Mr Shorten stated that he does not see why there would have been greater incentives to disclose in 1994 than in 2005 – the declining number of people with disability employed within the APS is not just about disclosure, but rather about outsourcing roles to organisations with no disability strategy. Ben Felten, Penrith City Council
People need to understand that access to information is essential to participation. Many websites are still not accessible, and there is an acute lack of accessible training programs. We still need to address attitudinal barriers and create a positive incentive for businesses to employ people with disability Deborah Barit – Employers’ Network Associate
What steps does the Government intend to take to address the psychological barriers for people with disability moving from the DSP into employment? How are you going to take away that fear? Mr Shorten outlined his ‘vision’ for the DSP to become more flexible, and not an ‘either/or’ resource.
Mike Gordon, IBM
Many global organisations are moving to a ‘service’ based model of business, with many employees spending less and less time actually in the office. Many employees spend their time on customers’ sites, or other external sites. What can be done to address the attitudes of customers who refuse to address the workplace adjustments required by a contractor with disability going in to work in their site? What can be done about these kind of “secondary employment” conditions? Rob Lake, People Living With HIV/AIDS
Fear is a major issue – PLWHA can’t get volunteers as people fear losing their DSP benefits. Mr Shorten recommended that PLWHA contact his office to get an exemption for their volunteers. Max Boudan, Australian Apprenticeship Centre, MEGT
There has been a lot of conflicting policies – will there be the opportunity for community/business consultation on disability policies? Mr Shorten recommended getting in touch with his office to become involved.
Paul Cutrone, Sparke Helmore
There is a lot of discrepancy between the different States’ OHS laws - can these be harmonised nationally? Mr Shorten stated that it would be beneficial for an organisation like Comcare to develop a National Code of Practice for OHS.
Peter Sullivan, Department of Defence
Access to information is critical. Also, recruitment is a key area to address – often large intakes (especially graduate recruitment) within the APS are outsourced through recruitment agencies, many of which have no recognition of people with disability. The APS’s Merit-based principle is unfair if people with disability cannot equitably access the opportunities. Margot Griffiths, Manpower
Organisations don’t seem to have issues/difficulties in implementing ‘specialist strategies’ that have been so successful in recruiting people from Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, but there seems to be some resistance to implementing specialist strategies for people with disability. There are lessons to be learnt from these successful recruitment programs in terms of what is relevant to people with disability. Brendan Fitzgerald, Medicare Australia
It has take a long time to achieve any degree of success in Indigenous employment – there has been a very long campaign, with leadership being a central issue. There needs to be a sustained campaign and continuity in the approach in relation to the employment of people with disability. Kevin Figueiredo, Woolworths
Employers don’t always know what they don’t know – discrimination at recruitment stage is certainly not always deliberate resistance – employers need a reliable information source to assist them. Dorothy Griffiths, Employers’ Network Associate
There is a need for consistency of service delivery across disability services, eg. consistency between State and Federal policies, there is a need for a National Disability Strategy beyond employment, with a ‘whole of life’ approach. John Little, Employers’ Network Associate
There is a huge issue about taxation and people with disability – disability equipment is not tax deductible, and does not count as a business expense, even though it is essential to employment, eg. Wheelchairs, hearing aids. People with disability are financial penalised by the equipment they require. |
