Kat THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): Today I rise in support of the Disability and Social Services Regulation Amendment Bill 2023. Those in the last Parliament would recall the Disability Amendment Bill 2022, which was introduced towards the end of last year but which lapsed before the election. At the time, that bill received bipartisan support in the Legislative Assembly, and I hope its revival here will be met with the same. Certainly, I was very happy to speak on that bill in the last term and lend my voice to the important reforms within it. I will do so again now, because as a government I believe we must do everything we can to build in better safeguards for Victorians living with a disability to improve the quality of services and supports and to take a leading role in changing attitudes towards disability.

The truth is that for centuries very little consideration has been given to disability inclusion, and the impact of that has been that it has effectively blocked out huge numbers of Victorians from wholly participating in our society. Things have started to shift. They started to shift around the introduction of equal opportunity and disability discrimination acts across the nation, but there is still a long way to go to embed the change that is needed to give people living with a disability the autonomy, respect, dignity and access that they deserve. As a government we comprehend the magnitude of that effort, and as the Andrews Labor government we will confront it.

People often make the mistake or have the misconception of thinking that disability is a niche issue only impacting a small proportion of people and not really affecting them personally. Yet around 20 per cent of our population, or 1.1 million people, are living with a disability in Victoria as we speak. That is one in five people. This bill is one of the key outcomes of the Disability Act review that commenced in 2018. It may not be a flashy piece of legislation that gets on the front page of the papers, but it is a priority reform for this government because its purpose is to ensure our legal frameworks remain modern, suitable and effect substantial change for individuals living with disabilities.

Through this bill we are amending several acts, including the Disability Act 2006, the Residential Tenancies Act 1997, the Disability Service Safeguards Act 2018 and the Social Services Regulation Act 2021. It incorporates all the amendments that were previously included in the Disability Amendment Bill 2022, notably clarifying the parameters for service providers in delivering residential and treatment services. It also ensures residential rights and protections for people living in specialist disability accommodation that do not meet the current definitions in the Residential Tenancies Act. The amendments also strengthen and clarify information-sharing provisions, reinforce safeguards and oversight for treatments and placement in residential facilities, clarify the roles and functions of the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing secretary and reduce duplication between the NDIS and the state-funded disability services. Like I said, they are nothing that will make the papers but are critical reforms that nonetheless are vital as we work to improve the system for the people who rely on it.

The bill also has some substantive amendments to social services regulation which are designed to better protect residents living in supported residential care. Sadly, we have heard, through the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability and through our stakeholders and advocates, of instances in which vulnerable people are living in very poor standards of care, and this is not good enough. These residents are some of the most at-risk individuals in terms of abuse and in terms of maltreatment and neglect, sometimes with very little capacity to speak up for themselves. We have to do more to embed preventative safeguards, so this bill includes measures which will make it easier for authorised officers to inspect supported residential services and disability residential services to ensure people are getting the care they need in the safe and clean conditions that they deserve.

It is worth noting that these reforms have come about through extensive consultation and actively listening to people with lived experience, the sector, stakeholders, unions, advocates and carers, and I do want to take a moment to acknowledge those people in our community who dedicate their lives to supporting people living with disabilities. The disability support workforce do an extraordinary job caring for some of the most vulnerable people in our community, and I acknowledge the role of the Health and Community Services Union in fighting for better wages and conditions for these workers. I also want to reflect on the over 700,000 Victorians who provide care and support to someone they love every day in our state. These are Victorians who are nurturing and caring for a family member, a friend or someone close to them. They are giving of themselves with love and compassion, and they deserve recognition.

On that note I want to give my deep thanks to the work of a very special organisation that I have had the opportunity to get to know over the years, and that is Syndromes Without a Name, or SWAN for short. Heather Renton and her team do remarkable work supporting families with a child with an undiagnosed or rare genetic condition. These are situations where there is very little understanding of the child’s condition and there are no well-established treatments or support networks. SWAN works to guide families through an extremely difficult time in their lives, providing peer support, practical information and advocacy, and I cannot commend that organisation enough.

Our work to improve disability inclusion and disability equality is far from over and will require changes to our legislation, to our systems, to our infrastructure and, critically, to our attitudes. The Andrews Labor government has not wasted a moment in leading this change. Across education, health, transport, jobs and skills we are embedding reforms that will dramatically change the way our society approaches disability.

In my own community of Northcote our investments into inclusive schools have had a tangible impact as we work to make the physical infrastructure of our local schools accessible to every student, no matter their abilities. This year both Thornbury Primary and Westgarth Primary opened brand new inclusive play spaces, and it has been so heartening to see the students enjoying exploring and interacting with these spaces. Looking at these facilities, it is not obvious that they are anything other than just kids play spaces, but for the many children in our school system who do have a disability, they mean they do not have to sit on the sidelines watching their friends play.

Just a few weeks ago I was immensely proud to welcome the Premier to Northcote to show him around Croxton School. This specialist school, one of 80 in the state, has just wrapped up a $7.8 million major upgrade and is looking absolutely magnificent. I introduced the Premier to principal Bev Fegan, an outstanding leader in our community, and some of the senior students, who each told us about their studies and aspirations – everything from dance to hospitality. Students are now enjoying their new performing arts spaces, physical therapy areas, new bathrooms and a food tech cafe and kitchen for learning hospitality skills. They are a fantastic complement to the food forest garden we invested in at this school, now lush with fresh seasonal produce that the students use in their new kitchen. Their excitement is palpable, and we could not be prouder to support this exceptional school and every other specialist school across the state, each and every one of which we are upgrading. That kind of investment is unprecedented, and together with our $1.6 billion investment in disability inclusion across all schools it is transformative. Make no mistake, it only happens under a Labor government. Free TAFE courses in Auslan only happen under a Labor government. Changing Places facilities only happen under a Labor government.

There are too many projects and initiatives to speak about in detail, but I just want to note a couple more local ones for our community in Northcote. It is no surprise that the accessibility of our transport system can be a big barrier to people living with a disability. Across the Northcote electorate we are fortunate to have two train lines, two tramlines and lots of bus routes. Making them more accessible has been a priority for me, and I am very pleased to let the house know that the Andrews Labor government has significant commitments to introduce more level-access stops along the 86 tramline on High Street north of Separation Street, and we have funding commitments to upgrade both Merri and Thornbury train stations to deliver improved accessibility features. We have also wrapped up major projects like our level crossing removals in Preston, where two brand new stations offer full accessibility for commuters. For the many people living with disabilities or with low mobility, these kinds of upgrades will make the difference for them between staying put or getting to where they want and need to go.

But it is not just education and transport where we are reforming our state, we are investing in programs that provide tailored support and skills development and we are working to ensure new residential developments incorporate universal design principles. All of these things coalesce in our government’s work to make our state fairer for people living with disabilities. This legislation is absolutely part of that program of work, and I commend it to the house.