From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's your host Sam Colley.
Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And for the next half hour we talk matters of blindness and low vision.
What we've got to make sure is, as those cuts are occurring or as as we look for efficiencies in the system, that we don't end up not supporting the people that really do need support and not supporting the really good suppliers. And that's where the problem lies.
Welcome to the program. With the Australian federal election very quickly approaching on May 3rd. Peter Greco caught up with a prospective Senate candidate in South Australia, and Emma myers from Powered Media held a panel discussion with various figures from the disability community. Those conversations are coming up very shortly, so make sure to stick around to hear from Peter and Emma. And wrapping up the show this week, I catch up with Sam Barrett from the Melbourne City Mission.
Chatting to me all about the upcoming sleep at the G taking place on May 15th. I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Talking Vision. And now here's Peter Greco.
Rex Patrick is a Senate candidate for the Jacqui Lambie Network in South Australia. And I'm really pleased to welcome to the program. Rex, thanks for your time.
Hey, great to be on.
How are things going, Rex? What's your feeling of the election situation at the moment?
Well, it's always really hard to tell.
What happens is you go out and you campaign and you might put your name on a billboard or on a TV ad or a radio ad, or a social media. But unlike when a business does that and the next week they see their sales figures go up. We just have one day where there's a sale, and so we never really know. Look, yeah, there's there's logic in my running. I'm well known in South Australia. I'm running with Jacqui Lambie,
who's actually perhaps more known than what I am. And it's a good combination in terms of the way she does business, the way I do business. She's Army on Navy, we do things slightly differently, but I think together we actually make a pretty good team.
Rex there seems to be a lot of dissatisfaction with both major political parties that kind of plays into your space, do you think?
Oh, absolutely. People who are disgruntled with their traditional party, whether it be they looking at the Liberal Party and seeing it shift further to the right and wanting to stay more in the middle, or whether it's your labor and you get frustrated because of the lack of transparency or lack of whistleblower protection, or you just feel that they may have lost their way. That's when people look to typically the center and sitting there are people like myself.
And particularly in the Senate. I guess that's where we're kind of almost, if you like, put our protest vote, if you like, we might vote for one of the major parties in the lower house because they're going to form government. But the Senate can play a very important role as that sort of whistleblower, that watchdog, that House of review.
Yeah. Look, a lot of people.
Don't understand the House and the Senate very well. And just very, very briefly explain what happened is that we take the entire population of Australia, and we divide that population up into groups of about 160,000 for each electorate has about that many people. In Sydney, there are 20 electorates. In South Australia there are ten electorates, and some of them are really big, like grey, that covers most of
the state. Then we'll have Barker and Mayo, which cover the southern part of the state, and then we've got about seven in the Adelaide. But ultimately we only have ten Representatives in a very dark lower house. And I say stack, meaning it's the eastern states that dominate the Senate. Very different. The Senate, there are 12 senators for South Australia and there are 12 senators for New South Wales, and there are 12 senators for Queensland and 12 senators
for Tasmania. So that the House, where we're supposed to have the sort of balance that sort of looks away from the dominance of the East Coast, and that's why it's actually really important for South Australia to make sure we have a good team in the Senate. And the other thing about the Senate is it plays a slightly different role. Normally in the House of Representatives, the government generally dominate. They can pretty much do what they like.
They can put a bill in some sort of law, and then when they pass it to the Senate, the Senate often where they don't have complete control. The Senate looked at it. They said, well, this is a bit controversial. We're going to have to do an inquiry into this bill. We're going to have to look into this bill and hear what other people have to say about it before we either pass it, amend it, or reject it. So
the Senate does have this really important role. And we want to make sure that this is the place where South Australians can get their influence against perhaps the eastern states by having the right people in the Senate.
So a few days ago, you were down in the south east of South Australia, the Mount Gambier area, and getting a bit of feedback about the NDIS and how it is or isn't working. What's your kind of take away from that?
Well, the NDIS.
Is obviously a really important program. It's also a program that involves a lot of money, and we've seen throughout this Parliament where there's been cuts in terms of, you know, the money being spent, you know, the government looking to save about $14 billion. Now, I don't object to the idea.
And everyone who's got some association with the NDIS will know that there are some people rorting the system, either people who don't require the level of assistance they're getting, or they're a provider who are who is doing the wrong thing. and perhaps gouging or perhaps, um, providing a building for services they're not providing and so forth, but
they are the exceptions. What we've got to make sure is, as those cuts are occurring or as as we look for efficiencies in the system, that we don't end up not supporting the people that really do need support and not supporting the really good suppliers. And that's where the problem lies. All of the feedback I got down in Mount Gambier and with other people I talked to really is, um, you know, the, the, the negative feedback is that they're
hitting the wrong areas. They're not the policy's not right. The settings are wrong. And that's something I'm very, quite interested in. And I talked to you before about Jackie and myself. Jackie's really empathetic and I'm very forensic and together that is a that's a quite a strong combination because we can you know, I tend to look into things. I'm a nerdy engineering type of person. And, uh, you know,
Jack is a more of a grassroots politician. Uh, but collectively, the we've got a different set of skills that we can bring to, uh, the, the NDIS. And, you know, Jackie's had a whole range of, uh, issues in her life that have been quite challenging and really has punched through, uh, some of those issues. And she stays well connected to other people, very sympathetic and empathetic towards, you know, towards people. Um, I'm, I'm also very interested in making sure people are looked after,
but I've got I tend to have this. Okay, let's go to the detail of what's going on here to try and find the right fix. So again, it's a good combination.
And that detail is often the thing that gets missed when we hear the overall picture. But that detail is important. And I guess particularly going forward if there's any tweaks that are going to be made.
Well, yeah. The devil, that's the detail. That's where the devil lies. Eyes. And that's again where I'm pretty good at these things. And and look, I remember when we were looking at things like the cashless debit card, you know, that was a, that was a, a decision that really tore me apart. Um, again, being a details person, I flew up to, uh, the Northern Territory to talk to indigenous people. I then went to to Juneau and talked
to a bunch of people. This is all between, fittingly, you know, and I was taking calls from people in the Adelaide Hills who had, you know, children who were disabled and, and, you know, things were really going to affect them. And, you know, and, and, you know, I also went and had a look at, uh, injured card technology as well. I really wanted to understand both sides of the question. Um, but that was, you know, I just think back to that and, uh, the many sleepless nights.
That's very empathetic as well. Rex, with the Senate, I mean, often we hear about people say, oh, you know, contact your local member if you're not happy about this or that. I mean, can you contact the senator and kind of get that kind of cut through as well. I mean, particularly if it's a more global issue rather than sort of a local issue that might be in your backyard, as it were.
Yeah. Look, the.
Interesting thing is most people don't understand that if they live in the in the electorate of Barker, for example, that's down Mount Gambier Way, and it actually extends right across the south east of, of South Australia. You know, the current member there is Tony Pathom. Okay. So he can go and knock on his door and say, I've got a problem with a federal agency, I've got a
problem with the federal policy. Um, but you actually people in Barker also have 12 senators that represent them, and they can go to any single one of those, and they should do the proper job of, of representing them so that so MPs look after their electorate, senators look after their state. Every South Australian has 12 senators to knock on their door. And look, I'm not saying that when you knock on the door, you're going to get a positive response. But what that does is give you
some choice. You can look at who the 12 senators are. Look through the Hansard. Do a little bit of research to see which issues they're sympathetic to. And then, you know, you can eliminate it down to maybe 2 or 3 senators and then go knock on their door and say, I want some help. So that's the nice thing. Every person in South Australia has, um, has 13 representatives, as does every person in New South Wales and every person in Tasmania, etc..
And with the NDIS, that's very much a federal issue. So the Senate is very much in your wheelhouse as well because it is a national disability insurance scheme.
It is, although it does intersect with the states. And, you know, part of the touring and throwing that's going on at the moment. And I've been I spoke to a woman in Tasmania this morning who, you know, when confronted by the NDIS, they say, well that service you need to go and get that from the state government. And it turns out in Tasmania, the state government doesn't
provide that service. So you do sometimes have this toing and froing, uh, and complexity as they, as the state and the federal governments try to divvy up the, uh, the health pie.
That is a bit of a state of flux at the moment, isn't it? That kind of, uh handballing to and from, uh, you know, the states have said they'll take on that foundational support a little bit more, but I guess it's kind of kind of finding exactly what and where. And then you've got the situation where Western Australia have got oodles of cash. Their their budgets are runneth over. And, you know, a place like Victoria, uh,
are in huge deficit. So all states aren't created equal in that area as well.
Yeah. So that's a an equalization a fiscal equalization issue with, with the GST actually. And I uh, funnily enough, I was in the Senate when, when that law was passed and we had a situation where we had a federal liberal government. Uh, unsurprisingly, the finance minister was a with the West Australian Mathias Cormann. And then we also had a Liberal government in South Australia, the the Marshall government. Now, as a senator, I am very concerned about this particular vote.
And I rang the South Australian Treasurer and I said I'm in your hands, tell me how I should vote. You know, basically knowing that the South Australian Treasurer should have been one of the best persons to know how the galore was going to affect things. And I was advised to vote with the with the federal government. I now look back and say wasn't a smart move because they were both Liberal governments, and the state treasurer didn't want to interfere in any way with the plans of
the federal government. So, you know, that was early on in my days. I learned a lesson out of that. And, you know, actually, when I left the Senate in 2022, I was much more experienced than I was when I entered in 2017. 79. I was a seasoned player. I knew how to muck up the Senate to basically stand up for SA. You know, I often disrupted it and
I knew also how to work the numbers. And that's one of the nice things about having people who, in the Senate who have got some experience and are independent. One of the problems with if you're in in a major party and I tell this to people and they almost don't, you know, they they get shocked by it. Whenever the bells would ring in the Senate, I would wander into the Senate and sometimes sit on the no side of the yes side with Labour or Liberal, because, again,
I was an independent. I made up my own mind. And I'd say to my, my colleague, my Labour colleague or my Liberal colleague, do you know what we're voting on? And they'd say, no, no, they simply walk and they simply walk into the chamber. They look to see where their whip is sitting, where their, um, the corralling member is sitting, and they sit on the same side and
that the broken things about the party system. Uh, that, uh, you know, most people really don't appreciate that's the the beauty of having an independent or someone who who doesn't have to vote according to the party is, you know, I always knew that if I wanted to ring me, ring me up, or ring my office and say, why did you vote? That way I could explain myself.
That's Rex Patrick, who's a candidate for the Jacqui Lambie Network, a candidate for the Senate. That election May 3rd. And of course, as we've talked about, if you're blind or low vision, you can now register to vote by telephone 1800 913 993.
I'm Sam Corley, and you're listening to Talking Vision on Vision Australia Radio, Associated Stations of Reading Radio and the Community Radio Network. I hope you enjoyed that conversation there with Peter and Rex. If you missed any part of that conversation, I would like to hear it again. Talking vision is available on the podcast app of your choice or through the Vision Australia library. You can also find the program on the Vision Australia website at varodaya. That's
VA radio all one word dot. And now here's Emma myers.
As we enter the last week of the federal election campaign. Early voting centres are now open, with major parties and smaller candidates alike hoping to convince Australians they're fit for the top job. Australians with disabilities are more engaged than ever, hoping the incoming government focuses more on issues within the sector. Powered Media's Emma myers spoke with disability Advocates to hear more about their hopes and expectations.
Our group's CEO of Disability Advocacy Network Australia said there is a critical need for improved housing rights for individuals with disabilities, particularly those in private rentals and specialist disability accommodation.
It's really important that there is a more rights to being able to make kind of modifications at home. If you're a private renter, there is no mandated right to home modifications in private rental, and we do need that kind of basic move in tenancy protections. But we also need tenancy protections in group homes, for example. So if you're a person with disability who lives in specialist disability accommodation,
you often don't even have basic tenancy rights. So even though tenancy rights aren't great, lots of people with disability don't even have those. So even though some of the basic rights that people in the community are pretty cross about, we don't even have those. A lot of the time, and there is a degree where we urgently need an increased supply of public and social housing. Now we have virtually no accessible housing in regional areas. We're at this
really basic level in terms of housing. The conversations that we've just had, where both major parties made very large announcements about buying homes and government support for that, I think the combination was $20 billion and there wasn't a cent in there for that really basic, affordable social housing and accessible housing for the poorest disabled people among our community.
Stephanie Dower is the director, producer and access coordinator. She believes a proactive approach to inclusive design is vital to avoiding ongoing accessibility issues in new buildings and infrastructure.
The NDIS has been literally life changing. like it has allowed me to have a greater career. It's allowed me to travel for work. It's allowed me to be independent. It's allowed me to have proper relationships with my parents and my sibling. But I feel the rug is just going to be pulled out from underneath me at any time. I want a clear commitment from the government that the NDIS is not going anywhere, but I think in terms of what else I want, I see new buildings get
built and they're not accessible. I see new infrastructure be put in place and it's not fully accessible. I understand retrofitting things that have been done way in the past is not always the cheapest option, but moving forward, let's be proactive about working access into our society from the get go and not have to think, oh, we just spent all this money on this new train and oh, we need to then go back and fix it. Let's get it right from the start.
Graeme Innes is a lawyer, university Chancellor and former Disability Discrimination Commissioner. He says the government must update disability discrimination laws to better reflect modern sensibilities.
We're lacking an up to date disability discrimination legislation, so we need to address that. And I talked about the importance of the government, who have indicated they will do that if they win the next election. We need to make the NDIS sustainable. It's doing a fantastic job for the people that are on the scheme. But only 10% of people with disabilities were ever intended to be supported
by the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The other 90% need to be supported by the general systems in the community, which are largely, not entirely, but largely run by state governments. And state governments have sort of walked away from their
responsibilities a bit since the NDIS came in. And as I say, better discrimination legislation needs to be brought into effect so that if people either state governments, local governments or community services are not adequate for people with disabilities, then we will have a piece of law which allows us to rectify that situation.
Jane Osmond is chair of the Radio Reading Network and currently a member of the Independent Advisory Council for the NDIS. He says Australia needs to move beyond divisive labelling in order to recognise the unique contributions of individuals.
We need more inclusion. You've got to think outside the box, we've got to have that. I call it lateral thinking about how can we reshape and inform and improve. So I think full inclusion is very important. It does take time to get to that. But the rewards I think are immense and die sadly, has Adley's become an ideological label. But I think once we understand how individuals, how they contribute and participate in everyday life, that makes a difference.
People that have different ways of doing things, we've got to embrace that independence, that individuality.
Chair of Radio Reading Network James Manders. They're speaking with Powered Media's Emma myers.
And now please enjoy my chat with Sam Barrett from Melbourne City Mission. I started off the conversation by asking Sam to give us a bit of an overview of the sleep at the G.
Well, sleep at the G is an event that we've been running for a long time now, and it's our flagship fundraiser for Melbourne City Mission, and it is an opportunity to come and have a great time and sleep over at the MCG with about a thousand other people. So that's the event. It's happening on the 15th of May, so it's only a couple of weeks away now, and it is fundraising mainly for the Youth Housing Initiative or other programs that Melbourne City Mission.
Tell us a bit about those other programs and what sort of work have they been doing and continue to do, and what are the main things that they are known for?
Melbourne City Mission has been around since the gold rush, and we provide supports with a range of things, including homelessness. We have disability services, we have palliative care services, we have a school for young people who the standard school system hasn't worked for them. And we also offer a range of other services, including child and family services, um, all sorts of things.
And you yourself, you're heading up the Youth Homelessness Initiative and youth housing. So tell us about your work in that space and what sort of things you've been up to.
So the Youth Housing Initiative is about a year old. It's a pretty new project for us. We have had a lot of experience working at what we call the front end of youth homelessness, which is the emergency end. We have a program called Front Yard, which is in the city, and that's a place where if a young person finds himself homeless or looking for some support, they can come in there. That's an entry point to emergency accommodation as well. So we have youth refuges that we run,
but also other organizations run youth refuges across Victoria. I think there's about 15 or 16 youth refuges. And so we've had a lot of experience in that front end space and young people come in. There might have a time in a youth refuge or in a crisis supported environment and then go into some other housings, say shared housing or community housing or public housing, and there's not much support for people in that space post that emergency.
And we designed the youth housing Initiative, really, for that group of people who do have a more complex need and do need a longer term support. So this project finds people who really are in that space of a more complex need, and provides them with up to three years of support in housing. But we also offer what we like to call wraparound services. So there's housing support. There's also mental health support, emotional support we support with getting a job or going back to school or doing
further education. We do exercise programs and getting out and about. We've offered a surfing program during the summer months, so we really try to offer everything that we can to engage young people and get them back on the right track. We've been doing that for about a year, and it is mostly funded through philanthropy and through fundraising. There is some state government money in this project, but it's mostly funded through the generosity of Victorians.
I'm very keen to have a bit of a chat with you about the intersection between youth homelessness and disability that you've seen in your line of work, both through the Youth Housing Initiative more recently, but prior to that, in other spaces that you've been in?
Absolutely. There's often a complex intersection between homelessness and all sorts of other co-occurring things. We often find people have experienced a pretty bad time at home with some family violence or those sorts of things, but also there are
often young people who experience disability as well. It's mostly in that sort of psychosocial disability space of having a mental health issue, or they might have a neurodivergence diagnosis or not diagnosis, but those sorts of things which make it challenging for them to seek support or engage with the world. So we're often supporting young people with all sorts of things like that, and we really take a
very person centred approach. And what that means is if a person turns up at our service and they're presenting with an issue that we think that we can support with will support that issue regardless of what it is. So traditionally, maybe a couple of years ago, services might be a single purpose service. So while we only support with housing, but if you've got a disability or if you've got something else going on, you have to go
and see somebody else. We try to really turn that around and have a multidisciplinary approach to what we do. So we have therapeutic practitioners in our team, we have occupational therapists in another team which we can have access to.
And this team, there's all sorts of things. And we also have the benefit internally in Melbourne City Mission of having a disability team who provides NDIS assessments and service coordination and those sorts of things, so we can internally liaise with our disability teams and link people up with all sorts of things if they need it.
But of course, all of that wouldn't be possible without the generous donation of Victorians, and that ties back in with the upcoming event sleep at the G. So we already know it's overnight on May 15th, located at the MCG. But how can people find out a little bit more about the event and head to the website to make a donation.
Absolutely. So you can go to the website which is sleepout. Or you can just Google sleep at the G and you'll find it. There's two main ways of participating. You can go to that web page and make a donation directly. We would love it if you did that. There is a second option which you can sign up to sleep there. Some people make teams, so I'll be going to the event with one of my teams and will be sleeping
there as a group. Some organisations workplaces put together a team of people and then they all go and fundraise with their friends. So it's that sort of networking opportunity. But really anything that any donation or any participation in this event is very much appreciated by us and very much appreciated by the young people that we support.
Sam Barrett, their head of the Youth Housing Initiative at Melbourne City Mission. And that's all the time we have for today. You've been listening to Talking Vision. Talking vision is a Vision Australia radio production. Thanks to all involved with putting the show together every week. And remember, we love hearing from you. So please get in touch anytime on our email at Talking Vision at Vision Australia. That's
talking vision all. One word at Vision Australia dot. But until next week it's Sam Corley saying bye for now.
You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during business hours on one 384 746. That's one 384 74 six or by visiting Vision Australia. That's Vision Australia.