S1: From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's
S1: your host Sam Colley.
S2: Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And
S2: for the next half hour we talk matters of blindness
S2: and low vision.
S3: What we've got to make sure is, as those cuts
S3: are occurring or as as we look for efficiencies in
S3: the system, that we don't end up not supporting the
S3: people that really do need support and not supporting the
S3: really good suppliers. And that's where the problem lies.
S2: Welcome to the program. With the Australian federal election very
S2: quickly approaching on May 3rd. Peter Greco caught up with
S2: a prospective Senate candidate in South Australia, and Emma myers
S2: from Powered Media held a panel discussion with various figures
S2: from the disability community. Those conversations are coming up very shortly,
S2: so make sure to stick around to hear from Peter
S2: and Emma. And wrapping up the show this week, I
S2: catch up with Sam Barrett from the Melbourne City Mission.
S2: Chatting to me all about the upcoming sleep at the
S2: G taking place on May 15th. I hope you enjoy
S2: this week's episode of Talking Vision. And now here's Peter Greco.
S4: Rex Patrick is a Senate candidate for the Jacqui Lambie
S4: Network in South Australia. And I'm really pleased to welcome
S4: to the program. Rex, thanks for your time.
S3: Hey, great to be on.
S4: How are things going, Rex? What's your feeling of the
S4: election situation at the moment?
S5: Well, it's always really hard to tell.
S3: What happens is you go out and you campaign and
S3: you might put your name on a billboard or on
S3: a TV ad or a radio ad, or a social media.
S3: But unlike when a business does that and the next
S3: week they see their sales figures go up. We just
S3: have one day where there's a sale, and so we
S3: never really know. Look, yeah, there's there's logic in my running.
S3: I'm well known in South Australia. I'm running with Jacqui Lambie,
S3: who's actually perhaps more known than what I am. And
S3: it's a good combination in terms of the way she
S3: does business, the way I do business. She's Army on Navy,
S3: we do things slightly differently, but I think together we
S3: actually make a pretty good team.
S4: Rex there seems to be a lot of dissatisfaction with
S4: both major political parties that kind of plays into your space,
S4: do you think?
S3: Oh, absolutely. People who are disgruntled with their traditional party,
S3: whether it be they looking at the Liberal Party and
S3: seeing it shift further to the right and wanting to
S3: stay more in the middle, or whether it's your labor
S3: and you get frustrated because of the lack of transparency
S3: or lack of whistleblower protection, or you just feel that
S3: they may have lost their way. That's when people look
S3: to typically the center and sitting there are people like myself.
S4: And particularly in the Senate. I guess that's where we're
S4: kind of almost, if you like, put our protest vote,
S4: if you like, we might vote for one of the
S4: major parties in the lower house because they're going to
S4: form government. But the Senate can play a very important
S4: role as that sort of whistleblower, that watchdog, that House
S4: of review.
S6: Yeah. Look, a lot of people.
S3: Don't understand the House and the Senate very well. And
S3: just very, very briefly explain what happened is that we
S3: take the entire population of Australia, and we divide that
S3: population up into groups of about 160,000 for each electorate
S3: has about that many people. In Sydney, there are 20 electorates.
S3: In South Australia there are ten electorates, and some of
S3: them are really big, like grey, that covers most of
S3: the state. Then we'll have Barker and Mayo, which cover
S3: the southern part of the state, and then we've got
S3: about seven in the Adelaide. But ultimately we only have
S3: ten Representatives in a very dark lower house. And I
S3: say stack, meaning it's the eastern states that dominate the Senate.
S3: Very different. The Senate, there are 12 senators for South
S3: Australia and there are 12 senators for New South Wales,
S3: and there are 12 senators for Queensland and 12 senators
S3: for Tasmania. So that the House, where we're supposed to
S3: have the sort of balance that sort of looks away
S3: from the dominance of the East Coast, and that's why
S3: it's actually really important for South Australia to make sure
S3: we have a good team in the Senate. And the
S3: other thing about the Senate is it plays a slightly
S3: different role. Normally in the House of Representatives, the government
S3: generally dominate. They can pretty much do what they like.
S3: They can put a bill in some sort of law,
S3: and then when they pass it to the Senate, the
S3: Senate often where they don't have complete control. The Senate
S3: looked at it. They said, well, this is a bit controversial.
S3: We're going to have to do an inquiry into this bill.
S3: We're going to have to look into this bill and
S3: hear what other people have to say about it before
S3: we either pass it, amend it, or reject it. So
S3: the Senate does have this really important role. And we
S3: want to make sure that this is the place where
S3: South Australians can get their influence against perhaps the eastern
S3: states by having the right people in the Senate.
S4: So a few days ago, you were down in the
S4: south east of South Australia, the Mount Gambier area, and
S4: getting a bit of feedback about the NDIS and how
S4: it is or isn't working. What's your kind of take
S4: away from that?
S6: Well, the NDIS.
S3: Is obviously a really important program. It's also a program
S3: that involves a lot of money, and we've seen throughout
S3: this Parliament where there's been cuts in terms of, you know,
S3: the money being spent, you know, the government looking to
S3: save about $14 billion. Now, I don't object to the idea.
S3: And everyone who's got some association with the NDIS will
S3: know that there are some people rorting the system, either
S3: people who don't require the level of assistance they're getting,
S3: or they're a provider who are who is doing the
S3: wrong thing. and perhaps gouging or perhaps, um, providing a
S3: building for services they're not providing and so forth, but
S3: they are the exceptions. What we've got to make sure is,
S3: as those cuts are occurring or as as we look
S3: for efficiencies in the system, that we don't end up
S3: not supporting the people that really do need support and
S3: not supporting the really good suppliers. And that's where the
S3: problem lies. All of the feedback I got down in
S3: Mount Gambier and with other people I talked to really is, um,
S3: you know, the, the, the negative feedback is that they're
S3: hitting the wrong areas. They're not the policy's not right.
S3: The settings are wrong. And that's something I'm very, quite
S3: interested in. And I talked to you before about Jackie
S3: and myself. Jackie's really empathetic and I'm very forensic and
S3: together that is a that's a quite a strong combination
S3: because we can you know, I tend to look into things.
S3: I'm a nerdy engineering type of person. And, uh, you know,
S3: Jack is a more of a grassroots politician. Uh, but collectively,
S3: the we've got a different set of skills that we
S3: can bring to, uh, the, the NDIS. And, you know,
S3: Jackie's had a whole range of, uh, issues in her
S3: life that have been quite challenging and really has punched through, uh,
S3: some of those issues. And she stays well connected to
S3: other people, very sympathetic and empathetic towards, you know, towards people. Um, I'm,
S3: I'm also very interested in making sure people are looked after,
S3: but I've got I tend to have this. Okay, let's
S3: go to the detail of what's going on here to
S3: try and find the right fix. So again, it's a
S3: good combination.
S4: And that detail is often the thing that gets missed
S4: when we hear the overall picture. But that detail is important.
S4: And I guess particularly going forward if there's any tweaks
S4: that are going to be made.
S3: Well, yeah. The devil, that's the detail. That's where the
S3: devil lies. Eyes. And that's again where I'm pretty good
S3: at these things. And and look, I remember when we
S3: were looking at things like the cashless debit card, you know,
S3: that was a, that was a, a decision that really
S3: tore me apart. Um, again, being a details person, I
S3: flew up to, uh, the Northern Territory to talk to
S3: indigenous people. I then went to to Juneau and talked
S3: to a bunch of people. This is all between, fittingly,
S3: you know, and I was taking calls from people in
S3: the Adelaide Hills who had, you know, children who were
S3: disabled and, and, you know, things were really going to
S3: affect them. And, you know, and, and, you know, I
S3: also went and had a look at, uh, injured card
S3: technology as well. I really wanted to understand both sides
S3: of the question. Um, but that was, you know, I
S3: just think back to that and, uh, the many sleepless nights.
S4: That's very empathetic as well. Rex, with the Senate, I mean,
S4: often we hear about people say, oh, you know, contact
S4: your local member if you're not happy about this or that.
S4: I mean, can you contact the senator and kind of
S4: get that kind of cut through as well. I mean,
S4: particularly if it's a more global issue rather than sort
S4: of a local issue that might be in your backyard,
S4: as it were.
S6: Yeah. Look, the.
S3: Interesting thing is most people don't understand that if they
S3: live in the in the electorate of Barker, for example,
S3: that's down Mount Gambier Way, and it actually extends right
S3: across the south east of, of South Australia. You know,
S3: the current member there is Tony Pathom. Okay. So he
S3: can go and knock on his door and say, I've
S3: got a problem with a federal agency, I've got a
S3: problem with the federal policy. Um, but you actually people
S3: in Barker also have 12 senators that represent them, and
S3: they can go to any single one of those, and
S3: they should do the proper job of, of representing them
S3: so that so MPs look after their electorate, senators look
S3: after their state. Every South Australian has 12 senators to
S3: knock on their door. And look, I'm not saying that
S3: when you knock on the door, you're going to get
S3: a positive response. But what that does is give you
S3: some choice. You can look at who the 12 senators are.
S3: Look through the Hansard. Do a little bit of research
S3: to see which issues they're sympathetic to. And then, you know,
S3: you can eliminate it down to maybe 2 or 3
S3: senators and then go knock on their door and say,
S3: I want some help. So that's the nice thing. Every
S3: person in South Australia has, um, has 13 representatives, as
S3: does every person in New South Wales and every person
S3: in Tasmania, etc..
S4: And with the NDIS, that's very much a federal issue.
S4: So the Senate is very much in your wheelhouse as
S4: well because it is a national disability insurance scheme.
S3: It is, although it does intersect with the states. And,
S3: you know, part of the touring and throwing that's going
S3: on at the moment. And I've been I spoke to
S3: a woman in Tasmania this morning who, you know, when
S3: confronted by the NDIS, they say, well that service you
S3: need to go and get that from the state government.
S3: And it turns out in Tasmania, the state government doesn't
S3: provide that service. So you do sometimes have this toing
S3: and froing, uh, and complexity as they, as the state
S3: and the federal governments try to divvy up the, uh,
S3: the health pie.
S4: That is a bit of a state of flux at
S4: the moment, isn't it? That kind of, uh handballing to
S4: and from, uh, you know, the states have said they'll
S4: take on that foundational support a little bit more, but
S4: I guess it's kind of kind of finding exactly what
S4: and where. And then you've got the situation where Western
S4: Australia have got oodles of cash. Their their budgets are
S4: runneth over. And, you know, a place like Victoria, uh,
S4: are in huge deficit. So all states aren't created equal
S4: in that area as well.
S3: Yeah. So that's a an equalization a fiscal equalization issue with,
S3: with the GST actually. And I uh, funnily enough, I
S3: was in the Senate when, when that law was passed
S3: and we had a situation where we had a federal
S3: liberal government. Uh, unsurprisingly, the finance minister was a with
S3: the West Australian Mathias Cormann. And then we also had
S3: a Liberal government in South Australia, the the Marshall government. Now,
S3: as a senator, I am very concerned about this particular vote.
S3: And I rang the South Australian Treasurer and I said
S3: I'm in your hands, tell me how I should vote.
S3: You know, basically knowing that the South Australian Treasurer should
S3: have been one of the best persons to know how
S3: the galore was going to affect things. And I was
S3: advised to vote with the with the federal government. I
S3: now look back and say wasn't a smart move because
S3: they were both Liberal governments, and the state treasurer didn't
S3: want to interfere in any way with the plans of
S3: the federal government. So, you know, that was early on
S3: in my days. I learned a lesson out of that. And,
S3: you know, actually, when I left the Senate in 2022,
S3: I was much more experienced than I was when I
S3: entered in 2017. 79. I was a seasoned player. I
S3: knew how to muck up the Senate to basically stand
S3: up for SA. You know, I often disrupted it and
S3: I knew also how to work the numbers. And that's
S3: one of the nice things about having people who, in
S3: the Senate who have got some experience and are independent.
S3: One of the problems with if you're in in a
S3: major party and I tell this to people and they
S3: almost don't, you know, they they get shocked by it.
S3: Whenever the bells would ring in the Senate, I would
S3: wander into the Senate and sometimes sit on the no
S3: side of the yes side with Labour or Liberal, because, again,
S3: I was an independent. I made up my own mind.
S3: And I'd say to my, my colleague, my Labour colleague
S3: or my Liberal colleague, do you know what we're voting on?
S3: And they'd say, no, no, they simply walk and they
S3: simply walk into the chamber. They look to see where
S3: their whip is sitting, where their, um, the corralling member
S3: is sitting, and they sit on the same side and
S3: that the broken things about the party system. Uh, that, uh,
S3: you know, most people really don't appreciate that's the the
S3: beauty of having an independent or someone who who doesn't
S3: have to vote according to the party is, you know,
S3: I always knew that if I wanted to ring me,
S3: ring me up, or ring my office and say, why
S3: did you vote? That way I could explain myself.
S4: That's Rex Patrick, who's a candidate for the Jacqui Lambie Network,
S4: a candidate for the Senate. That election May 3rd. And
S4: of course, as we've talked about, if you're blind or
S4: low vision, you can now register to vote by telephone 1800 913 993.
S2: I'm Sam Corley, and you're listening to Talking Vision on
S2: Vision Australia Radio, Associated Stations of Reading Radio and the
S2: Community Radio Network. I hope you enjoyed that conversation there
S2: with Peter and Rex. If you missed any part of
S2: that conversation, I would like to hear it again. Talking
S2: vision is available on the podcast app of your choice
S2: or through the Vision Australia library. You can also find
S2: the program on the Vision Australia website at varodaya. That's
S2: VA radio all one word dot. And now here's Emma myers.
S7: As we enter the last week of the federal election campaign.
S7: Early voting centres are now open, with major parties and
S7: smaller candidates alike hoping to convince Australians they're fit for
S7: the top job. Australians with disabilities are more engaged than ever,
S7: hoping the incoming government focuses more on issues within the sector.
S7: Powered Media's Emma myers spoke with disability Advocates to hear
S7: more about their hopes and expectations.
S8: Our group's CEO of Disability Advocacy Network Australia said there
S8: is a critical need for improved housing rights for individuals
S8: with disabilities, particularly those in private rentals and specialist disability accommodation.
S9: It's really important that there is a more rights to
S9: being able to make kind of modifications at home. If
S9: you're a private renter, there is no mandated right to
S9: home modifications in private rental, and we do need that
S9: kind of basic move in tenancy protections. But we also
S9: need tenancy protections in group homes, for example. So if
S9: you're a person with disability who lives in specialist disability accommodation,
S9: you often don't even have basic tenancy rights. So even
S9: though tenancy rights aren't great, lots of people with disability
S9: don't even have those. So even though some of the
S9: basic rights that people in the community are pretty cross about,
S9: we don't even have those. A lot of the time,
S9: and there is a degree where we urgently need an
S9: increased supply of public and social housing. Now we have
S9: virtually no accessible housing in regional areas. We're at this
S9: really basic level in terms of housing. The conversations that
S9: we've just had, where both major parties made very large
S9: announcements about buying homes and government support for that, I
S9: think the combination was $20 billion and there wasn't a
S9: cent in there for that really basic, affordable social housing
S9: and accessible housing for the poorest disabled people among our community.
S8: Stephanie Dower is the director, producer and access coordinator. She
S8: believes a proactive approach to inclusive design is vital to
S8: avoiding ongoing accessibility issues in new buildings and infrastructure.
S10: The NDIS has been literally life changing. like it has
S10: allowed me to have a greater career. It's allowed me
S10: to travel for work. It's allowed me to be independent.
S10: It's allowed me to have proper relationships with my parents
S10: and my sibling. But I feel the rug is just
S10: going to be pulled out from underneath me at any time.
S10: I want a clear commitment from the government that the
S10: NDIS is not going anywhere, but I think in terms
S10: of what else I want, I see new buildings get
S10: built and they're not accessible. I see new infrastructure be
S10: put in place and it's not fully accessible. I understand
S10: retrofitting things that have been done way in the past
S10: is not always the cheapest option, but moving forward, let's
S10: be proactive about working access into our society from the
S10: get go and not have to think, oh, we just
S10: spent all this money on this new train and oh,
S10: we need to then go back and fix it. Let's
S10: get it right from the start.
S8: Graeme Innes is a lawyer, university Chancellor and former Disability
S8: Discrimination Commissioner. He says the government must update disability discrimination
S8: laws to better reflect modern sensibilities.
S11: We're lacking an up to date disability discrimination legislation, so
S11: we need to address that. And I talked about the
S11: importance of the government, who have indicated they will do
S11: that if they win the next election. We need to
S11: make the NDIS sustainable. It's doing a fantastic job for
S11: the people that are on the scheme. But only 10%
S11: of people with disabilities were ever intended to be supported
S11: by the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The other 90% need
S11: to be supported by the general systems in the community,
S11: which are largely, not entirely, but largely run by state governments.
S11: And state governments have sort of walked away from their
S11: responsibilities a bit since the NDIS came in. And as
S11: I say, better discrimination legislation needs to be brought into
S11: effect so that if people either state governments, local governments
S11: or community services are not adequate for people with disabilities,
S11: then we will have a piece of law which allows
S11: us to rectify that situation.
S8: Jane Osmond is chair of the Radio Reading Network and
S8: currently a member of the Independent Advisory Council for the NDIS.
S8: He says Australia needs to move beyond divisive labelling in
S8: order to recognise the unique contributions of individuals.
S12: We need more inclusion. You've got to think outside the box,
S12: we've got to have that. I call it lateral thinking
S12: about how can we reshape and inform and improve. So
S12: I think full inclusion is very important. It does take
S12: time to get to that. But the rewards I think
S12: are immense and die sadly, has Adley's become an ideological label.
S12: But I think once we understand how individuals, how they
S12: contribute and participate in everyday life, that makes a difference.
S12: People that have different ways of doing things, we've got
S12: to embrace that independence, that individuality.
S7: Chair of Radio Reading Network James Manders. They're speaking with
S7: Powered Media's Emma myers.
S2: And now please enjoy my chat with Sam Barrett from
S2: Melbourne City Mission. I started off the conversation by asking
S2: Sam to give us a bit of an overview of
S2: the sleep at the G.
S13: Well, sleep at the G is an event that we've
S13: been running for a long time now, and it's our
S13: flagship fundraiser for Melbourne City Mission, and it is an
S13: opportunity to come and have a great time and sleep
S13: over at the MCG with about a thousand other people.
S13: So that's the event. It's happening on the 15th of May,
S13: so it's only a couple of weeks away now, and
S13: it is fundraising mainly for the Youth Housing Initiative or
S13: other programs that Melbourne City Mission.
S2: Tell us a bit about those other programs and what
S2: sort of work have they been doing and continue to do,
S2: and what are the main things that they are known for?
S13: Melbourne City Mission has been around since the gold rush,
S13: and we provide supports with a range of things, including homelessness.
S13: We have disability services, we have palliative care services, we
S13: have a school for young people who the standard school
S13: system hasn't worked for them. And we also offer a
S13: range of other services, including child and family services, um,
S13: all sorts of things.
S2: And you yourself, you're heading up the Youth Homelessness Initiative
S2: and youth housing. So tell us about your work in
S2: that space and what sort of things you've been up to.
S13: So the Youth Housing Initiative is about a year old.
S13: It's a pretty new project for us. We have had
S13: a lot of experience working at what we call the
S13: front end of youth homelessness, which is the emergency end.
S13: We have a program called Front Yard, which is in
S13: the city, and that's a place where if a young
S13: person finds himself homeless or looking for some support, they
S13: can come in there. That's an entry point to emergency
S13: accommodation as well. So we have youth refuges that we run,
S13: but also other organizations run youth refuges across Victoria. I
S13: think there's about 15 or 16 youth refuges. And so
S13: we've had a lot of experience in that front end
S13: space and young people come in. There might have a
S13: time in a youth refuge or in a crisis supported
S13: environment and then go into some other housings, say shared
S13: housing or community housing or public housing, and there's not
S13: much support for people in that space post that emergency.
S13: And we designed the youth housing Initiative, really, for that
S13: group of people who do have a more complex need
S13: and do need a longer term support. So this project
S13: finds people who really are in that space of a
S13: more complex need, and provides them with up to three
S13: years of support in housing. But we also offer what
S13: we like to call wraparound services. So there's housing support.
S13: There's also mental health support, emotional support we support with
S13: getting a job or going back to school or doing
S13: further education. We do exercise programs and getting out and about.
S13: We've offered a surfing program during the summer months, so
S13: we really try to offer everything that we can to
S13: engage young people and get them back on the right track.
S13: We've been doing that for about a year, and it
S13: is mostly funded through philanthropy and through fundraising. There is
S13: some state government money in this project, but it's mostly
S13: funded through the generosity of Victorians.
S2: I'm very keen to have a bit of a chat
S2: with you about the intersection between youth homelessness and disability
S2: that you've seen in your line of work, both through
S2: the Youth Housing Initiative more recently, but prior to that,
S2: in other spaces that you've been in?
S13: Absolutely. There's often a complex intersection between homelessness and all
S13: sorts of other co-occurring things. We often find people have
S13: experienced a pretty bad time at home with some family
S13: violence or those sorts of things, but also there are
S13: often young people who experience disability as well. It's mostly
S13: in that sort of psychosocial disability space of having a
S13: mental health issue, or they might have a neurodivergence diagnosis
S13: or not diagnosis, but those sorts of things which make
S13: it challenging for them to seek support or engage with
S13: the world. So we're often supporting young people with all
S13: sorts of things like that, and we really take a
S13: very person centred approach. And what that means is if
S13: a person turns up at our service and they're presenting
S13: with an issue that we think that we can support
S13: with will support that issue regardless of what it is.
S13: So traditionally, maybe a couple of years ago, services might
S13: be a single purpose service. So while we only support
S13: with housing, but if you've got a disability or if
S13: you've got something else going on, you have to go
S13: and see somebody else. We try to really turn that
S13: around and have a multidisciplinary approach to what we do.
S13: So we have therapeutic practitioners in our team, we have
S13: occupational therapists in another team which we can have access to.
S13: And this team, there's all sorts of things. And we
S13: also have the benefit internally in Melbourne City Mission of
S13: having a disability team who provides NDIS assessments and service
S13: coordination and those sorts of things, so we can internally
S13: liaise with our disability teams and link people up with
S13: all sorts of things if they need it.
S2: But of course, all of that wouldn't be possible without
S2: the generous donation of Victorians, and that ties back in
S2: with the upcoming event sleep at the G. So we
S2: already know it's overnight on May 15th, located at the MCG.
S2: But how can people find out a little bit more
S2: about the event and head to the website to make
S2: a donation.
S13: Absolutely. So you can go to the website which is sleepout.
S13: Or you can just Google sleep at the G and
S13: you'll find it. There's two main ways of participating. You
S13: can go to that web page and make a donation directly.
S13: We would love it if you did that. There is
S13: a second option which you can sign up to sleep there.
S13: Some people make teams, so I'll be going to the
S13: event with one of my teams and will be sleeping
S13: there as a group. Some organisations workplaces put together a
S13: team of people and then they all go and fundraise
S13: with their friends. So it's that sort of networking opportunity.
S13: But really anything that any donation or any participation in
S13: this event is very much appreciated by us and very
S13: much appreciated by the young people that we support.
S2: Sam Barrett, their head of the Youth Housing Initiative at
S2: Melbourne City Mission. And that's all the time we have
S2: for today. You've been listening to Talking Vision. Talking vision
S2: is a Vision Australia radio production. Thanks to all involved
S2: with putting the show together every week. And remember, we
S2: love hearing from you. So please get in touch anytime
S2: on our email at Talking Vision at Vision Australia. That's
S2: talking vision all. One word at Vision Australia dot. But
S2: until next week it's Sam Corley saying bye for now.
S1: You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during
S1: business hours on one 384 746. That's one 384 74
S1: six or by visiting Vision Australia. That's Vision Australia.