ABC 666 Canberra Drive with Adam Shirley
E & OE
SHIRLEY:
The Federal Budget brings changes for people with disabilities across a range of areas from health, to housing, to welfare. With us now on Drive is Senator Mitch Fifield. He’s the Assistant Minister for Social Services, for disability for the Federal Government. Senator Fifield a very good afternoon to you.
FIFIELD:
Good afternoon Adam.
SHIRLEY:
On the 18th of December last year the Federal Government promised to deliver the National Disability Insurance Scheme in full. Is that promise intact?
FIFIELD:
Absolutely Adam. And the Budget released last Tuesday is proof positive that we’ve honoured our commitment. And I think it’s exhibit A that, for us, if you pursue good budget policy, if you pursue good economic policy, then you have the capacity to fully fund important social reforms like the NDIS.
SHIRLEY:
Are the grant amounts or the number of people to be covered under the NDIS under review at all?
FIFIELD:
No. The Scheme is designed to support at full rollout about 460,000 Australians with permanent and significant disability and that’s what we’re following through on.
SHIRLEY:
Some other changes in the Federal Budget include some reviews of the eligibility that people can’t have who are on the disability pension. How many Canberrans will have their eligibility reassessed under the new budget criteria?
FIFIELD:
Under the new criteria for the Disability Support Pension we’re looking at those people who were assessed under the old impairment tables, a number of people under the age of 35. What we’re doing is saying, look you are the group of people who have the biggest possibility of re-entering the workforce. So we want to take a fresh look and we want to do whatever we can to help you back into the workforce. I know there have been some commentators who have thought that in some way we are going after people on the disability support pension. Nothing could be further from the truth.
SHIRLEY:
You are reassessing the eligibility though.
FIFIELD:
That’s right, but we’re reassessing their eligibility according to the new impairment tables, which came in under the previous government. And the reason that we’re doing that is because we want to make sure that we’ve got the best possible handle on people’s capacity to work. The new impairment tables look at someone’s functional capacity. The old impairment tables took a medical or diagnostic approach. We think it’s much better to look at what people actually can do.
SHIRLEY:
As you say those under 35 currently on the DSP with any capacity to work will need to find a job. What specific jobs does the Government have planned for them?
FIFIELD:
I think it’s important to pursue this at a number of levels. It’s important for government to lead by example when it comes to the employment of people with disability. And I’m pleased that my own department a couple of years ago introduced a cadetship for young people who have an intellectual impairment.
SHIRLEY:
How many cadetships are available?
FIFIELD:
It was about a dozen. That’s something that I’d like to see other commonwealth departments follow suit with. Also we do have the Disability Employment Service which provides extensive pastoral support, for both individuals and employers, for those people who have significant disabilities. We also have – of course for those for whom it’s appropriate – Australian Disability Enterprises. So we want to see a continuum of supports for people. For those who can’t work at a point in time, the disability support pension. We need supported employment. We also need to help people into the open employment market through the Disability Employment Service.
SHIRLEY:
You mentioned initiatives in general there, but if you are making these people go back to work and the number could be in the thousands. Do you as a government have responsibility to know exactly where they will go and what they will do?
FIFIELD:
I think it’s important to make it clear that for people on the Disability Support Pension, if someone does not have the capacity to work, then no one is going to force people to work.
SHIRLEY:
Sure, but if they do and if they’re going to be taken off the support payment that they currently get, do you have responsibility to specifically help them?
FIFIELD:
Well, the Government does have a specific responsibility through the Disability Employment Service, which is a programme which was previously in the Employment Department. I thought that it needed a much greater focus. So we’ve moved the Disability Employment Service into my Department of Social Services. So you’ve got the one minister and the one Department responsible for all elements of disability policy.
SHIRLEY:
Usually mergers result in reduction of services and reduction of staff?
FIFIELD:
Well, not in this case. I’m happy to report. I thought it was important to have both disability employment and the National Disability Insurance Scheme cheek by jowl in the same portfolio. And that’s one of the great things about the NDIS; if you’re an individual with a disability and you at long last get the daily living supports that you need, then that’s going to put you in a much better position to consider employment.
SHIRLEY:
Today the Australian Council of Social Services has said that the 2014 budget has put Australia’s social safety net at risk, and is in fact at risk of being destroyed. Matthew Wright the CEO of the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations says employment of people with disability has declined over the past decade so moving people off the DSP won’t lead to employment it will lead to poverty. And the National Welfare Rights Network’s Marree O’Halloran has said what employer or business will give a person under 35 a go if some elements of the tabloid media have already labelled people on the DSP as lazy shirkers and scroungers. Do these people know what they’re talking about?
FIFIELD:
Well I don’t think this budget is undermining the social safety net. I think what it does is it reinforces it. I reject the idea that good economic policy and good social policy are in some way alternatives. Which is, I think, a false dichotomy. You need a good economic policy to sustain a good social policy. And at the heart of a good economic policy is a good budget policy. And it’s because of the decisions that we’re taking that we can fully fund the NDIS. And it’s partly because of the NDIS that we’re going to be in a better position to help people with significant disability into employment.
SHIRLEY:
Sure, I think there is bipartisan support for the NDIS. But if people are taken off the DSP and end up in poverty will your Government take responsibility for that?
FIFIELD:
We’re not going to put people in poverty. What we want to do is help those people who have the capacity to work, to join the workforce. The best poverty buster of all is a job. And we want to do whatever we can to help people with significant disabilities who have got their hand up saying ‘I want to work.’ We want to help them get into work. And employers have obviously an important role to play. Earlier this week I was addressing a conference of employers, large and small, who were gathered because they wanted to know how they could set themselves up to better employ people with disabilities. People with disabilities have an important contribution to make. Facts show that they have lower absenteeism. They have fewer sick days. And the truth is, if you give someone a go, who is facing extra challenges for reasons beyond their control, as an employer, then they will repay that tenfold.
SHIRLEY:
The proof will no doubt be in the pudding. Senator Fifield we’re out of time, thank you very much for speaking to me on Drive today.
FIFIELD:
Great to talk to you Adam.
SHIRLEY:
That’s Senator Mitch Fifield, Assistant Minister for Social Services on 666 Drive.