19 April, 2013
Talking Vision, Vision Australia Radio
With Stephen Jolley
17 April 2013
3:30pm
E & OE
Subjects: NDIS, fast broadband
STEPHEN JOLLEY:
Senator Mitch Fifield is a Victorian Senator, he is opposition spokesman on disabilities and the volunteer sector. That’s right isn’t it, Mitch?
MITCH FIFIELD:
That’s right Stephen.
STEPHEN JOLLEY:
Welcome to Talking Vision. You spoke to us last year, around the time of Vision Australia’s Texpo, and you’ve spent the afternoon at Vision Australia today. How was the experience?
MITCH FIFIELD:
It’s always a joy coming to Vision Australia, Stephen. It was terrific to meet Ron, the new CEO, and to have the opportunity to talk to some of the staff at Vision Australia and some of the people who the organisation supports.
STEPHEN JOLLEY:
As you move around the country I guess you engage a lot with the disability sector, with individuals, with organisations. Tell us about that.
MITCH FIFIELD:
It’s one of the real pleasures and privileges of the job, is the opportunity to get around Australia, to meet with people who have a disability and also the organisations that work with them. It’s tremendous to see so many Australian’s who do face challenges that are often for reasons beyond their control, but who see opportunities rather than obstacles. I think that is one of the most impressive things, is the capacity of people to find ways of doing what they want to do rather than seeing things that are in the way.
STEPHEN JOLLEY:
With disabilities actually influencing what’s going on, and I think of David Blunkett, a member of parliament in the UK, House of Commons, and of course Graeme Innes, the Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Maryanne Diamond who is Immediate Past President of the World Blind Union, that’s a sign of changing times, isn’t it?
MITCH FIFIELD:
I think it is, because in the case of each of those individuals, they have achieved what they have because of their abilities, because of their capacities. People haven’t viewed them through the background of the disability that they might have. They’ve seen competent and capable people. And I think that is encouraging, that there may be the start of a change in community perceptions because, as you know Stephen, one of the greatest problems, one of the greatest obstacles that people with disability can face are the attitudes of other people. And we see that in the area of employment, where people with disabilities are subject to a much higher unemployment rate than they need to be. Unfortunately a part of that is because of the attitudes of employers. But we do have some good role models and those that you mentioned do show that there is a way forward.
STEPHEN JOLLEY:
Now the NDIS, or Disability Care as it is starting to be known. Tell us about your perspective from the position as many would say, as a member of the government in waiting.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well Stephen, I like the things you say. We do hope after the election to have the opportunity to form government, but we have to wait and see if we are granted that privilege. The Coalition have been strong supporters of the NDIS all the way through. We’ve supported each milestone along the road to the NDIS. We supported the work of the Productivity Commission. We support the five launch sites. We support the billion dollars in the last budget. We support the agreement that the Commonwealth has reached with New South Wales for a full state-wide NDIS rollout after the Hunter launch. And we were strong supporters of the legislation that went through parliament. We have at all times been looking at ways to make this happen. And we’ve adopted a cooperative attitude with the government because the NDIS is just too important to be mired in partisan politics. We’ve got to get this right, and we’ve got to deliver a better deal for people with disability.
STEPHEN JOLLEY:
But people are frightened that if there is a change of government that it will be too easy for a new government to say it’s all going to be too hard, there just isn’t the money that we thought there probably would be and we’ll slow it down. How can you reassure people that that’s not going to happen?
MITCH FIFIELD:
I think part of the reassurance for people is to look at the fact that we have supported each milestone on the road to the NDIS. And this is something that should be core government business. If you were designing from scratch what it is that should be the core business of government, then proper support for people with disability would be one of the things that you would start with. We think that it’s achievable to see an NDIS delivered by the Productivity Commission’s timetable, by a government that is prudent and that is managing well. And as I have mentioned before, we have made it clear that we will honour the agreement that the Commonwealth has reached with New South Wales for a full state wide rollout of the NDIS. And New South Wales accounts for a third of Australia, and that means roughly a third of Australians with disability. This is something that we want to see happen. Tony Abbott has made clear that he is very strongly, personally committed to the NDIS. And if we do form government after the next election, we will establish a joint-parliamentary committee, to be chaired by both sides of politics, to oversee the implementation of the NDIS but also to ensure that there is a parliamentary mechanism to lock in the support of all parties. We want to see this happen.
STEPHEN JOLLEY:
Has the present government embraced the Opposition enough to ensure that there is bipartisan travel through this process?
MITCH FIFIELD:
We would have liked to have seen the Government setup the bipartisan committee, chaired by both sides of politics, as we proposed. I put a motion into the parliament in the middle of last year into the Senate, and the Government and the Greens voted against that. I moved a motion to amend the NDIS legislation to see this committee established, and again the Government and the Greens against that mechanism, which I think is a real pity, because it would have been a statement to the Australian people that the NDIS was truly beyond partisan politics. But even though the current government have declined to establish this committee, if we form government, we will put it in place.
STEPHEN JOLLEY:
And you’re confident that the NDIS, Disability Care is going to happen?
MITCH FIFIELD:
I’ve got no doubt that it will happen. It has to happen. It’s too far down the track not to happen. And I think woe betide whoever is in government if they don’t follow through.
STEPHEN JOLLEY:
I want to talk to you about broadband internet now for a moment. The internet has been a tremendous boon to people with disabilities. I know that people who are blind or have low vision couldn’t in any way access in the past an encyclopaedia or a library, which they can now access in their home. The internet is used to download audio books. It’s starting to be used and has the potential to be used to provide service or consultations into the home when the service provider is connected by a video link from a distance. Will the Malcolm Turnbull, Coalition broadband internet plan make sure all people across Australia have adequate access to the internet, and that people with disabilities will be able to get access to the services that they need?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well the short answer Stephen is yes. The plan Malcolm Turnbull has proposed is a way of delivering a national, fast, broadband network at a lower price and sooner to all Australians. Unfortunately the current government didn’t do a business case for their NBN proposal, and it looks highly likely that the cost of that could hit $90 billion. That’s more than twice what the Government said would be the cost of their NBN proposal. So what Malcolm is proposing is something that will get the job done sooner at better value for taxpayer dollars. Malcolm has said that the speeds won’t be a fast as what is proposed in the NBN, but they’ll be up to six times faster than the fastest speeds that are currently enjoyed. I’m confident that what has been proposed will be what Australian’s need. That it will be able to meet the requirements that they have. I’ll be talking to Malcolm, and I’ll be suggesting to him that it would be a good idea for him to sit down in an interview with you Stephen, so that you can hear it from the horse’s mouth.
STEPHEN JOLLEY:
Just one more little question on that. Ten years ago we really didn’t know how we were going to be using the internet today. Thinking ten to twenty years into the future, has this policy planned for the capacity needs adequately?
MITCH FIFIELD:
I think it has because the Coalition’s plan is less prescriptive about the forms of technology that will deliver a fast broadband network. What’s proposed is fibre to the node, and using existing infrastructure to get that service to people’s houses. But where people have a business, or where there is an organisation that needs the even faster speeds and download capacity of fibre, then that will be provided to those premises. What Malcolm has proposed I think can do the job.
STEPHEN JOLLEY:
Senator Mitch Fifield, good to talk to you again.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Good to talk to you Stephen.