Morning show with Mark Jeffery
23 April 2015
8:35am
E & OE
Subjects: Visit to Central Australia, Barkly NDIS Trial Site, Ice scourge.
JEFFERY:
Federal Assistant Minister for Social Services Mitch Fifield is in the region at the moment and was in the Barkly yesterday visiting aboriginal organisations, health services, disability groups, women’s organisations and a whole stack more. Today he’s in the Alice and he joins us now. Good morning Minister.
FIFIELD:
Good morning Mark.
JEFFERY:
Thanks for coming in, greatly appreciated. What were you up to in Tennant Creek yesterday? I guess a fair bit to do with the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
FIFIELD:
Absolutely, the Barkly is one of seven NDIS trial sites around the nation and I make it my business as the disabilities Minister to get to each of them. It’s the first time I’ve been to Tennant and to catch up with the folk there meeting with disability organisations, local health services and importantly with NDIS participants themselves to see how the Scheme is going for them.
JEFFERY:
There’s particular ideas or finding feedback that you’ll be taking back to Canberra?
FIFIELD:
Well actually not just to Canberra but I should say to Geelong because the headquarters of the NDIS is in Geelong. We thought it was a good thing to have it removed from Canberra. But look the participant’s experience on the whole has been good. People are enjoying the fact that they have the capacity to manage their own budgets and their own supports themselves and negotiatie with providers. One of the important things though about the Scheme is for those people who don’t feel that they have the confidence to do that, there is the option for the Agency to manage their supports on their behalf. But the message that came through to me, which was what I expected, was that the way the NDIS works in Melbourne or in Sydney will not necessarily work as well in the Barkly. I do not want to let design elegance in terms of policy, get in the way of practical outcomes on the ground. One of the great things about the Agency at the moment is because it’s new, it doesn’t have a lot of policies in place, which means the staff on the ground have a lot more flexibility and can make policy as they go. But I’m very much aware that we may need to do things differently in regional and remote areas with significant indigenous population.
JEFFERY:
You also visited the Barkly Regional Arts while you were in Tennant Creek Desert Harmony Festival.
FIFIELD:
Fantastic. The Government has been able to make a modest contribution to the festival which has helped it along which is great. But we’re seeing that festival as an opportunity to raise the awareness of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. We’re looking for any vehicle we can find to raise the awareness of the Scheme. Because there are often people who have a disability who don’t necessarily see themselves as having a disability, who aren’t necessarily accessing support that’s available. So we want to make it clear that the NDIS has come to the region, it’s there to help, but most importantly the individual with a disability will be at the centre and in charge.
JEFFERY:
The Barkly yesterday, Central Australia today, what will you be up to in Alice Springs today?
FIFIELD:
Yesterday I caught up with the disability advocacy service, which is a great local organisation and today meeting with the NPY Women’s Council, who as you’d know are really one of the major social service providers in the APY Lands. And they’re playing an important role with the NDIS in that area.
JEFFERY:
We’re speaking to Senator Mitch Fifield, the Assistant Minister for Social Services its 23 minutes away from 9. There’s been criticism in the news today from the head of Job Services Australia and also from TV Island groups about the rollout of the work for the dole programme. How are you responding to that as the Assistant Minister for Social Services?
FIFIELD:
Work for the Dole doesn’t fall within my area of portfolio responsibility. Luke Hartsuyker, is the Minister who has responsibility for the Work for the Dole programme. My focus in relation to employment is primarily through a programme called the DES, the disability employment service, which focuses on providing supports to people with disability to help them back into the workforce.
But I’m very happy to take on board and have a chat to Luke Hartsuyker about these issues.
JEFFERY:
Sure, I mean Job Services’ David Compton’s been fairly critical of changing the contracts that are midway through the five years. I guess another growing problem we’re seeing throughout Australia and our region is not excluded, it’s the drug ice. The impacts that has on a family and I guess on their social situation must be dramatic. Is it something that you as the Assistant Minister for Social Services, I guess, needs to be addressing as well?
FIFIELD:
I think all ministers in the Government are very concerned about ice. The Prime Minister about a week ago announced that there’d be a national ice task force chaired by the former Victorian police commissioner Ken Lay. And it’s going to have three focuses: obviously, law enforcement, we want to tackle the people who are perpetrating this cruel substance; education, raising awareness about the damage that ice can do; and also health. They’ll be providing an interim report to the Prime Minister within a couple of months, but this is a joint effort between the Commonwealth, the states and the territories. It’s something that can’t be left to one level of government. It can’t just be left to one particular portfolio. We’ve got to tackle it as a health issue, an education issue and a law enforcement issue.
JEFFERY:
And it’s certainly an international issue, in the news today, a number of services in Thailand are finding increasingly they’re having to handle Australians who are affected by the drug. You mentioned the task force, what are some of the practical things that are being done, do you think, to try and tackle the issue?
FIFIELD:
Well law enforcement is critical. The police need to have good intelligence about who is engaged is this activity. Who is selling this drug and as I’ve moved around the country a lot of local community organisations have said to me that police need to work in closely with them. That it’s people on the ground that often have an idea of who is who and who is pushing this drug. So I think that’s very important, using local communities more to get the intelligence that they have. Public awareness is critical. You and I and a lot of your listeners obviously have a distant awareness that ice is a bad thing, but we need to make the effects of ice more graphic and more visible for the community as a whole so they really have a good understanding of the horror of this drug.
JEFFERY:
A huge issue, it’s great that it’s transcending levels of government and also portfolios. Thanks so much for coming it today, great to hear about the work that you’ve been seeing that’s happening in the Barkly and also in the Centre and a huge emphasis on disability services. Thanks so much for your time.
FIFIELD:
Thanks Mark.
ENDS
Media contact:
Lydia Paterson | 0409 792 081 | lydia.paterson@dss.gov.au