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Monday, 21 November 2011
Page: 8981

Senator McLUCAS (Queensland—Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers) (13:36): As a person who lives in a regional area, I understand the point you are making but it is not through the imple­mentation of impairment tables that we can deal with the issue that you are identifying. These are impairment tables which, as I said earlier, are meant to fairly and equally assess someone's ability—not their disability—to participate in the workforce. The fact that in a regional or rural area there may be less access to transport is something that needs to be addressed in another way, not through an assessment of someone's ability to participate in the workforce. We cannot take into account the fact that they live in regional or rural area. But the point that you make is right. That is why our government developed the National Disability Strategy.

The National Disability Strategy is designed so that all government depart­ments—all service points—consider the special needs of people with disability when designing their service systems. That means that the bus system in a particular place must provide equal and fair service to people with disability. That means that people with disability who access the health system need to be treated according to their needs. The question that you are asking is a broad one about access to transport and employment. These impairment tables are not the way to solve that problem.