Mr HAYES (9:33 AM) —I was pleased to host a local disability consultative forum on 8 December last year to allow my local community to participate in the National Disability Strategy—a strategy of this government, committed to during the 2007 federal election, which aims to address the barriers faced by Australians with disabilities and to promote social inclusion. I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge that the venue and the refreshments for the day were donated by Mr Greg Sweeney, from the Sweeney Scenic Hills Function Centre, and that Annamaria Wood, General Manager for the Macarthur District Temporary Family Care, provided seven staff members to act in a secretarial capacity for each of the individual group discussions.

The partnership between the local community and my office made for a very constructive day. More than 70 active community members attended the forum, which included people with disabilities, parents, carers and service providers. A series of syndicate discussions were held, each facilitated by an elected chair and assisted by a secretary, to ensure that each community member had a proper opportunity to have their views noted. A number of community members who are actively engaged in the disability sector were not able to attend on the day. However, we ensured that they had the opportunity to complete written questionnaires, all of which were included in our final submission.

The outcome of the forum was very informative, and at times the process was very emotional and very tense. The main points arising from the forum included access, accommodation, education, employment, finance, health, transport, volunteers and a whole-of-life approach for people with disabilities. Besides these obvious outcomes, on the day I received numerous comments from people who attended about how pleased they were that the federal government had taken this initiative, and they hoped that their comments as they applied to the south-west of Sydney and the disability sector generally would be taken into consideration.

Further, it was strongly felt that this type of forum should be held on an annual basis in order to monitor and review the implementation of the National Disability Strategy. The forum highlighted to me once again the strength of the community, not only of those who attended but also those who assisted in the organisation of the day. The forum acted as a positive exercise to reinforce and to strengthen the disability networks that apply throughout the south-west of Sydney. Quite frankly it showed once again the spirit of those who live and work with disabilities, and they showed themselves in such a way that we should do what we can to support them now and into the future.