PROF RHONDA GALBALLY: Good Morning, Everybody. Really Good to See You All Here. Without

PROF RHONDA GALBALLY:
Good morning, everybody. Really good to see you all here. Without more ado, I'm going to invite Uncle Allen Madden to welcome us to country. Thank you so much for coming.
UNCLE ALLEN MADDEN:
My name is Allen Madden, Gadigal Elder. I thought I was on in another 10 minutes. We are on black fella time. Daylight savings ended, I am right.
First of all, two apologies – for the terrible weather we are having outside at the moment. Sorry. And not being able to welcome you to my country in my language. We lost our language a long time ago. Ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to acknowledge our Aboriginal Elders – all Elders, past and present – and pay my respects. And to all our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters, from whatever Aboriginal or Island nation you may have come from, welcome. (inaudible) a very warm and sincere welcome to you, no matter where you have come from. Whether it be across the seas, across the State, or across town. Once again, a very warm and sincere welcome to you to Burramattagal.
As I have mentioned many times before, it was, is, and always will be Aboriginal land. Only three things surer than that: coming, taxation, and going. It is an honourable pleasure to be here today to welcome one and all to Burramattagal.
The Eora nation is bounded by nature's own – the Hawkesbury River to the north, the Nepean River to the west, and the Georges River to the south. Within those mighty rivers is the Eora nation. Within the nation we have 29 clans, and today we are on the Burramattagal.
(inaudible)
There is a saying out there that I think is appropriate to you mob today. I have heard it 1,000 times before. "Where there is a will, there is relatives."
(Laughter)
ALLEN MADDEN:
Once again, on behalf of Burramattagal Council and the Burramattagal mob, welcome, welcome, welcome. Thank you.
(Applause)
PROF RHONDA GALBALLY:
I'd also like to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the land on which we are meeting, and to Elders past and present. And thank you so much for such a warm and fantastic welcome in welcoming us to your country. Thank you again.
(Applause)
PROF RHONDA GALBALLY:
Now today, we are here to talk about housing – but are we also here to talk about homes? I think that is another thing I would like to put on the table. I'm introducing David Bowen. I'd like to say that David has been running so fast to get everything up and going, and now David is starting to really want to question some of the shibboleths, some of the things we have seen around for decades that may be able to be transformative. Housing and homes are one that is not only about people having something, but what exactly are they going to have in the future?
So David, I think it's a fantastic thing you have done in stimulating this group to come together, and just to acknowledge that the group, which I love – parents of people with disabilities, there are people with disabilities, (inaudible) and mainstream specialist providers.
I think those for groups how we are all going to come together, when we have a meeting of minds and a showcase of what works, and to really start the conversation. So David Bowen, the CEO of the NDIA, over to you.
(Applause)
DAVID BOWEN:
Thanks, Rhonda, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I would also like to acknowledge the traditional owners. Thanks to Uncle Allen. (inaudible) any Aboriginal people who may be in the audience today.
This showcase is the cumulation of quite a bit of work the agency has been putting into considering housing (inaudible) participants in the scheme going forward. I have to say I share a frustration, I'm sure, with the audience that it has taken us so long to get here, but I and so pleased to be here today and to be sharing the stage with our innovators, who will be presenting to you later.
I'd certainly like to recognise the importance of having Rhonda Galbally here facilitating today. Rhonda is the chair of our Independent Advisory Council, a member of the NDIA board and a long-term advocate for people with disabilities, the author of one of the seminal reports that led to... The crystallisation of the need for the NDIS, and a boundary pusher for all of her life. So she will make sure that we keep focusing on what is possible but also to dream about how we can make things better.
It's wonderful also to have Susan Ryan here, the Age and Disability Discrimination Commissioner. This housing is a human rights issue, and we need to put it in that context and in that framework. And then we start a very different conversation to one that is considering in the context of a welfare or a benevolent allocation of resources by government. It is a universal right that we need to recognise.
I wanted to just reflect on what I think is central to the housing that the NDIS may provide, or where we may stimulate the conversation. As I have gone around Australia over the last few years and met participants in our scheme, and people who are anticipating becoming disciplines as the scheme rolls out into the future, there are two critical issues for adults and their families.
The first is opportunity for employment, certainly number one. And the second is having access to suitable housing. A lot hangs on that word, 'suitable'. There is a lot of unsuitable housing options out there at present that need to be addressed, that need to be remediated.
'Suitable' is about giving people choice. Choice over where they live, who they live with, what sort of accommodation meets their particular needs. It is also about rights – having rights as a tenant to a place that you occupy, having some rights that are enforceable to ensure that you get everything that you need and it is reasonable to expect in the provision of that accommodation.
And it is also about control. It is about controlling, having control over who you live with, the people you are going to share with, if at all. Having control over who comes into your house, and when they come into the house. Having control over when your services and supports are provided. And I think, to take up Rhonda's challenge, that is the essence of moving the discussion away from one about housing to one about which constitutes a home.
It is a home when it is your place to live. It is a house when you are living in someone else's workplace. (inaudible)
It's also about diversity of need, and the one thing that is clear is that people with disability want just as wide a range of choices available to the rest of the community, and some people want to live closer to the city, that urban city life, they want activity, noise around them, easy access to a whole range of other interactions, to the opportunity to participate.
Other people want to live in more suburban locations, perhaps close to family, more accessible to friends, and part of the place where they may have their community. And all of those are reasonable choices, and all of those need to be options and opportunities that are available.
Last week, on Friday, we released our housing pricing framework. It was handed over to the agency only in November, after a couple of years of government discussion about exactly what this was, and then they said to the agency, "Now, you go and work out who might be eligible, and how the funding might be allocated," and we put that out there for consultation purposes.
It has a set of factors needed whether to fund a project to stimulate the supply of housing, and that obviously and appropriately includes a return on investment for the housing provider, having regard to the location of the property, having regard to what sort of property it is, having regard to whether it is an individual stand-alone property or part of a larger development.
It recognises there are different weightings for different areas, that build cost will be impacted by technology, and perhaps by accessibility and that run cost will be impacted by maintenance and all of that. So it is quite a complex structure.
There is one vacant column in it which we need to populate – to measure the impact of innovation. Because what we know is that housing is not a stand-alone item. Housing is something that can influence a person's ability to live more independently, to self-manage, to access employment or to access a community.
And it is one component of a package of supports that a person may need to help them achieve all of their individual goals and a higher level of participation. So it is wrong to ever think of housing just in isolation. We need to understand how good housing can facilitate good outcomes for people, and bad housing can lead to a continuation of isolation and segregation of people with disabilities. And bad housing doesn't just mean existing institutions – and it can be institutionalised living in a suburb, but segregated and disconnected from the broader communities. And if you have no one in your life other than paid workers, something that we see too often already in the scheme, as we have dealt with people in currently in appropriate circumstances.
We have a lot of work to do in a short space of time. We have a lot of people still living in institutional settings who need suitable and appropriate alternatives. We have far too many young people, under 50 or under 55, living in residential aged care. Let alone if you are 60 and you might not want to live there, you have no choice at all at the moment. We need to have suitable alternatives. We have had successes already in this area.
We have people living at home with elderly parents, and of course we want to maintain and sustain that functional family support. But we also recognise that these parents are ageing, and their capacity to provide all the care diminishes, and they and their families want to be assured that there are suitable, secure spaces available. And that is a big challenge.
We have a lot of people in, quite frankly, really crappy housing. Traditional supported accommodation. You walk in, lino floors and wall panels – it's all built for the easy delivery of service, not for a person to live in.
I haven't seen all of the projects – I am an interested participant in the audience today to look at all of this. I am sure it will stimulate all of us. That is the purpose today, to take up Rhonda's challenge. (inaudible)
(Applause)
PROF RHONDA GALBALLY:
Can I just move the table down? I'd like to be over here. I think that podium is in my way.
David, that was very challenging – but I think that David might be the one that actually pushes the boundaries, which is as it should be as a CEO, and it is really fantastic.
He threw out a lot of challenges in that opening statement about the whole topic of housing and what we might dream about, which is what we are going to come to.
I'm introducing Susan Ryan, who is here because she is Age Discrimination Commissioner. She has had a long career with superannuation and all sorts of areas, but the one that I remember, when I first met Susan, was in education.
Many people here might not know that Susan was, I think, the most important Minister for Education that we had in Australia.
Because school retention rates have doubled, including for children with disabilities. And the learning outcomes improved. And people went to TAFE and university in more numbers than ever. I haven't had a chance to acknowledge that before now. So Susan really gets it, in terms of people being included. It is great to see the Commission coming in on this issue. We welcome you and look forward to your comments. Thank you, Susan Ryan.
(Applause)
SUSAN RYAN:
Good morning. Rhonda and David and everybody. I would like to thank Uncle Allen for his Welcome to Country, and I would like to pay my respects to the Eora people and Elders past and present. I am very pleased to be here today.
It is a very positive issue about the better provision of housing for people with disability. I stand in awe of how successful the whole disability sector has been in getting the NDIS passed, the NDIA set up…
It is a massive social reform, and even though people may think it should have come sooner, it is here and it is massive. And it is wonderful that the NDIA has somebody of Rhonda's experience to chair the independent advisory committee. And I know Rhonda is very independent and very, very experienced, so it is great to see you again, Rhonda, and great to speak to you.
I think I will start by saying there are few things that are more fundamental to us as human beings than having a place to live, a home. The right to safe and suitable accommodation is a basic human right and it is the right that has been long recognised for all people, including people with a disability.
The Convention on Rights of People with a Disability recognises the right for people with disability to have an adequate standard of living. That Convention promotes the right for people with a disability to live independently in communities. But even earlier than the Convention, a right to adequate housing was recognised throughout the world. Through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, and then later in the International Convention on Social and Cultural Rights, the right of people to have access to adequate housing has long been established.
The question, of course, is the implementation.
As we have been reminded by David this morning, a right to housing that was adequate and to housing that we choose freely must be implemented with respect for and recognition of the diverse nature of disability. People with disability do not consist of one homogenous group, and so any housing program that effectively supports people with disability must reflect this diversity.
A person may use a mobility aid, such as wheelchairs, may have a vision impairment or an intellectual disability, and they are all quite different – and the housing required to meet those needs will be different. So the housing requirements needed to accommodate people with disability, regardless of the disability they are dealing with, (inaudible).
(inaudible) we all need to promote and protect the right of people with disability to exercise choice in the type of housing and accommodation available to them. For too long, many people with disability were denied the right of choice, the freedom to choose where and with who they live, and the freedom of how they spend their daily hours.
In 2013, the CRPD committee which oversees implementation of the UN Convention, in their evaluation of Australia's report on our implementation of the UN Convention, recommended that Australia take action to make sure that people with disability have free choice of where they live and who they live with. The committee also indicated that there should be various types of living accommodation based on the needs of different people. So, they are our obligations as a nation. They are the obligations that the Australian government has signed on to.
How are we going with implementation of those? Well, we are seeing some progress. The importance of appropriate housing for people with disabilities is reflected in Australia's national disability strategy, which includes a priority for inclusive and accessible housing within its six main priority policy areas.
In a recent meeting I had with the New South Wales Minister for Disability Services, the Honourable John Ajaka, we spoke about housing accessibility and affordability for people with disability. I was pleased at the minister was concerned that the New South Wales Department of Family and Community Services (inaudible) action plan (inaudible) reflected the required standards.
The Department of Family and Community Services, I understand, is working closely with existing tenants, their families, and support services to ensure that dwellings meet the needs of individual people. I have also been made aware of the Communities Plus program, which will see old housing dwellings transformed into diverse communities with suitable desired features embedded in every one. This is particularly important for people with disability, who usually wish to live in a mixed, vibrant, and living community. Who doesn't?
(inaudible) is preparing for the NDIS implementation, and in doing so it is reviewing social and affordable housing policies to ensure it is prepared for the new demands resulting from disability reforms. Of course, today's symposium fits right in with these preparations. It is an important opportunity to showcase innovation in the housing sector, including government innovation.
This symposium is also an opportunity for people with disability themselves, carers, family, housing providers who I see are here in numbers, and others to understand how housing can be made accessible to support the independence of those who reside there, irrespective of disability.