Senator Rachel Siewert (the Australian Greens) The Greens are committed to creating a caring society that meets

the needs of children and young people with disability and their families. We believe that government funding should comprehensively support people with disability throughout their lives in a way that respects their individuality and personal aspirations, and enables the opportunity for full and meaningful participation in society. We will continue to work to ensure that DisabilityCare delivers on its promise to provide people with disability with more choices and options about their support and care. In this exciting early stage of the roll out of DisabilityCare it is particularly important that the knowledge and experience of families and people with lived experience of disability is utilised and that they are able to actively participate in policy, service planning and delivery at every step. The Greens believe that more work needs to be done to ensure children and young people with disability have access to education that meets their individual needs and allows them the opportunity to achieve their potential. Our More funding, sooner schools initiative commits an extra $2 billion over the forward estimates on top of the government's $3 billion to double school funding from the government in the next two years. This additional funding will be directed to where it is needed most, which includes providing much better assistance for children and young people with disability. We are also committed to providing better pathways that support school leavers with disability to make the transition from school into meaningful employment, educational and vocational programs or other community-based activities. We believe that as a society we have a responsibility to accommodate diversity in peoples individual abilities and to remove barriers to equitable access for all. While DisabilityCare is important for securing better funding arrangements, it is also vital that we maintain the momentum behind the development of the National Disability Strategy to ensure progress towards the creation of inclusive and accessible communities. Our goal is to ensure that wherever possible, universal design is a key feature of public planning, and that public places do not exclude anyone from participating in our communities. The Greens believe there should be greater national legislative protection for people with a disability, including giving the Australian Human Rights Commission more power in discrimination complaints. We support the provision of strong and well-funded disability advocacy services, particularly given the critical role they play in achieving positive change and in facilitating greater community awareness of the issues facing people with disability. The Greens will improve the financial circumstances of struggling families, including providing better support for carers of children and young people with disability who face the difficult challenge of trying to combine caring responsibilities with participation in the paid workforce. This year we introduced into parliament our Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Caring for Single Parents) Bill 2013 which, among other measures, amends the Fair Work Act 2009 to provide for an enforceable right to request flexible work arrangements for people with caring responsibilities. In addition, our plan to raise Newstart and effectively reverse the impact of the cuts to Parenting Payments will increase the levels of income support for some carers and reduce the pressure on our most vulnerable families. Minister Jenny Macklin (Australian Labor Party) A re-elected Rudd Government will continue to deliver on Federal Labors record levels of investment for people with disability, their families and carers, including for children with disability.

We will continue to roll out DisabilityCare Australia across the country, building on our launch of the scheme in July this year. DisabilityCare will provide Australian children with significant and permanent disability with the support they need over their lifetimes. DisabilityCare places a strong focus on early intervention because we know that providing support as early as possible can make a huge difference to childrens development and lifelong learning and help them reach their full potential. DisabilityCare builds on and extends our significant investments in early intervention program for children with disability, Helping Children with Autism and Better Start for Children with Disability. More than 30,000 children have already benefited from these programs since 2008. A re-elected Rudd Labor Government will also provide an additional $10 million for a range of new initiatives to support people with disability, their carers and families. This includes $3 million to help make around 30 community playgrounds across the country inclusive for all children to enjoy. These playgrounds will help give children with disability the same opportunities as other children to play, explore and socialise. They will also allow parents and carers of children with disability to know they have a safe, accessible place to play. A re-elected Rudd Government would also provide $1 million to support and expand the successful MyTime Peer Support program for Parents and Carers of Children with Disability, $1.5 million over three years to fund specialist counsellors for young carers, and an additional $1.5 million a year from 2014-15 for increased advocacy and representation services as we continue to roll out DisabilityCare across the country. Labor believes in the transformative effect of students with disability accessing education opportunities just like any other student. Our once in a generation reforms to schooling, the Better Schools Plan, will introduce a new fairer schools funding model from 2014 in all states and territories that sign up. Under Federal Labors Better Schools Plan, extra funding for schools to support every student with disability will be delivered through a disability loading for schools funding in 2015, with an interim disability loading starting in 2014. Labor will also deliver $100 million to More Support for Students with Disabilities for the 2014 school year following our previous investment of $200 million for 2012 and 2013. Labor has championed the development of the National Disability Strategy - a ten year framework to improve the inclusion and participation of people with disability right across our community. Only Labor can be trusted to deliver real reforms and long-lasting improvements to benefit children with disability and their families. Senator Mitch Fifield (Liberal Party of Australia) The parents of children with disability worry about their children like any other parents, but their worries can start sooner and project further into the future. And the siblings of children with disability often grow up faster and think about their own futures in adult terms sooner than their peers. There will always be some extra challenges for young people with disability

and their families, but having a handle on the supports that are available helps remove some of the unknowns and some of the stresses. Thats why the Coalition has made clear that we will maintain the Carers Payment, Carers Allowance and Carers Supplement. Young carers or siblings of young people with disability in particular can carry significant responsibility looking after a family member. To assist young carers and siblings with caring responsibilities the Coalition will establish a Young Carer Bursary Programme to assist hundreds of young carers and help with the cost of study while supporting a family member. The Coalitions support for the NDIS in unequivocal. A properly implemented NDIS should ensure that effective early intervention and other supports are available to children with disability to help achieve their potential and the greatest possible independence. In later life the NDIS should mean that if supports are still needed they will be there. For parents and siblings there should be the knowledge and confidence that what is reasonable and necessary will be provided for their family member. The Coalition is committed to delivering the NDIS in keeping with the Productivity Commissions vision and the timetable detailed by the intergovernmental agreements between the Commonwealth and the states and territories. The Coalition will expand the responsibilities of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the NDIS to ensure that this project remains on track through three parliaments. Young people with disability need acceptance. A culture of acceptance in a society is ultimately driven by individual attitudes and actions. These can't be legislated, but policy can make a difference through the supports provided by the NDIS, schools and employment services to enable individuals to participate in life, study and work. Australians with disability dont want to be objects of care. They want to be supported, independent, in charge and in control of their lives. Thats why the Coalition will revert to the term NDIS rather than DisabilityCare Australia. Seeing, living, learning and working with children and young people with disability is how awareness will be raised and people with disability included in community life. Creating the best educational environment for students with disability to learn and to reach their full potential is a shared responsibility of parents, teachers and state and federal education and disabilities ministers. Parents need a strong say in the education of their child and governments need to ensure that schools have the autonomy to manage their staff and resources so they can find the right solutions for their students. Under the NDIS, the education systems will retain prime responsibility for the education of students with disability. However, we need to make sure that children with disability get the early interventions they need through the NDIS and that the NDIS also provides to students with disability the daily living supports that will put them in the best position to benefit from the opportunities in school. A task for federal and state education ministers is to find mechanisms so that students with a disability are not discriminated against, as is currently the case, should their parents elect to send their child to a school where support funds don't follow. Ultimately, every child with a disability should be able to look forward to making a contribution to the community as an adult. We should never underestimate the potential of a child with a disability or to limit them through low expectations. The Coalition will seek to improve employment outcomes for people with disability by putting all policy and programmes for employment of people with disability under the responsibility of the Minister for Disabilities. At present, disability employment is split between two ministers. This creates unnecessary duplication and complexity, blurs accountability lines and makes it more difficult for people with disability to access the services they need. Under a Coalition government, all employment issues for people with disability will be the responsibility of one minister.