National disgrace: poor quality of life for Australians with disabilities

By ABC's Stella Young Posted December 05, 2011

On Wednesday morning people around Australia woke to some news that surprised them.

A report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers told us that people with disabilities living in Australia have the poorest quality of life among people with disabilities anywhere in the developed world. We rank 27th out of the 27 OECD countries.

That sounds like a bit of an abstract concept, so let me tell you what those countries are; Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, the United States and us, Australia.

So, in terms of the quality of life of people with disabilities, we're last on that list. Dead last.

Australians with disabilities are also more than twice as likely as those without disabilities to be living near or below the poverty line. In terms of employment opportunities for people with disabilities, we rank 21st out of those 29 categories; 39.8 per cent of us are employed, compared to 79.4 per cent for people who don't have disabilities.

As an Australian with a disability myself, did this surprise me? Nope.

We've known for decades that Australia supports people with disabilities with the absolute minimum we need to get by. If you have a disability and don't work, you can claim a disability support pension and while Today Tonight would have us believe the DSP is plenty of money to support a gambling habit, nicotine addiction and some pretty serious alcoholic tendencies, that's far from reality.

It is, admittedly, a little bit more money than the dole. The extra cash certainly isn't enough to pay for things like medication, wheelchair tyres, taxis to get to medical appointments or food to keep your guide dog alive.

We also know that people with disabilities are unemployed for a variety of reasons. Namely a lack of access to education, the built environment, personal support and equipment. And yes, there are also some people with disabilities who, even if they had all these things, could not work. In a rich country like Australia, it is not unreasonable that we support this small percentage of people.

I am the first to admit that I am one of the lucky ones. Growing up in rural Victoria I managed to escape a special school system that trains young people with disabilities in "life skills" and not academic ones. I am tertiary educated and have a fulfilling career. Yes, a career. In the disability community, we rarely talk about careers. Young people with disabilities grow up to think that maybe, if they're lucky, someone might give them a job, but to aspire to a career? That's asking too much.

I am not living near or below the poverty line like half of my fellow Australian's with disabilities. I'm a part of that lucky 39.8 per cent who are employed. Having a life like mine should have nothing to do with luck in a country like Australia.

Two weeks ago on my lunch break, a woman tried to give me $10. I was eating some sushi that had cost me almost that much, and looking at Twitter on my phone. I was dressed for work; not in a suit, but certainly not in tracksuit pants. When I leave for work in the morning I like to think I look nice. I don't like to think that I look like I'm in need of people giving me money on the street.

This woman, who didn't seem much older than I am, didn't know anything at all about me. And I'm sure she meant very well, but in trying to give me her tenner, she told me that she knows disability is linked to poverty. She told me that she knows people with disabilities quite often live near or below the poverty line, that we're very likely to be unemployed, that even before this report was released, she knew how tough it is to live with a disability in Australia.

And this woman, however misguided, was trying to do something about it. There's something really quite profound in that; that one woman is trying to make a small difference when her Government will not. I didn't take her $10, but I did take a few minutes to chat to her about why she was trying to give it to me, and to tell her a little bit about what I hope the future of people with disabilities in Australia will look like – a country that provides the things people need to live full lives and contribute to their nation.

The opportunity to be a full contributor to the prosperity of this nation, socially and economically, is one I take very seriously because I see too few of my peers without it.

Another report released this year by the Productivity Commission told us all some horrific stories; perhaps most memorably, that of Lillian Andren. I've recounted Lillian's story before, but the shock of it never subsides for me. Nor should it.

Lillian was injured in an accident in a swimming pool, and was therefore not eligible for TAC or WorkCover insurance. Her injuries make her incontinent and unable to get around on her own. Lillian has someone come to her house three times a week to assist her with showering. And Lillian, with her three showers is actually very lucky. Most people only get two.

At the Productivity Commission hearing Lillian attended in Brisbane, she said:

The delightful irony is that to receive that third shower per week I must have daily incontinence issues. So the system allows me to sit for four days a week in my own urine to provide me three showers a week...

The Productivity Commission report concluded that the current system that supports people with disability is hardly a system at all, and that we need to build a new one from scratch.

I don't see how, in a country like Australia, we can have these two reports sitting in front of us - one that tells us there are people who have to sit in their own urine for four days a week, and another that tells us there is no other country in the developed world where this is the case - and continue to ignore the problem.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers report was released last Wednesday. It's already been five days too long.

Stella Young is the editor of ABC's Ramp Up website.