Senator SIEWERT (Western Australia—Australian Greens Whip) (19:48): Today, here at Parliament House, the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations launched three significant reports into the disability support pension and its operations: firstly, Inequalities in standards of living: evidence for improved income support for people with disability; secondly, At what cost? Indigenous Australians' experiences of applying for disability income support; and, thirdly, The health of disability support pension and Newstart allowance recipients. There are over two million Australians aged between 15 and 64 who report having a mild to profound disability, yet only 35 per cent of these people receive the DSP. Successive federal governments have chipped away at the DSP. In 2006, the Howard government introduced Welfare to Work, making it harder for disabled people to access the DSP and requiring onerous participation requirements. Subsequently, Labor tightened the eligibility criteria and made the application more onerous. In 2012, new impairment tables were released, which focused more on a disabled person's ability to work than their disabling condition. The government also introduced the so-called program of support, requiring people with a disability to undertake a program of 18 months trying to find work—or, as many put it, to be unemployed on Newstart while they tried to access the disability support pension. It's now so difficult that disabled people are being shut out of the DSP at staggering rates. As a result of these changes, the number of new DSP recipients per year has decreased from 89,000 in 2009-10 to around 32,000 in 2016-17. There has been a massive, 30 per cent, increase in the number of disabled people on Newstart. There are now over 200,000 disabled Australians living on Newstart when they really should be on the DSP. The abysmally low rate of Newstart is only serving to exacerbate financial stress and other stress for disabled people. We currently have a situation where a disabled person could be eligible for the NDIS but not eligible for the DSP. This is simply unbelievable. It goes against the very fabric of our social safety net and the very reasons we have the DSP. It goes against our responsibilities under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Under the convention, disabled people have the right to an adequate standard of living and social protection. People who need the DSP should have access to the DSP. Reports on the DSP also highlight the urgent need for reforms. What these reports show overall is that the system has been made worse, that people have less access to the DSP, that they are sicker, that it has caused them harm and that the punitive approach does not work; in fact, it has ripped massive holes in our social safety net for people with disability. The National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, NATSEM, found that disabled people on the DSP have higher living costs and poorer health outcomes than people without disability. It found that the income gap between households with disability and households without is $107 a week. In other words, it costs an extra $107 a week for a household with an adult member with a disability. To close the gap in household income to provide the same standard of living, families already receiving the DSP would need $183 more per week, on average. People with disability living on Newstart would need an additional $343 per week, on average. Remember the 200,000 people with disability living on Newstart that I talked about? Another report, released from Monash University just last week, highlighted the stark differences in the health status of DSP recipients. This report found that DSP recipients had 2½ times the rate of hospital admissions, while 69 per cent of DSP recipients reported experiencing mental or behavioural problems. They were also significantly more likely to report having five or more health conditions, while 48.6 per cent of people on Newstart reported experiencing mental or behavioural problems. A report by Western Sydney University looking at First Nations people's experiences with applying for the DSP found that First Nations people experience around twice the rate of disability as non-Indigenous Australians. The report found that First Nations disabled people experience more barriers to fulfilling eligibility criteria and accessibility requirements for the DSP, increased transportation limitations and increased financial costs in obtaining specialist reports. First Nations people experience significant challenges communicating with Centrelink and often delayed contacting Centrelink due to extended wait times. These three studies clearly demonstrate that the DSP is too low and that the system is broken and hurting people. I will give you a glimpse of the lived experience of someone who had a very stressful experience trying to access the DSP. This is Philippa's experience. Philippa said: I never once questioned whether they would accept my application for disability, I always assumed that based on the criteria and my conditions that I was clearly eligible and would receive the Disability Support Pension. I first began experiencing symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia when I was in my twenties and was formally diagnosed at 31. During this time, I was scared, dealing with horrific, disabling symptoms, grieving the person I was and a career and friends I had to let go of - I honestly thought that Centrelink would act in my best interest. I submitted my application to the best of my ability and trusted it was enough. When I contacted the Centrelink Calf Centre I was constantly on hold and hung up on. Despite being limited in my functioning I would go in to my local office as it was easier and I thought if they saw how sick I was face to face they could speed things up. That didn't work and the inconsistency of the advice received, and staff knowledge was hard to manage. I was being told different things by different people. I applied in early 2017 and was rejected in September 2017 due to insufficient medical evidence. I appealed with the new information and followed up constantly. Eventually in July 2018 I found out that my application was again denied again. Eventually my father contacted our local MP and my local MP advocated for me with Centrelink. Centrelink escalated my application. All this effort resulted in Centrelink advising me to make a fresh application for the DSP but I'm too traumatised to be honest to open that door again. The whole situation has been incredibly stressful and confusing. It may seem hard to understand why I don't make a fresh application for the DSP. The experience with Centrelink — making me go to job search providers who were just shocked I was there, telling me I should be on the DSP but that they also couldn't help me achieve that. I still can't quite understand how an agency that is there to support you when you really need it was so inconsistent and careless in their advice both in person and over the phone. They should have done more, if they had communicated effectively with me from the beginning and provided the right advice my stress and trauma levels would be drastically reduced. The stress and trauma I experienced as a person with a disability applying for a Disability Support Pension was so extreme that I cannot face that again. I am currently on Newstart, but I am exempted from the requirement to look for work as I am too unwell. I often have to sleep 20 hours a day whilst suffering from a vast array of symptoms that continue to affect my daily functioning and physical and cognitive output. What Philippa experienced should not happen to anyone in Australia. I am pleading with the government to undertake urgent reforms to the DSP to ensure that people who need to be on the DSP are on the DSP. This is the result of a flawed system. This is where all those changes to the system to kick people off and exclude people from DSP have led us—to people being sicker, people being on Newstart living below the poverty line with a disability. This is the outcome of a punitive approach that seeks to demonise people accessing our social safety net. It is not good enough. We talk about being a country of the fair go and yet this is what happens to disabled people in this country with a system that makes them sicker, that makes them not want to apply because the process is so bad. It needs to be fixed immediately.