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Senator the Hon George Brandis Qc Attorney SENATOR THE HON GEORGE BRANDIS QC ATTORNEY-GENERAL LEADER OF THE GOVERNMENT IN THE SENATE 2 May 2016 LAUNCH OF WILLING TO WORK INQUIRY REPORT PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I am here this afternoon with my friend, the Honourable Susan Ryan, who is Australia’s Age Discrimination Commissioner, and who has also been in the more recent past the Disability Discrimination Commissioner, to launch a very very important body of work which Susan Ryan has overseen, and that is the latest report of the Australian Human Rights Commission Willing to Work, the report of the national inquiry into employment discrimination against older Australians and Australians with a disability. In March of last year I asked Susan Ryan to examine the barriers to employment for people with disability and for older people in remaining in or entering the workforce and to make recommendations about practices, attitudes and Commonwealth laws that could be changed and actions that should be taken in order to address the problem of employment discrimination against both older Australians and Australians with a disability. I must say, Susan Ryan and the Australian Human Rights Commission have produced a formidable report having undertaken an enormous body of work in the last year or more. There were 120 consultations held in all capital cities and many regional centres. The enquiry met with over 1000 people. It received 342 written submissions and now has produced this very, very significant report. Among the findings of the report we learnt people aged 55 years and over, although making up roughly a quarter of the population, represent only 16 per cent of the workforce. We learn that although 83.2 per cent of people without a disability participate in the workforce, only 53.4 per cent of people with a disability are participating in the labour force, and we learned, I’m sorry to say, some tales of discrimination. We learnt that 27 per cent of people over the age of 50 reported experiencing discrimination in the workplace on account of their age. We learnt that one in 12 Australians with a disability and more than 20 per cent of young Australians with a disability have experienced discrimination in the workplace on account of their disability. So this report has done two things. It has shone a light on a problem, a problem that we had understood to exist, but nevertheless has shone a light in a way that illuminates the problem and makes the public much more aware than we have been before of the scope and dimensions of the problem. And it makes a series of recommendations, some 56 recommendations, which the Government will now consider. The right to work is one of the sources of human dignity. For older people who still have so much to offer, notwithstanding they are reaching the latter part of their working life, for people of all ages who suffer from a disability of some kind or another, work is a source of dignity and self-esteem as well, of course, of economic security. And it is very important that those who can work, and wish to work, should be able to work, that there shouldn’t be barriers to their participation in the workforce should they choose to do so. This report, I believe, will be a milestone in expanding the opportunities for Australians, older Australians, Australians who suffer a disability, in ensuring that those barriers, having been identified are, as the years come to pass, are removed. I also want to make a couple of comments of thanks to Susan, because this will be Susan’s last major task on behalf of the Australian Human Rights Commission. Susan’s term expires on the third of August this year and she has indicated that she is not seeking reappointment. Susan Ryan has had a very distinguished career in Australian public life over more than 40 years. She was elected as a Labor Senator for the ACT in 1975, in which capacity she served until 1988. During that time she held a number of senior Cabinet positions and was in fact the first woman in Australian history to be a Federal Cabinet Minister in a Labor Government during the Hawke Government. In her years since her active Parliamentary life, Susan has been at the forefront, or at the head, of many worthwhile causes, most of them relating to human rights. As a member of the Australian Human Rights Commission, as the Age Discrimination Commissioner since 2011, and as the Disability Discrimination Commissioner since July 2014, Susan Ryan has been an exemplar of what we hope the Human Rights Commission can achieve. When I launched this inquiry in April of last year, I said that as far as I’m concerned, the success of the Australian Human Rights Commission is to be measured, not be rhetoric, but by outcomes. Susan Ryan has been outcomes focussed, she’s worked cooperatively with Government. She has gone about the task in a business-like and capable way and as a result has produced a report, as I say, that will be a milestone in Australian public policy making in this area for years to come. Last Monday, the Cabinet decided to appoint a new Age Discrimination Commissioner, a new Disability Discrimination Commissioner, and a new Human Rights Commissioner, all three of them eminent Australians. Those names will be submitted to His Excellency the Governor- General at the Executive Council meeting later this week and an announcement as to those names will be made towards the end of the week. But in the meanwhile, this important occasion is the time to thank and to celebrate the great contribution to Australian public life of Susan Ryan and in particular to thank her for this important, and indeed historic, report. [Ends] .
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