Transcript 3CR The Boldness Disability Current Affairs interview with Samantha Conner President of People with Disabilities Australia
Listen to the interview www.3cr.org.au/boldness
Theme [00:00:07]
The Boldness. The Boldness. The Boldness.
Phin Meere : [00:01:00]
Hello and welcome to another edition of The Boldness. Join me as he usually does is Raphael. Hello. Raphael.
Raphael The Beurologist Kaleb : [00:01:09]
The Beurologist is on the lands of The Bunnerong People . And we pay our respects to their elders, past present, future, and emerging.
And yes, we are recording remotely.
Phin Meere : [00:01:25]
Yes. Today, we’re lucky enough to have a guest in the studio. That is Samantha Conner.
We’ve got Sam in to talk about the appalling rate of Covid Vaccinations for people with disabilities and the Disability Royal Commission Report.
Samantha Conner
Hello.
Do you want to tell us why has the roll out of Disability Vaccinations been so appalling?
Samantha Conner
Hi Phin and Raph and thanks for having me on the show.
Look. I think it’s a tricky thing.
I think that there’s been a number of reasons that the vaccine rollout for disabled people has been appalling.
One is that I think there’s a lack of understanding and where we sit and people just assume we are part of Health and The Department of Health really don’t have a great idea of how to say about where people live and how we live etc etc and it is very difficult for people to get access to health services in that area. And many people with disability have issues around trauma about how to get access to services in that area. So we really don’t fit into that area.
There’s been a number of stuff ups with people.
I don’t think that us unfair to say that we have been deprioritised using a word from the Royal Commission and deliberately forgotten aboutand erased as priority groups as people most at risk.
Phin Meere.
And I should just say that you are President of People with Disabilities Australia.
Why do you think we were deprioritized that they seem to the government admitted that they, they did, prioritized aged care people with good reason because they are of a vulnerable cohort.
That why do you think people with disabilities were deprioritised in the vaccine roll out?
Samantha Conner : [00:03:54]
I think it’s predominantly was to do with then failing to understand who we are and where we live.
They probably assumed that, you know, we would be still living in big, nursing homes with a hundred people in the same way that some aged care facilities almost actually around it and people with disability with a disability.
Sadly some, you know, said that there are exceptions that still exist but mostly don’t live in big congregate places. Most vulnerable people if they and congregated in places, you know places with two or more people with disability our lives together and Living Group Homes and those sort of accommodations.
And then also a whole bunch of other areas like SRS’s jails and disability justice centers, and hospitals and boarding houses, you know, there’s lots of different places.
I don’t think they understood any of this and I think they thought look, we’ll just go ahead and pick the low hanging fruit to protect as many people as they can and then they just didn’t do anything.
So it’s remarkable. When you look at the Royal Commission transcripts around covid. And then also the Senate Select Committee transcript from the 28th of September. The testimony given in both is just remarkable.
Phin Meere. [00:05:16]
What were some of the Testimonies given or at least some of the highlights if I could use such a word?
Samantha Conner : [00:05:35]
Well, look, I think some of the low lights for me were that
People are denying that we’ve been deprioritized. And gosh, I think some of it is more some in some of the objections about paternity prioritized was, you know, you read this stuff and there’s more fantasy than when in the Harry Potter novel you know.
It’s really, you know, we know that from the testimony from the public servants. When they say, why didn’t you do this – They don’t have an answer.
We have repeatedly every day for 20 hours a day have been yelling over and over again, writing letters writing, emails appearing in newspapers, and radio. And television saying, we need to make sure that those disabled people who are most at risk are safe and those people living in congregated accommodation and people who have high care and support needs to can effectively isolate and it’s just been ignored to date.
So its astonishing that people could, you know, the bureaucrats and politicians can turn around and say no but we haven’t forgotten you but it’s very, very clear that they have.
On the 11th of September last month. I met with Lieutenant General John Frewen at a community Roundtable and said, very bluntly looking for a Target. And is there a plan? And he said not that I’m aware of”.I haven’t been given a Target. I was just told to get as many jabs with Millions as many people as possible across Australia. No mention disability.
And there was no vaccine implementation plan, as far as I’m aware, but hadn’t seen one. And there is not a vaccine implementation fact for people with a disability
Phin Meere : [00:07:26]
What apart from a vaccine implementation plan what needs to change do you think to make sure that people with disabilities do get access to the Covid Jab?
Samantha Conner : [00:07:43]
A really good question.
I think. Well, the first thing to do is to have a Target and a plan and really that’s what should have happened before New South, Wales opened up.
None of us just want to play Gotcha at the moment. We want to make sure that our people don’t die. That is, you know, our biggest priority?
They need to make sure that we’ve got as many measures in place as possible to make sure that people who are most at risk are safe.
I have really great concerns for people.
I spoke with to our Vice President Kelly Cox this morning who told me that she’d heard from Health and not from NDIS about the public figures That in her region Northern New South Wales at near Lismore near Ballina; the rate of NDIS participants who are vaccinated is 29% and that’s just shameful and terrifying. To be honest, if you’re a person like a who has Muscular Dystrophy and will die from Covid.
So what needs to happen.
They need to say?
Look, we want to put in place targets.
We meet need to get the logistics around the tribe.
We need to get the messaging, right.
We need to engage properly with the Disability Community and understand, you know, where people are, where they live and how to make them safe.
The Disability Sector has put out an 11-point plan, which is communicated at the beginning of last month through the People With Disabilities website as well as you know, through a number of partners
We need to just make sure that these things are done at the moment.
They’re not engaging or just a case of political messaging rather than Health Messaging and we want to get on board and make sure that people are safe now.
Raphael ‘The Beurologist’ Kaleb : [00:09:28]
Sam, have you got a link to the 11-point plan for Covid Vaccinations for people with a Disability?
Samantha Conner : [00:09:41]
Yep. Absolutely. If you just Google People With Disabilities Australia and 11 Point Plan, it will come up with the press release and the plan and the sector plan. But I can, I can provide you with a link at the end of the interview. *
Raphael ‘The Beurologist’ Kaleb : [00:09:53]
Excellent, thank you very much.
Phin Meere : [00:09:56]
What needs to change particularly for people with intellectual disabilities or people and people in residential group to ensure they’re safe?
When we when we open up, what will happen?
What will happen to those people specifically or what’s likely to happen?
Samantha Conner : [00:10:25]
Yeah, really good question Phin.
So I mean for me, if I was the person who was living in a group home in New South Wales right now, there’s no way I’d be bloody coming Outdoors, you know, that would just be a dangerous thing to do now.
So we need to make sure the people have got access at home.
We need to make sure that our first priority is to make sure there’s a plan and there’s some sort of logistics around this, but we also need to make sure that if we treat this like a health process, not a political process.
We need to make sure that you know, we look at lessons learnt.
I’ll just very indiscreetly say that I know that one of the young women who died, who was a NDIS participant in her 20s. She was aged into 20s. She was a daughter of parents who didn’t believe in vaccination.
And so, when you look at those sort of issues, I can understand that these might be tricky issues for Disability Service Providers to resolve.
Because, you know, if you have guardianship or something like that. What does that mean? If you have a substitute disability, you know, a substitute decision maker but these issues which should have been unpacked a very long time ago. And, you know, and now they’re starting to realize that actually if you’re looking at risk and you’re looking at this as a risk issue, it’s not a case of being able to have a choice, you know, we’re not talking about mandatory vaccinations for a particular disability.
But if you are that person and that the person can’t communicate. They’ve got medical guardianship.
But this is actually something that we know that disabled people are many, many more times at risk of dying from this, is a medical emergency and you don’t treat it in the same way that you would around choices around having weeties or cornflakes, you know. This is actually about saving people’s lives.
So, tricky things to be worked out, but, you know, I think providers are starting to get a bit of an understanding about that.
We need to make sure we’ve got more data and transparency of data because at the moment, the data is rubbish and reported from one subset and, you know, we really need to make sure that we’ve got things like fair jabs for people not just a very small number of people that they’ve got listed who are immunocompromised, but from a whole range of people who we know have weakened immune systems and as part of their disability in like, people with Down Syndrome, so there’s a lot of things that need to be done.
But we that we the people who live and breathe this stuff, you know, people with a disability disabled persons organizations and DARO’s , you know about this because the delivered and we are disabled people and we talk to our people at the day, but we’re people who, you know, have an understanding of what it really needs to be done.
Raphael ‘The Beurologist’ Kaleb : [00:13:21]
Sam, it’s now time.
We’re going to pay a couple Community Announcements and then we’ll be back talking with Samantha Connor. President of People with Disabilities. Australia about the Covid Jab and vaccinations and more vaccinations for people with disabilities in Australia.
Speaker 5: [00:13:49]
A message from Victoria’s Community sector.
I’m looking forward to not worrying. That my patients are going to die of Covid. To no one else being separated from their mum in aged care.
I’m looking forward to our wedding and having our family and friends from overseas here with us.
I really want to see my mom.
I’m looking forward to being able to welcome guests without a mask on
Dad and all the sports back to normal so that my family members can come and watch me play.
I look forward to perform in front of a big crowd again
So please get vaccinated.
Please get vaccinated. Please get vaccinated. It’s get back to the good things. I asked you to get vaccinated for all of us. Please get vaccinated.
A message from Victoria’s Community sector.
A 3CR supporter.
Health Before Profits Community Announcement. [00:14:45]
Health before profits is a campaign to oppose The Liberal Party’s reckless drive to reopen which threatens the health and safety of Australia’s poor working class and Indigenous communities.
We demand an immediate return to a Zero Covid Elimination strategy before it’s too late.
Join us for online forums, activism and campaigns to find out more
Follow Health Before Profits Vic on Facebook Twitter or Instagram
Health Before Profits is a 3CR supporter.
Raphael Kaleb [00:15:23]
Before continuing the interview, with Sam Connor, President of People with Disabilities Australia, we’re gonna play a song Watching People, by the Firestone rock band because we as people with a disability are watching the government making sure that people with a disability are getting a very go about the future of what happens with the Covid Jab to make sure that everybody is safe.
Song: Watching People by Firestone Rock Band
Raphael Kaleb
That was the Firestone Rock Band with Watching People.
And let’s continue with the interview with Sam Conner, President of People with Disabilities, Australia about the Covid vaccinations.
Phin Meere : [00:19:03]
So we’re back with Samantha Conner, President of People with Disabilities Australia talking covid vaccines for People with Disabilities.
Now that the Royal Commission in its draft report under recommendation for said the States and Territories shouldn’t open and know if it shouldn’t do or shouldn’t significantly eased restrictions. Once they were reached, its seventy percent threshold of double dose vaccinations of the 16 and over populations in instead that they should.
Instead, particularly NDIS participants people living in Disability Accommodation and people with intellectual disabilities have and appreciate that they have had the opportunity to be fully vaccinated. All people, all active Disability Support Workers have been fully vaccinated.
Apologies for the rather bad wording there, but that’s the actual wording from the commission
At the at the time of recording, New South Wales has opened up now reaching its seventy percent target and Victoria will open up shortly where we’re broadcasting from.
Are State and Territories doing enough to, to make it safe for disabled people, and how best should they open up to ensure we are safe?
Samantha Conner [00:20:50]
Well, okay, that we seem to just be talking about New South Wales and Victoria for obvious reasons and I can be a bit bipartisan about, you know, your endless war between New South Wales and Victoria and not be political about it. But just by observation that I think Victoria are doing a lot more.
They’ve just made an announcement of putting in place a Disability Liaison Program 5 million bucks sunk into it, for rapidly vaccinated people. announced a lot of disability hubs and I don’t see the equivalent amount of effort being put into New South Wales.
Victoria also introduced mandatory vaccines which is a little bit of a Hot Topic at the moment for Disability Support Workers and New South Wales, we’ve heard that they say that they’re going to follow with that but that hasn’t accentuated as yet and they’ve opened up. So this is you know, potentially have some catastrophic outcomes for people.
I think the states that have done very, very well and you could argue. I think somebody said to me about the ACT that there were only 12 people in a dog that lives there in terms of population, but it makes it easier and that might be the case with a small population. But you know, I’d be in the ACT.
I know that Craig Wallace whose, one of our former Presidents of People with Disabilities Australia worked very, very hard with the State to make sure that you know, that there were places that were accessible that people with disabilities could be vaccinated early on.
And that the I think because they’re smallest state in there, has got good networks with disabilities and relationships between politicians, and bureaucrats, and ministers and the community. I think that’s worked a lot better since I think that without that, the ACT could potentially have had some far more severe outcomes.
So the answer to it is, No the state’s haven’t done enough, you know, and the problem that we have with this is that we really have been there the lack of clarity about who was responsible for what and there’s been a lot of blame shifting and treating it like a political crisis and playing gotcha, which is not what we need right now.
Phin Meere
What do what do we need to make us safe now?
Samantha Conner
So to make a safe right now, we need to make sure that we sit down with disabled people their representative organizations. And that doesn’t mean disability service providers. That means DPO’s and DRO’s.
And we need to make sure that the states and the feds sit down, shut up and listen to people about what needs to be done and then do it, you know, put into place for things that need to be done rapidly as blitz’s, you like. This, it just outlines the steps that need to be done.
It is a complicated and, you know, tricky issue but we really need to make sure that there’s enough effort put on this 72 and a half percent of people who died last year were people with underlying conditions.
We don’t even know what that means in Australia because there’s no research. There’s no data and the statistics are being hidden and you know concealed so we need to make sure that we have Clarity, we have transparency. We have accountability.
And overall, you know, over and above everything else. We have action.
Phin Meere : [00:24:28]
If the government’s response to Covid, for people with disabilities had happened to any other privilege group within society I imagine there would be outrage and yet there doesn’t seem to be any level of outrage about what’s happened to People with Disabilities and Covid.
What is what do you think that is and secondly, what does it what does it say about mainstream society’s, attitude towards people with disabilities?
Samantha Conner [00:25:12]
I spoke to Trevor from Black Talks on another Community Radio Station in New South Wales the other day. He’s just uses this very good analogy and said, you know, up in the regions for Aboriginal people when they’re wet.
You can see all the potholes in the road and this is what’s happening. Now, you can see all the systemic inequalities, you know.
There’s potholes in the road and its such a great analogy.
This is what’s happening. Now, we can see the things that have already been there, but they’ve been magnified by a thousand percent.
So people who are living with disadvantaged, including us, poor people, including people with chronic health conditions, people who are workers and underpaid and have to work 17,000 jobs, you know, just in order to bring home food at the end of the week.
These are the potholes that we’re seeing in the road, so, I think it says a lot about us as a society.
But when you look at, you know, the responses in different areas and jurisdictions, I think it also says a lot about the leadership in those areas as to how we respond and really – we’re only as good as you know, the people that we’re not walking past right in terms of Standards.
We need to make sure that everybody is safe. There’s not just a select group of people that need to be safe. We need to make sure every Australian counts.
Phin Meere [00:26:29]
Now just finally Sam. That PWD, People with Disabilities Australia have a campaign called Speed Up The Vax that you want to tell us about? and how people can get involved?
Samantha Conner [00:26:44]
Yeah, absolutely
. You can tweet or use Facebook, you know to create a video or send it to our office, you know, talking about your own experience with vaccines and just to get the message out this with that hashtag.
And there’s also other people who are pushing for change as well. So there’s Ozsage www.ozsage.org which has got a lot of information about facts about ventilation and another website called http://www.nobodyleftbehind.com.au which is another website which got great information on it.
As I think we just keep screaming. We keep shouting and we keep making sure that they get the message that we shouldn’t be left behind in the vaccines roll out.
Phin Meere
Fantastic. Well, thank you very much for joining us this evening,
Samantha Conner [00:27:34]
Thanks so much and Raph as well.
Phin Meere : [00:27:38]
And that was Samantha Conner. President of People With Disabilities Australia.
So what, Raph if any final words before we leave tonight.
Raphael Kaleb
The Boldness has been talking Samantha Connor, President of People with Disabilities Australia about Covid vaccinations for people with a disability.
We’re going to go out with a song Get Away by the Bi Polar Bears.
Keep listening to Completa Bailble.
The Boldness will be back on the 17th of November.
Goodbye. See you then. Thank you very much.
THE END
The Art Chest 