“THE SILENCE IS DEAFENING” – YOUR POLITICIANS DODGE GIVING ANSWERS

Age discrimination is not lawful in Australia – unless of course, you are the federal government and can change the legislation to suit your needs.

This is exactly what happened when the federal government introduced the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)– they banned people 65 and over from the NDIS then amended the Aged Discrimination legislation to cover their tracks.

Most Australians would be shocked to know that not only if you were 65 and over and excluded but you could also have been refused entry into the NDIS because you were in the wrong postcode depending on when the NDIS became available in your area. National Campaign Manager, David Margan said “The government has clearly decided to actively discriminate against people with disability entirely on the basis of age – it is unfair, unAustralian and needs to end.”

Spinal Life Australia commenced a campaign in 2021 to end age discrimination in the NDIS and have relaunched it during the 2022 election campaign. “Since we started this campaign, tens of thousands of Australians have joined to support us – a move that triggers emails to their federal politicians.

As the 2022 election campaign started, we sent a letter to all sitting MP’s in the Federal Parliament asking them three simple questions:
We recently wrote to all federal politicians asking them to respond to three questions:
Question 1. Do you support or oppose age discrimination?
Question 2. Do you support implementation of recommendation 72 of the Aged Care Royal Commission?
Question 3: If elected, will you prioritise this matter for your electorate?

The response has been frankly, appalling. Most of the politicians from our two major parties didn’t bother responding at all, while those that did, simply avoided answering those three simple questions. It’s only the been all our Independent Members of Parliament, Zali Stegall (Warringah), Dr Helen Haines (Indi), Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo) and Andrew Wilkie (Clark) and the Australian Greens who have had the integrity to stand up and say “no” to this age discrimination and undertake to prioritise this issue in the next Parliament.

David Margan said, “There are two things that all Australians can do to make a fairer Australia. The first is to join the campaign to end this inequity and make a fairer Australia for all by signing the online petition at www.disabilitydoesntdisctriminate.com.au.
The second thing to do it to hold your federal member to account – ask them where they stand on ending age discrimination and demand they do better”