.

A few months ago I hosted a meeting of 20 leading advocacy organisations from the disability and aging sector to discuss the proposed Premises Standards and the Parliamentary report. That group endorsed a unanimous statement which included the following statement:

“The draft DDA Premises Standards create a basis for an agreed way forward to ensure the formal legal rights to access can be made effective in the real world. They have been the subject to debate between interested parties – organisations of and for people with disability, the building industry, regulators and Government – for more than 10 years. Agreement on a draft that can be endorsed by the Australian Parliament is long overdue. There should be no further delay.”

The Parliamentary Committee investigation into the draft Premises Standards was unanimous in its view that it should be introduced without delay.

Committee Chair, Mark Dreyfus, said in his introduction to the report:

“People with a disability have waited more than long enough for better access to premises.”

I agree with both these statements. We are not there yet, but all the indications are that it won't be long.

Thank you for your time this evening and I am happy to take a few questions.