Why are braille materials still so widely inaccessible?

Today in Parliament, Abigail successfully passed a motion calling on the NSW Government to increase investment in accessible braille materials for children and young people to remove barriers faced by people who are blind, low vision or vision impaired.

Abigail moved:

(1) That this House notes that:

Thursday 4 January 2024 was World Braille Day, which is held each year to celebrate technological and social advancements made since the development of the braille system in 1824, and also stands as a fierce demand for genuine inclusion and equity of all people who are blind, low vision and vision impaired across all levels of society;
according to Guide Dogs NSW/ACT, more than one million Australians are expected to live with blindness or low vision by 2030, and First Nations Australians are three times more likely to be affected;
to this day, people who are blind, low vision and vision impaired face significant challenges and barriers to accessing and engaging with services, infrastructure and systems, including education, health, transport and communications, and routinely experience discrimination, harassment and victimisation in society;
these barriers are perpetuated by a sustained lack of targeted investment in inclusion and accessibility by successive governments, as well as a lack of genuine representation in leadership and decision-making positions; and
braille materials such as books are still largely inaccessible for many people who are blind, low vision or vision impaired, and Vision Australia has recently funded a new series of children's books, which will be the first children's braille books to be sold in Australian mainstream bookstores and taught in primary schools.

(2) That this House calls on the Government to commit to breaking down barriers faced by people who are blind, low vision and vision impaired, and to increase investment in accessible braille materials, particularly for children and young people and in educational settings.

Read the transcript in Hansard here.

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

NSW is missing out on tens of billions of dollars. By introducing a progressive coal royalty structure similar to the one in Queensland, we would have raised an extra $20 billion last year.

The NSW Government owns and controls, on behalf of the people of this state, the rights to the minerals and materials that naturally occur in NSW land.

Huge fossil fuel companies are only able to extract and sell these commodities with the consent of the State. It’s time they paid a fair price for that privilege.

The fossil fuel industry has made hundreds of billions of dollars out of their cosy relationship with governments. Granted permission to extract and sell coal, these large multinational fossil fuel corporations pay just over 7% in royalties back to the people of NSW – keeping the rest as mega-profits for themselves. These companies have a track record of taking more than their fair share and leaving communities suffering and stranded with poisoned groundwater, devastated landscapes and a stranded workforce when it suits their business models.

Globally, the hyper-inflation of fossil fuel prices driven by price-gouging opportunism and war profiteering from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has delivered record windfall profits to these already obscenely wealthy corporations. In the last year, NSW coal exports totaled over $70 billion dollars, but the people of NSW will only see about 7 cents in every dollar, or about $6 billion dollars of that amount.

Rather than going toward schools, hospitals and public infrastructure, billions of dollars went into the pockets of multinational mining corporations. The Greens believe there should be more money for schools and hospitals and less for mining billionaires.

Sign our petition calling on the NSW Labor Government to increase coal royalties to invest in communities.

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Why are braille materials still so widely inaccessible?

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

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