Improving employment outcomes for people with disability

Today in Parliament Abigail successfully passed a call for the Government to take direct action to improve employment outcomes for people with Disability in our state.

(1)That this House notes that according to economic modelling commissioned by the Australian Network on Disability [AND] published in July 2023 entitled BCA report on improving employment outcomes for people with disability:

(a)Australia has one of the lowest employment rates for people with disability, sitting at 21 out of 29 OECD countries;

(b)if we reduced the gap between participation and unemployment rates for people with disability by one‑third, the cumulative impact on GDP would be $43 billion;

(c)a new nationwide approach is needed to break down barriers to employment faced by people with disability;

(d)the unemployment rate for people with disability (10 per cent) is more than double what it is for people without disability (3.7 per cent);

(e)there is a wage gap of 10 per cent between people with disability in employment and people without disability;

(f)supporting people with disability in employment delivers significant benefits for companies including increased revenue, improved productivity levels, diverse innovation, access to a broader pool of talent and creating a business more reflective of the community; and

(g)companies that have improved their disability employment levels are four times more likely to have total shareholder returns that outperform their competitors, and are 10 times more likely to be highly effective, nine times more likely to innovate and 10 times more likely to have excellent customer service.

(2)That this House calls on the Government to take direct action to increase employment outcomes for people with disability across the State through strong recruitment, retention and career development strategies and by breaking existing barriers to employment.

Motion agreed to.

Read the full 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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Improving employment outcomes for people with disability

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

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

Will you sign?

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