Atrocities will shock

I AM so grateful to Senator Jordon SteeleJohn who has put forward the motion to the Senate to have a Royal Commission into mistreatment of people living with disability. When this goes ahead it will be huge. We do not want any political shenanigans like the banking royal commission which Scott Morrison voted against 26 times and look what that revealed. The atrocities perpetrated on people living with disabilities will be shocking and they are happening today. Evidence suggests 90 per cent of women living with a disability have been sexually assaulted. Imagine if this was your daughter or granddaughter. We need protection now. decade or so when a public hospital such as the Royal Hobart Hospital provided excellent care and treatment for a patient less financially secure than someone else who could afford admission into St Helens Hospital, St John’s, Calvary or the Hobart Private? Just how it will all pan out in the future with health insurance premiums always on the increase is anyone’s guess but the system nationally is urgently in need of a major overhaul with lives in the balance. Irrespective of the massive salaries some specialist doctors command, without their expertise our health and wellbeing would be even further disadvantaged. room. Farming animals for food (apart from causing immense suffering to billions of animals) has a bigger impact on global warming than emissions from every form of transport combined. It is the main driver of deforestation and biodiversity loss. A UN report says we have 12 years to stop global warming before it’s too late. Many are unwilling to speak out about these urgent issues. We need more action from people like Dick Smith plus grassroots action such as the student rallies. We can take individual action too. Dr Joseph Poore of Oxford University says we could each reduce our emissions by 30-50 per cent if we ate a plant-based diet.