Lynn Ruane (Independent)

I welcome the Bill and am happy to support Senator Clonan. Senator McCarthy raised the areas of marginalisation and addiction. Something we need to consider is marginalisations within marginalisations within marginalisations. We do have a growing and ageing population of people who were drastically impacted by the heroin epidemics of the eighties and nineties and have acquired disabilities over time. They are often unseen when it comes to disability advocacy. We have people in our prison and homeless systems who have acquired disabilities through intravenous drug use and through certain conditions where their bodies have begun to break down. They have ended up in wheelchairs and had limbs amputated. Their rights are eroded in every way, never mind them getting an assessment and then having the right to care. It is a group that I would like us to start thinking and talking about when we talk about people who are living with a disability. Like I said, there are extra layers of marginalisation and it is often a group that we do not pick up on. I just thought about it when Senator McCarthy was speaking about addiction.