The Advocacy Group visits NSW Parliament House

CID Advocacy Group members and CID staff visited NSW Parliament House on 11 September 2025.

The Advocacy Group helps CID speak up about the big issues for people with intellectual disability. We ask the NSW government to change laws and the way they do things to make things fairer for people with intellectual disability.

We visited Parliament House to better understand how the parliament works and how people with intellectual disability can share their experiences and ideas with politicians. This can be through parliamentary committees or when they hold parliamentary inquires.

A parliamentary inquiry is when a group of politicians work together to make things better on an issue like housing or transport. They gather information from the public and then make recommendations to parliament. The parliament then decides if they accept the recommendations or not.

The highlight of the day was watching question time. All the NSW ministers were there, and we had fun picking out the ministers that represented each of our local electorates. We watched ministers yell and tease each other and four members even being kicked out by the Speaker of the house. It was very entertaining.

The day ended with a meeting with the Aging and Disability Commissioner Jeff Smith and the members of the Ageing and Disability Parliamentary Committee. This committee is made up of NSW politicians who work with the Commissioner to make sure people with disability and older people are protected from abuse and neglect.

Our members and staff with intellectual disability spoke about their experience with guardianship and the need for supported decision-making laws. They explained what Easy Read is and why it is important. The commissioner and committee members were very interested in what we had to say and are keen to meet with us again to talk more about supported decision making.

We all enjoyed our time at Parliament House and we learnt a lot. We also taught parliament staff and politicians about inclusion and what is important to people with intellectual disability.