It is unacceptable to deport a person on the grounds of disability.

I am appalled to again hear that the Australian government may deport a person on the grounds of their disability, linked to the possible cost to the Australian health system.

Laying aside the most fundamental aspect of this as a breach of their human rights and being a matter of discrimination based on disability, the argument is entirely flawed.

People with disability - and in the current case, people with cerebral palsy - make an important contribution to society and economy. To see people with disability as a 'cost' to our health system is to deny many things. 1. It denies the contribution people with disability make via being employed, paying taxes, contributing their personal, professional and creative talents to our society, being carers for others, volunteering in community, among many other features including the personal role they play in many people's lives. 2. It suggests that the costs related to disability are likely to be greater than the costs of other factors, such as smoking, on the health system. There are many other characteristics of individuals who pose costs to our health system but these do not factor into determinations of deportation. 3. It fundamentally undermines the free access and right of access to our health system by starting to determine who is worthy of access to it. This creeps toward decisions of withdrawal or denial of health care and supports based on disability or levels of disability. 4. It others and devalues people with disability, focusing on flawed views of disability, and denying the personhood and individual value of people who experience disability. 5. It situates the disability with the individual, rather than identifying that the extent and type of disabiling experience is directly related to the type of society the government, and we all, shape.

How can we allow such capacity to decide life opportunities based on disability to remain?