Politics & Power Quote by Jay Weatherill

“We are all in this together” is the kind of civic-group hug politicians reach for when a system is visibly fraying. Coming from Jay Weatherill, it’s less about shared emotion than shared liability: if disability services fail, the blame can’t be quarantined to a single agency, minister, or provider. The phrase works because it launders responsibility into solidarity. It asks listeners to feel unity while the speaker quietly redraws the map of accountability.

Then the real agenda arrives in managerial language: “a single point of entry,” “a very complete picture,” “one-stop shop.” This is the lexicon of reform-by-architecture, where the fix is not necessarily more funding or better care, but a redesigned doorway. The intent is clear: reduce fragmentation and force coherence on a service landscape that too often makes vulnerable people act like project managers for their own survival. The subtext is that the current system is a maze, and the state is tired of navigating it blind.

The line about government needing to “understand that picture” hints at a second audience: bureaucracy itself. Weatherill is signaling that data, triage, and centralized knowledge are as important as compassion. “One-stop shop” sells convenience, but it also implies standardization and gatekeeping: a single portal can empower users, or it can become a bottleneck that decides whose needs are “complete” enough to count.

In the broader context of disability policy debates (including NDIS-era expectations of seamless support), this is political rhetoric doing double duty: promising dignity through simplicity while making the case for tighter coordination and control.