Page 3639 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Importantly, this initiative empowers and enables the community sector to continue to work collaboratively and to advise the ACT government on how we can tackle this issue together. The funding will also support the establishment of a food relief network, with representation from government and community service providers, to establish connections with, and pathways to, broader critical social and health wraparound supports. This increased collaboration will ensure that food relief and other community services are linked and will open more pathways for those accessing food relief to also receive support for other needs, which might include housing, employment and job seeking, health, family support or domestic and family violence.
People with disability have been adaptive and resilient in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been particularly challenging and often isolating for those who are at increased risk of severe disease and infection. This has all occurred at a time when the disability sector is undergoing seismic national reform and faces significant challenges with the implementation of the NDIS. Members in this place will have heard me speak about the work the ACT government does to support a national disability insurance scheme that is based on choice and control.
As Minister for Disability, it has been a privilege to represent a well-informed and engaged disability community, and sector providers who are absolutely determined that the NDIS stay true to its original intent—codesigned with the community it serves. But there remains a critical need for strong, individual advocacy services which provide vital support to people with disability. The ACT has two individual advocacy services which directly support people with disability to exercise their rights to voice concerns, access information, resolve complex issues and complaints, and identify available support options: Advocacy for Inclusion, and ACT Disability, Aged and Carer Advocacy Service, ADACAS. I am proud that in this budget the ACT government has funded AFI and ADACAS $1.648 million over four years, doubling their annual funding for individual advocacy services.
Individual advocacy can enable people to participate in supported decision-making and interact with many parts of our community that contribute to the social determinants of good health and wellbeing, such as housing, education and health. For some people, advocacy services can be invaluable and significantly improve their quality of life. Those of us outside the disability community can measure the verified value of individual advocacy through the independent cost-benefit analysis of Australia’s independent disability advocacy agencies, which was commissioned by Disability Advocacy Network Australia. This found that independent advocacy delivers an estimated benefit of $3.50 returned for each dollar spent.
ADACAS says, “As an advocacy service, ADACAS is frequently working with people who are ‘falling through the cracks’ in current service systems.” Those current service systems include the NDIS, which is increasingly being framed by the federal government as a financially unsustainable welfare system, justifying cuts to individual plans, attempting to provide unfettered powers to the CEO of the NDIA, and reducing the range of services that participants can access without the consent of the state and territory partners in the scheme. Right now, there are people in hospital in our city who could be living more comfortably at home, except that the NDIA is too slow and
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video