Transcript:

It’s Emma Bennison, CEO of Disability Advocacy Network Australia. I’d like to start by congratulating People With Disability Australia on a fantastic campaign. I know there’s more to come.

But last night’s budget’s being framed as a budget of care and opportunity for thousands of people with disability who are already losing essential supports, that framing is deeply out of touch and frankly, insulting to us. We welcome the government’s extending supplementary funding for disability advocacy organisations supporting people through the NDIS appeals process. But we’re disappointed that there’s been no increase at a time when demand for advocacy is surging and appeals are expected to rise significantly as reforms roll out.

Recent workforce survey data released through the National Centre for Disability Advocacy shows that 73% of advocacy organisations have experienced increased demand in the last 12 months, with many reporting demand has far outstripped available resources. Nearly 70% identified unmet demand as one of the biggest challenges facing the sector, and workforce wellbeing is already under significant pressure.

We also welcome the announcement of the Inclusive Communities Fund and the recognition that inclusion matters, but we are concerned by a continued focus on group based activities and capacity building for people with disability ourselves. Too often that framing treats disabled people as the problem to be fixed rather than recognising that communities, systems and institutions need to build their own capacity to become genuinely inclusive of us as disabled people. Inclusions not achieved by separating people with disability into more programs and spaces away from the broader community.

We look forward to collaborating with government towards real inclusion, and that means investing in communities to remove barriers, shift attitudes and ensure people with disability can participate equally in everyday life.

Thank you.