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The Forum > Article Comments > How is the peak body for people with disabilities to be funded? > Comments

How is the peak body for people with disabilities to be funded? : Comments

By Peter Gibilisco, published 10/2/2015

According to the Coalition Australia is in such a bad economic position that we must question the affordability of just about everything and even reduce much needed Government services for Australia's most vulnerable citizens.

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I cannot comment of the necessity of advisory groups apart from the fact that there seems to be a lot of them. However I can speak in the issue of support for disabled people via these groups. From personal experience this support is almost totally in the form of information and endless paperwork about "plans". Endless plans and pathways. Goal setting. Referral to other agencies.
There is very little in the way of practical advice or actual physical or financial support. No advice on what to do when you live in a small town that has no public transport but the mobility allowance has been rejected because the person has the " ability " to use public transport, yet doesn't have the ability to drive themselves, forcing carers to spend much of their time as taxi drivers.
No financial support to employers to take on a disabled person for the length of time required to train them into a specific profession. Even disability support at training institutes and higher education facilities is limited and generally provided by people with no training in that particular field of disability.
So if money can be diverted from these advisory and support agencies into practical help for the disabled then I have no complaints. I doubt that will happen, but the loss of some of these agencies is no great loss in my opinion.
As for the medical research fund, I am surprised people are being so short sighted about this. In the present there will be no benefits but long term the savings to government will be immense. Every new treatment and cure for chronic diseases will save billions in future costs, not to mention the income generated by patents on medications that will be in demand.
In addition, preventative health measures will hopefully be discovered, and these are the most cost efficient treatments of all.
The hysteria over the go co payment has been a total beat up. I'm an aged pensioner with grandchildren in my care, and if I don't find that cost exhibiting I don't see how anyone else can.
Posted by Big Nana, Tuesday, 10 February 2015 9:03:01 AM
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Isn't NDIS suoosed to take comprehensive care of disabled people, replacing piecemea lassistance, so that an advisory body is unnecceary?
Posted by Outrider, Tuesday, 10 February 2015 9:14:51 AM
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I agree with the previous comment. So many of these so-called disability advocates are a waste of space and of taxpayers dollars. They seldom represent the views of the largest-by-far group within the disability community, those with an intellectual disability. And the ones without intellectual disability are often as able to advocate for themselves as the rest of us. The real support is done at the grass roots level by the advocates taking on individual cases, not the system advocates dictating how we should live. And as for the new "alliance" announced by the federal Minister this week, well, more of the same old, same old, isn't it Mitch? Still no voice for the intellectually disabled and no representation for their families, those people doing all the care and saving the nation billions. You ask the wrong question, Peter. It is not whether the nation can afford disability advocacy but whether it is truly representative and therefore value for money.
Posted by estelles, Tuesday, 10 February 2015 8:11:00 PM
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These funding cutbacks to disability advocacy groups have to be seen in the context of the earlier dismissal of Graeme Innes as Disability discrimination commissioner and the abolition of that role by the Federal government. It is obvious that in the lead up to implementation of the NDIS in 2018, the government does not want to hear from people with disabilities or their families. Also, here in NSW, cutbacks to supports for the disabled at TAFE will further diminish the life opportunities of people with disabilities. As a parent of a teenager with a disability, I oscillate between despair and rage on this issue.
Posted by Johnj, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 8:21:32 PM
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