The Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO) today welcomed a more moderate Budget for people with disability and their families, in particular reforms to employment and the ongoing commitment to the rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), however remain disappointed by a lack of Budget commitment to fund twelve specialist people with disability and family organisations representing over 200,000 Australians with disability.
“AFDO welcomes the ongoing commitment to the NDIS and a raft of proposed employment measures which support both business and jobseekers’, said Matthew Wright, AFDO CEO.
“These include dedicated funding to develop a new disability employment model, the proposed development of the JobAccess Gateway and employment reforms which are broader than disability, including $1.2 billion in national wage subsidies. These additions to the Budget are constructive solutions for people with disability seeking employment.” said Mr Wright.
AFDO especially welcomes measures which enable people with disability to concurrently access targeted employment support while completing post school transition to work training and to transition out of Australian Disability Enterprises into mainstream employment.
“This decision has been well overdue and is a direct result of the specialist representation by organisations run by people with disability and their families, who have provided the business case and evidence for these changes over many years”.
“While this decision will significantly improve transition to mainstream employment for people with disability, it is disappointing that these employment reforms come on the back of the defunding of twelve specialist people with disability organisations”, said Mr Wright.
Another key omission is resources devoted to the National Disability Strategy which provides accessible transport, housing and infrastructure to support the NDIS.
“You can’t build an NDIS without an accessible society and you certainly can’t build an NDIS without people with disability”.
Please direct all enquiries to AFDO CEO, Mr Matthew Wright on 0428 608 86
Share this