Disability Community Applauds Launch of NDIS
1 May 2012 at 10:14 am
The campaign alliance behind the public push for a National Disability Insurance Scheme, NDIS, has described the Federal Government’s announcement to roll out the scheme as ‘historic’.
The National Disability Alliance through its Every Australian Counts campaign organised the rallies across Australia yesterday including the Sydney Rally in which Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that the NDIS would be rolled out by July 2013 and Federal funding would be included in the May Budget.
The NDIS was devised and recommended by the Productivity Commission in July 2011, following an intensive 18-month investigation of the unmet needs of people with disability and their families and carers across Australia, and analysis of high-functioning disability support systems overseas.
National Disability Services, Carers Australia and the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations say they formed the Alliance to improve the lives of Australians with a disability, their families and carers.
National Disability and Carer Alliance Executive Director, Kirsten Deane, said the NDIS
was a landmark social and economic policy reform that will transform the lives of people
with a disability, their families and carers across Australia.
“All around the country there are people with a disability who cannot get out of bed, or go
to work, or get out into the community because they cannot get the support they need to
do so. There are families who face another day of battling on their own with little or no
support,” Deane said.
“For many people every single day is a struggle.
But, she says, from today everyone knows there is light at the end of the tunnel.
“Everyone will know that their voices have been heard and that help is finally coming.”
The commitment to launch the NDIS next year puts the Government one year ahead of the
timetable suggested by the Productivity Commission in their Disability Care and Support
report released last year.
More than 10,000 people attended Make it Real rallies in six capital cities across Australia
yesterday calling on Federal and State politicians to take action and make the NDIS a reality.
Deane said the Alliance would pay close attention to further announcements made in
the Budget next week.
“The Alliance will be there every step of the way to make sure the NDIS delivers the
support people with a disability, their families and carers need to get on with their lives.”
