Tuesday, 27 August 2024

Disability advocates

David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (17:39): (1076) My adjournment is to the Minister for Disability. The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability highlighted the vital role that independent advocates provide for people with a disability and their families. From helping people to navigate the tortuous bureaucracy of the NDIS to supporting them to access the best educational environment for a child with a disability to advocating for housing that fits their needs, disability advocates work for the rights of their clients to live their lives the way they want to live them. For vulnerable people with a disability who do not have a family, they can rely on an advocate to support them, and this is ever more crucial.

Over the previous decade the disability advocacy sector has evolved from being largely made up of volunteers to a professional workforce. This professionalisation has been welcomed by the sector, but it does come with increased costs. Aside from wages, advocacy services must meet the costs of compliance, training and long service leave entitlements, so the annual $3.8 million base funding the sector receives from the state government is no longer adequate. Most advocacy organisations are already working at capacity, some operating on deficit budgets. Disability Advocacy Victoria predicts that if nothing is done, two-thirds of these organisations will be forced to make staffing cuts by the end of the year.

The sector is also in a state of transition. The recent NDIS review recommends establishing a system of foundational supports. These support services for people with a disability, including advocacy support, will sit outside individualised NDIS funding. These are the sorts of supports that were funded by the states before the establishment of the NDIS, but there is some disagreement over which level of government will now pay for these foundational supports. While the state argues with the feds over who will foot the bill, the need for advocacy support to tackle abuse, discrimination and violence towards people with a disability continues to grow. So the action I seek is for the minister to provide emergency funding to Victorian disability advocacy services until the NDIS’s recommended system of foundational supports is in place.