Disability advocates
Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:37): (659) My question is for the Minister for Disability. Minister, Victorian disability advocacy organisations wrote to you in June stating they have had no funding increases for several years and it has impacted their ability to fulfil their advocacy roles. The disability royal commission found that immediate action is needed to address the shortfall in funding for disability advocacy providers. So, Minister, I ask: have you provided these groups with the emergency funding they have sought?
Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:37): I thank Ms Crozier for her question. Can I at the outset acknowledge the importance of disability advocacy groups in supporting the more than 1 million Victorians who live with disability, and can I also acknowledge that this is a particularly difficult time for our disability community. Having experienced the review of the NDIS, the very lengthy disability royal commission and the uncertainty that has come around in the response to both the NDIS review and the disability royal commission means that this is a particularly difficult time for the disability community and certainly for those who advocate for people with disability and those who advocate for themselves with disability or their families. I can say that is why we have boosted funding for disability advocacy groups by more than 50 per cent over the past five state budgets to help meet the increased demand and the cost to deliver these important services. We know that advocacy services are absolutely crucial to ensuring that people with disability get the services and the support that they need.
This also included $1.9 million in the 2024–25 budget to continue the boost in capacity of the Victorian disability advocacy program. I responded previously to Mr Ettershank in relation to this issue I think in the adjournment last week. But the NDIA has also recently announced a peer support and capacity building grant program, and this program will provide $40 million over two years to community-based services to deliver peer support and self-advocacy programs, which again is a critical part of the advocacy portfolio. This funding allocation responds directly to the advocacy of state and territory governments and ministers as well as the sector at this particularly critical time while organisations and the state and territory governments are seeking to work with the Commonwealth in relation to advocacy. I am really pleased that the Commonwealth did come forward as a result of that advocacy and allocate that extra $40 million over two years to ensure that there is that increased support in this difficult time for those who advocate for people with disabilities.
I would say that all of this also builds on our historic investment in advocacy. Certainly since 2017–18 we have provided $17.5 million to disability advocacy groups in addition to that core funding which I have outlined. Of course with all of these additional funding allocations for things such as disability advocacy, I would say it cannot be viewed in isolation. Victoria will contribute $3 billion towards the NDIS in 2024–25, and we are working on huge disability reforms in conjunction with the other states and territories and the Commonwealth across the board. In addition to all of that – that $3 billion and the money that we are investing in advocacy – I would also point to the continued investment in the previous budget in the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing alone, with $24 million to continue the Victorian disability advocacy program as outlined, supporting those Victorians who are ineligible for NDIS and more.
Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:40): Minister, thank you for that response, and I understand that you spoke about the peer support grants that are available. They are one-off grants, I understand, yet even if those grants or applications are successful, they are still one-off and also seem to remove some responsibility from the state. Now, just in your response, which I thank you for, you spoke about some of that funding that has been provided, but what do you have in place to provide these agencies with the funding certainty that they need into the future? Does what you just spoke of provide enough, given that there are concerns around this emergency funding also?
Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:41): I thank Ms Crozier again for her question. As I was outlining, in addition to the $3 billion we will contribute towards the NDIS in 2024–25, in addition to the $24 million that we do advocate through the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing to disability-specific initiatives – that is notwithstanding all of the work across government in responding to disability through other portfolios as well; that is just the DFFH component – but the $40 million that was very much in response to the advocacy of the advocacy groups as well as state and territory ministers to the Commonwealth is a recognition that this is a particularly critical time in the disability reform agenda. It is of great currency that at the moment these advocacy groups are expected to do more with the uncertainty of the future as we negotiate with the Commonwealth in terms of ongoing things such as foundational supports and other services. None of this can be viewed in isolation; it is part of a broader reform agenda and needs to be considered as such.