DISABILITY CHOICES

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (14:48): My question is to the Minister for Disabilities. Will the minister please provide information about a new service offered by Minda called Disability Choices?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (14:49): I thank the honourable member for his most excellent question and for his certain interest in the major reforms taking place in the disability sector. Earlier this year I was delighted to attend the launch of Minda's new service known as Disability Choices. Minda is SA's largest disability service provider and has been supporting people with intellectual disability for over 100 years.

I would like to highlight the innovative work being done at Minda to better support people with disabilities in South Australia. Just like this government, Minda recognises the need to renew and reform its support services to reflect best practice. Rather than sitting around waiting for change to come to it, Minda has taken a leadership role and has demonstrated great initiative and enthusiasm with regard to meeting the challenges in disability reform.

I have spoken before in this place about the significant reforms taking place in the disability sector, both at a state and national level. What is very encouraging to me at the moment is that we are seeing the non-government sector respond to this new environment by taking positive steps towards putting people with disability in charge of their own affairs. This is a time of great change in the sector, a move away from a bureaucratic style of welfare model support, the one-size-fits-all model, to a rights-based system, where individual needs and aspirations, choice and control are the focus.

While the opposition has been caught up in the last few weeks with internal party matters, this government was getting on with the job of governing and managing change in this very important sector. We are getting on with once-in-a-generation reforms in disabilities, and we are getting on with individualising self-managed funding.

I am encouraged that Minda is also getting on with things and introducing this new service called Disability Choices. It is a 24-hour advisory, advocacy and consultancy scheme. Disability Choices provides valuable advice to individuals, their families, and also their carers, about the options that are available to them from government, from Minda, from other NGOs and other support services.

Disability Choices is a valuable tool for people with disabilities and their families to use as they discover the benefits of the new, individualised funding system. For instance, families may want to talk to someone about respite options or allied health support, such as physiotherapy, hydrotherapy or podiatry, domestic assistance or even holiday accommodation options. Disability Choices offers a one-stop advisory service on the different services that are available. This new service will be accessed by a Freecall 1800 number, will be available 24 hours a day, and will provide the first initial consultation hour for free.

Disability Choices not only offers practical advice, it also offers people with disabilities and their families the option of creating a specialised plan that discovers personal aspirations, acknowledges the importance of them, and helps families establish a pathway to those dreams. For people who are non-verbal, this can be done by using image cards, choice boards and other visual resources to support them in making decisions and setting their own goals.

It is encouraging to see the disability sector getting ready for the new, individualised funding system and, ultimately, the introduction of a national disability insurance scheme. These are exciting times for disability organisations and, while there is a lot of work still to be done, I am proud of the reforms that this government has introduced and will be shepherding through the coming months. I am proud that this Labor government is still delivering important social reform for the benefit of all South Australians, including some of our most vulnerable citizens.

The truth is that we cannot deliver this reform on our own. I want to congratulate and thank, in particular, Tony Harrison, President of Minda, and Cathy Miller, Chief Executive of Minda, for having the vision to establish this important service so early on in the reform process. I have no doubt that people with disabilities and their families will find Disability Choices immensely valuable during this transition towards a very different model of disability support over the coming years.