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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-04-30 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

DISABILITY SERVICES

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (14:08): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: On 18 April, I announced that South Australia had agreed to fully participate in the National Disability Insurance Scheme or Disability Care Australia. This is a historic Labor reform in human services on a scale not seen since the introduction of Medicare in the early 1970s. It will provide more traditional supports such as therapy, respite, equipment and supported accommodation, but it will do so in a way that works best for the person and their individual circumstances.

South Australia was the first state to secure a launch site and, reflecting this government's commitment to give Every Chance to Every Child, from July this year it will begin with a focus on children up to the age of 14 years. Then from mid-2016, we will start to include all eligible people with a disability with everybody in by 2018, supporting approximately 33,000 South Australians with a disability. This announcement represents a significant expansion in disability funding to complement the already record funding increases made by the government in recent years.

When this government was elected, funding for disability services was just $123 million per annum. In last year's budget we made the most significant investment in disability services in this state's history, taking funding to $345 million per annum in 2012-13. Upon full implementation of the NDIS in 2018, this will rise to $723 million per annum. Together with federal funding, this will take the annual investment to $1.4 billion by 2018.

Importantly, this deal will ensure the medium and long-term sustainability of our disability budget by securing significant increases in commonwealth funding to support people with a disability in South Australia. Also, to the extent that there may be a larger than expected number of people becoming eligible for support, the commonwealth has committed to funding 100 per cent of any shortfall for the launch and 75 per cent for the full scheme.

As big as these numbers are, and as much as they provide an indication of this government's commitment to support people with a disability, what is most important about this reform is the impact it will have on the life of people with a disability. At their core, these changes give people with a disability the ability to have greater control over their own life and greater choices about the services they receive.

I had the opportunity to talk to a range of people with a disability, their families, carers and representatives earlier at a morning tea I hosted. There I was able to thank them for their efforts in making this announcement possible, to discuss how we can work together to make these reforms as successful as possible but also to hear about what this new agreement will mean for them. There I heard that there are people who go to bed at the same time every night and how these changes will allow them to have more flexibility in the care they receive so that they can attend important family events, such as birthdays, on which they had previously missed out.

Through Disability Care Australia, the investments the South Australian and commonwealth governments are making, and the reforms we are delivering, will make a massive difference to the life of people with a disability in South Australia.

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