‘The Victorian State Budget is another important step for people with disability in the lead up to the National Disability Insurance Scheme’ said Matthew Wright CEO of the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations on behalf of four key advocacy groups for Victorians with a disability (AFDO, Brain Injury Australia, Blind Citizens Australia, and Disability Justice Advocacy).
‘People with disability in particular will cheer the 25 million dollars to close the Colanda institution and move people with disability into the community’, said Mr Wright, ‘These places are not fit for any people, especially not the most vulnerable members of our community’.
As a result of today’s budget announcements, Victoria’s disability spending will rise by 9.7 per cent, to around $1.95 billion per year.
Key budget announcements:
- $45.3M over 4 years to fund up to 400 Individualised Support Packages for school leavers with disability
- $60.9M over 4 years to support the first stage of the NDIS rollout
- $87.3M for an extra 1,750 places in ‘Program for Students with Disability in 2017’
- $3.3M to support the 2017-2020 State Disability Plan
- $500,000 to establish an indoor mobility ad training centre for vision impaired Victorians
‘These are in the whole welcome announcements, we would strongly urge the government not to utilise the expanded school funding for segregated special schools’.
This is on top of 10 million dollars in NDIS transition provided earlier this year to key parts of the Victorian disability sector. ‘This is a budget moving in the right direction for people with disability and lays the foundation for a successful NDIS in this state’.
Please direct all media enquiries to Mr Matthew Wright on 0428 608 861.
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