After lots of calls to the Premier’s office over the weekend, I was relieved to be able to tell disability advocates who attended the Stand By Me rally on Sunday that the government will extend disability information and advocacy services funding for another 12 months. There is also a commitment to negotiate ongoing funding for services that complement but are not covered by the NDIS program. Disability service providers faced losing their funding at the end of June even though their key programs are not covered by the NDIS.

I thank the Premier’s office for helping resolve this situation and ensure these organisations can continue to provide independent help to people with disability. Service providers are still waiting for details and it is vital that we achieve ongoing recurrent funding so that people with disability can get the information they need and have a voice.