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- 7 May 2002
Disability Services Funding
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Page: 1617
Mr O'FARRELL (Ku-ring-gai) [5.27 p.m.]: A core responsibility of government is to care for those in our society who are disadvantaged or in need. Yesterday I received urgent representations from Hornsby Challenge—a not-for-profit charitable organisation which provides accommodation and employment services to 60 people suffering intellectual disabilities in the Ryde, Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai areas. The letter from the Hornsby Challenge Chairman, Dr Cecile Ferguson, states:
I am writing to express my grave concern at the impending funding crisis for non-government disability services within this State as a result of the failure of the NSW Government to recognise its obligations to contracted services to cover the new Social and Community Services (SACS) Award.
By way of background, I should point out that in 1993 the Federal and New South Wales governments entered into a Commonwealth-State disabilities agreement whereby responsibility for accommodation services for the disabled was transferred to the State Government and responsibility for employment services was transferred to the Federal Government. At that time the Commonwealth Government—the Keating Government—settled funding on New South Wales to help with the transition of this responsibility for these accommodation services. Last year a State industrial tribunal awarded workers employed under the social and community services award a 5.5 per cent to 7 per cent wage increase.
Dr Ferguson points out that the financial impact to service providers is greater than this percentage figure. She notes that this has been acknowledged by the State Government in its decision to increase by 14 per cent funding to those disability services covered by the award. Dr Ferguson estimates that the full increase in costs flowing from the wage increases and changes to award conditions is estimated to be between 15 per cent and 18 per cent for service providers. Remember that we are talking about costs faced by charitable organisations which rely heavily upon government funding sources to provide these contracted good works. Dr Ferguson's letter continues:
As Chairman of Hornsby Challenge... I am aware that the failure of the NSW Government to adequately cover the impact of this award will have very grave implications for the service and the people we support. The service is already suffering financially from the impact of implementing the award over the past six months. In the face of a possible full-year deficit on all our services of the order of $600,000, it will be clearly impossible, and financially irresponsible, for Hornsby Challenge to continue to continue to provide services to the people we currently support.
If the issue is not addressed immediately, it will be impossible for our service to renew our contract with the NSW Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care when it falls due on 1 July.
That point must never be reached. The services provided by Hornsby Challenge, and similar organisations in other communities, are vital in ensuring that their clients are able to get on with their lives. They also affect the health of others, namely, the parents of clients who understandably worry about their children's prospects at the time when they, the parents, are no longer alive. It is clear that if the service closed, taxpayers would face more substantial costs in trying to provide similar services to the 60 people who rely upon Hornsby Challenge. Dr Ferguson wrote:
I am confident that this department, whose direct services for people with disabilities are clearly already stretched, would find it impossible to extend those services to the hundreds of people with disabilities who currently receive accommodation support from non-government services such as ourselves. The alternative prospect of hundreds of people with disabilities, who are already among the most disadvantaged in the state, suddenly being bereft of their day-to-day support to live in the community is too terrible to contemplate.
This matter requires urgent attention. The Minister for Ageing, Disability and Home Care must act to ensure that the funding that Hornsby Challenge and similar organisations receive is boosted to take account of the increase in award wages paid to those who are employed to provide services to the disabled. Hornsby Challenge should not be penalised for the wage increases awarded by a State Government industrial tribunal.
I am unfortunately aware that, to date, instead of accepting its responsibility and increasing funding, the State Government has preferred to engage in the time-worn game of blaming the Federal Government for the problem. The problem with this approach is that, as well as ignoring the 1993 history of the agreement, it leaves Hornsby Challenge and its clients in limbo. Worse, it threatens the continued viability of an organisation that provides services to people in need for a far lesser cost than if those services were provided directly by government.
I am appalled at the New South Wales Government's current intransigence. I urge it to accept its core responsibility to care for those who are disadvantaged and in need. I urge the Premier, the Treasurer and the Minister to show some compassion and avoid the disaster that would follow if Hornsby Challenge and its ilk are required to close their doors. If the Labor Party of this State wants to score political points, I urge it to do so by demonstrating a real commitment to the disabled in our community and increasing program funding to take account of the increase in wages as a result of the award increase.
It is unacceptable, whether in my community or in the communities of Hornsby, Ryde or other communities across this city, that contracted services for the disabled are in jeopardy because of a wage increase and a political argument between the Federal Government and a State government. Primarily, the losers in this are the clients, but it is also the public of New South Wales, who once again see what a terrible shemozzle the Federal and State constitutions have become and how much more easily Federal and State Ministers can hide behind the vagaries of this day.
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