12 March 2017
A diverse partnership of over 25 representative organisations of people with disability, disability advocacy organisations, disability services and disability peak bodies have come together to call on Federal Senators to block the Mobility Allowance Bill that is currently before the Senate.
Read the full statement: Word (1.2MB) or PDF (585kB)
If passed, this Bill will:
- Reduce transport support for people with disability;
- Increase social isolation and reduce the ability for people with disability to contribute to the community;
- Create further barriers to economic participation for people with disability, at a time when there are increasing obligations upon them to find and keep work;
- Exacerbate the already considerable costs involved for people with disability entering or re-entering the workforce. These additional costs can outweigh the economic benefits of having a job, and be a disincentive to looking for work.
The Social Services Legislation Amendment (Transition Mobility Allowance to the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Bill 2016 will restrict access to essential transport funding to only those eligible for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). There are approximately two million people with disability of working age, but only 460,000 will be transiting to the NDIS, This means that this Bill will impact many thousands of people with disability who will not have access to the NDIS, including people over the age of 65. The Bill has been to the Senate Community Affairs Committee, where people with disability gave extensive evidence about the problems with the legislation, which was ignored by the Government
The groups supporting the statement are:
- Australian Blindness Forum
- Blind Citizens Australia
- Capricorn Citizen Advocacy
- Children and Youth with Disability Australia
- Council for Intellectual Disability NSW
- Disability Advocacy Network Australia
- Disabled People’s Organisations Australia
- First Peoples Disability Network of Australia
- Guide Dogs Australia
- Guide Dogs Victoria
- Independent Advocacy Townsville
- Macular Disease Foundation Australia
- Melbourne East Disability Advocacy
- National Ethnic Disability Alliance
- National Social Security Rights Network
- NSW Council of Social Service
- ParaQuad NSW
- Physical Disability Council of NSW
- People with Disability Australia
- People with Disabilities Western Australia
- Queensland Advocacy Inc.
- Retina Australia
- Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists
- Spinal Cord Injuries Australia
- The Royal Society for the Blind
- Visability
- Vision Australia
- Vision 2020 Australia
- Women with Disabilities Australia
Read the full statement: Word (1.2MB) or PDF (585kB).