Speaking to the ACT Community Living project about new funding for people with a disability

Описание: Senator Kate Lundy, Andrew Leigh and Gai Brodtmann all spoke to Esther Woodbury and Alison McGregor from the ACT Community Living Project after a major policy announcement by Prime Minister Gillard and Parlimentary Secretary Bill Shorten about new funding commitments for early intervention for children with a disability and for supported accommodation for people with disabilities and their carers.

The full announcements are available at http://www.alp.org.au/federal-governm... & http://www.alp.org.au/federal-governm...

Captions being processed, transcript below.

TRANSCRIPT:

Senator Lundy:

I'm really pleased to be here today as part of Labor's announcement for funding for support and accomodation for people with disabilities.

It's a really important announcement and it means a lot for a particular initiative here in Canberra.

The Community Living Project has been lobbying, campaigning, working really really hard to try to find a way to get government support for a living option for people with disabilities.

Well I'm really proud to be able to announce today our new policy to fund supported accommodation is potentially the answer for the Community Living Project, and other initiatves like it.

Dr Leigh:

Well we're here today to talk about a new announcement that Prime Minister Gillard has announced today along with Bill Shorten.

This is going to involve two really important initiaves.

One is new resources for early intervention for children with particular impairments. These include hearing impairments, sight impairments, Fragile X and Down Syndrome.

The announcement provides up to $12,000 for children with one of these impairments for very early intervention before the ages of about 6 years old.

The other announcement today is a capital works announcement for supportive accommodation. This is supporting some of the most valuable work that is done by community groups in Canberra and throughout Australia.

Senator Lundy:

The two aspects to this policy: supporting early intervention for children with a disability and also providing capital support for an independent and supported accommodation for people with disabilities represents a real milestone for Federal Government funding and support for people with disabilities and their carers.

Myself, Andrew Leigh and Gai Brodtmann are all really proud of this policy and are pleased to be here today with representatives of the Community Living Project which is a very good example of a community organisation taking the initiative and wanting to provide accommodation and we believe that this new fund, this $60 million dollars is the kind of fund that they will be able to apply to to support their vision and endeavours to provide better accommodation choices for people with disabilities and their parents and carers.

Esther Woodbury:

The Community Living Project is a group fo parents in Canberra, there's 250 families who are looking for support and accommodation options, meaningful things to do everyday and medical and dental health care for the child, their children.

We've come together because of the lack of services in the ACT, and really the lack of services throughout Australia.

We met with Bill Shorten and many more politicians. We met with Bill Shorten a number of times and he has been very enthusiastic about our project and talking to us about what he thinks that we need.

I believe that policy that he announced today, that he is really listening to us and what was said, and put together a lot about what we asked for into the policy and it's going to be a real bonus for us to be able to do things in the future.

Alison McGregor:

I think one of the important parts of the Community Living Project is about the fact that it is a grassroots organisation.

That it is looking to the needs of the families who are caring for a loved one with a diasbility and that it is trying to make sure that they feel empowered to go and grab the opportunities that are available to them.

The Community Living Project is more than just looking at support and accommodation, it really is looking at the whole person and what they will need to live a good life.

So part of what we're doing is looking at quality life choices for people with a disability not just in the ACt, though our focus is here, but for all people with a disability across Australia.