$500,000 to expand advocacy for people with disability - The Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services, the Hon Bill Shorten MP, has announced that the Australian Government is providing funding of up to $500,000 per year

$500,000 to expand advocacy for people with disability The Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services, the Hon Bill Shorten MP, has announced that the Australian Government is providing funding of up to $500,000 per year across five metropolitan areas to further expand individual advocacy support for people with disability.

Combined with 10 regional areas previously announced to receive new funding for individual advocacy, this brings total funding to expand the delivery of individual advocacy services and improve service coverage to $1.5 million per year. Funding is from the 2007-08 Federal Budget measure to fund improvements to the National Disability Advocacy Program. This funding will further improve access for people with disability to individual advocacy support, assisting them to overcome barriers such as abuse, neglect and discrimination so that they can fully participate in the community.

The five new regions are:

The Kingston, Greater Dandenong and Casey Local Government Areas, VIC
Queanbeyan Local Government Area, NSW
Sutherland Local Government Area, NSW
Logan Local Government Area, QLD
Wanneroo, Joondalup and Stirling Local Government Areas, WA

The 10 regional areas previously announced are:

New South Wales: Port Macquarie-Hastings, Kempsey and Nambucca Shires
New South Wales: Goulburn Mulwaree Council area and Wingecarribee Shire
New South Wales: Great Lakes and Port Stephens Shires and Lake Macquarie City areas
Queensland: Bundaberg Regional Council area (comprises former Burnett Shire & Bundaberg City Council Areas)
Queensland: Fraser Coast Regional Council area (comprises former Hervey Bay and Maryborough City Council Areas)
South Australia: City of Mount Gambier
Victoria: Moorabool, Hepburn and Golden Plains Shires
Victoria/New South Wales: Mildura Rural City Council area, Wentworth and Balranald Shires
Western Australia: Broome and Derby-West Kimberley Shires
Northern Territory: East Arnhem Shire

All 15 areas to be funded have been selected based on disability population and level of disability advocacy support funded by Commonwealth, state and territory governments.

Source: disAbility e-news | 17 November 2008