SALLY Heggarton dreams of being able to advocate on behalf of people with a disability.
The Melton resident and client at Bacchus Marsh’s Merrimu Services, who has chaired focus groups discussing the difficulties of living with a disability, hopes the proposed National Disability Insurance Scheme will be allocated funding in next Tuesday’s federal budget.
The scheme would allow Ms Heggarton to get training in public speaking and one day be employed as an advocate.
“Many people with disabilities can’t actually speak up for themselves and I would love to be able to do that on behalf of them,” she said.
Ms Heggarton yesterday joined thousands of people at Federation Square in the nation’s largest rally for people with disabilities.
The protesters called for action on the NDIS, a system that could drastically modify the way disability services are delivered.
The proposed NDIS would reform the delivery of disability services across Australia, placing them on a similar level to Medicare.
Last July, a Productivity Commission report found the current system was “inequitable, underfunded, fragmented and inefficient” and gave disabled people few choices.
The NDIS would mean groups like Merrimu could send staff out to support clients in getting training, going to the gym or applying for jobs.
Merrimu’s support and community development co-ordinator Rana Hales said the NDIS was one of the best schemes she had seen in her nine years working in the disability sector.
“The current system is not meeting needs. We support 140 people at our centre and at least 50 want to get out there and work,” she said.
“Currently there are a lot of constraints around what funding can and can’t be
used on.”
Ms Hales said clients like Ms Heggarton, who attends Merrimu five days a week, were currently expected to pay for training courses out of their disability pension. “The NDIS will pay for itself, and that’s the idea, skilling people up to be taxpayers themselves.”
