Don't silence us

Disability advocacy funding was due to end in 2020. CID members ran the Don’t Silence Us campaign to ask the Premier of NSW to guarantee secure, permanent funding for disability advocacy organisations.

Latest: In its 2020 budget on 17 November 2020, the NSW Government announced a 3 year commitment to funding disability advocacy. We are looking at what the announcement means. Make sure you stay up to date by signing up to our email updates.

The advocacy work of organisations like CID is critically important for improving the lives and protecting the rights of people with intellectual disability.

We urgently need a commitment from the Premier Gladys Berejiklian to guarantee secure, long-term, permanent funding for CID and other disability advocacy organisations in NSW.

We have already had some success. The NSW Government had planned to cut advocacy funding in July 2018. But thanks to our campaigning with other disability advocacy organisations, the Government extended funding to June 2020 and the Minister has now indicated that he will extend funding to December 2020. We have no guarantees beyond that date.

What is the NSW Government saying about disability advocacy funding in NSW?

The NSW Government now acknowledges the critically important role of disability advocacy. However, they are yet to commit to funding disability advocacy organisations like CID beyond December 2020.

They have previously said the Federal Government should fund disability advocacy in NSW. But the Federal Government says it is the responsibility of individual states to fund state-based disability advocacy organisations like CID.

The NSW Government said they had handed over all their disability funds to the federally-administered National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), and therefore the NDIS should fund disability advocacy in NSW. But the NDIS does not and will not fund disability advocacy.

The Ageing and Disability Commissioner’s report strongly endorses the need for the NSW Government to continue and increase advocacy funding. The Government has welcomed the report. We now look to the Government to commit to ongoing and increased funding.

NDIS facts:

• 90 percent of people with disability in Australia will not meet the eligibility criteria for an NDIS plan.
• The NDIS does not protect people with intellectual disability’s right to safe, fair and inclusive treatment on public transport, or in schools, hospitals, the community and workplaces.
• The NDIS does not fund disability advocacy at a state or federal level.
• It is the responsibility of the NSW Government to fund NSW disability advocacy organisations.

The value of CID’s disability advocacy work has been independently assessed:

Professor Christine Bigby, La Trobe University, has recently released a report about the important advocacy work CID does for and with people with intellectual disability. Read more and download the report.

Find out more about our campaign to save disability advocacy.