By Charlene Gatt
MARIBYRNONG residents took part in a national afternoon tea last week to campaign for the introduction of a National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Maribyrnong City Council hosted one of 866 individual DisabiliTeas across the country on Tuesday, with councillors, local MPs and people across the West with disabilities in attendance.
The Productivity Commission is due to report to State and Federal governments on the findings of its inquiry into a long-term disability care and support scheme.
The report found that current State and Federal government disability services were underfunded and inefficient, and recommends a National Disability Insurance Scheme to transform the way services are funded and delivered.
Ryan Struk is a strong advocate for the scheme.
Mr Struk, 31, was born with muscular dystrophy and said there were lots of problems with the current system, including lengthy waits for equipment.
Mr Struk had to wait a year for all the funding to come through for his customised electric wheelchair and occupational therapist.
“If I had acquired my disability via a road accident, I would have been able to get all the equipment I needed straight away,” he said.
“Therefore I am being discriminated against because I was born with a disability.
“Under the NDIS all those funds my occupation therapist had to apply for would be amalgamated into one federal funding body with double the amount of funding that is currently spread across different agencies.
“For any other equipment or personal care funding that I needed, I wouldn’t have to search for the funding in many different places, I would have the funding available through the NDIS.”
