Disability Care Australia comes to Queensland

Taken by Judy Dickson on behalf of ALARA Association. 

Yesterday I was privileged to witness the combination of many years of hard work and determination by people with disabilities, their families and those who care for them.  As Julia Gilard an Campbell  Newman signed the historic agreement between the State Government of Queensland and the Australia Federal Government. 

To people with disability and their families this is about much more than funding to meet their day to day needs.  While by 2019 some additional 50,000 families in Queensland will have their support needs meet for the first time.  The real victory for NDIS campaigners in the revolutionary thinking build this world class system. 

Like landrights for indigenous Australians and women gaining the right to vote, for the first time our leaders have acknowledge our right to the quality of life other Australians enjoy.  The legislation looks specifically at real inclusion for people with disability for the first time.

Its a long road head until the 50 000 Queenslanders who currently have no assistance receive the help they have hounded the Queensland government for decades. But certainly the signing yesterday was caused for celebration.  

While for some its a case of too late, the real work and challenge for service providers is ahead as we make the shift from service provision to a true market place where people are empowered to make choices about their lifestyles.

So to does the challenge of bring about community awareness.  What is disability?  How does it impact the lives of  those affected? What are the true abilities of these people to contribute in real and meaningful ways to our society.  The real challenge for us is  the challenge to long term attitudes towards people like myself who had enough of watching life from sidelines.  Its our time to join in and enjoy all that life has to offer to leave the house!  To go to work or study.  To be creative and use the same innovations we use to create and design the NDIS to create small business and design technologies. 

History in the making as documents are signed 

to allow the Introduction of Disabilities Care Australia.