Friday 6 June 2014

The Govt budget targets the POOR, the sick, disabled and the marginalised!


My speech at Melb Bust the Budget Rally in May on how people with disability are going to be impacted by this government's budget.




Ok so today I am going to talk to you about how this budget and this government is effecting people with disability.
This is a collaborative speech worked on by a number of disability activist and I am just their mouthpiece with a good shirt really.

So I’m going to start off with the good news because it is the only thing which doesn’t seek to disadvantage people with disability further then we already are- the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and that, is still going ahead but it has been delayed and this will obviously hurt a lot of people with disabilities and their carers.

This budget essentially, targets the POOR, the sick, disabled and the marginalized. It further reintranches the disadvantages we are already subject to, when right now almost 50% of people with disability live near or below the poverty line.

There will be a decrease in the DSP over time. And interestingly, and I will allow you to take a guess at why, there will soon no longer be a disability discrimination commissioner.

Programs that promote the human rights of people with disabilities are being de-funded.

There will be cuts to legal services and violence services, which is particularly worrying because we know that women with disabilities are more likely to experience forms of violence then non-disabled women.

There are changes to health care, which will hit the people with disability particularly hard, with an increase in medicines and a $7 GP fee, as well as cuts public health spending of around 80 billion and Public Hospital funding is also being slashed.  

An estimated 28,000 people who were granted the DSP between 2008-2011, are under 35 who have been assessed as being able to work more than 8 hours a week will have to take part in compulsory work programs, and will face sanctions if they do not comply.

People with disability will be subject to "independent" assessments by doctors and as we know from the UK, it can, and will result in deaths for those with little or no to capacity to work. These doctors are not specialists in a number of disabilities and they also are being hired by Centerlink to save the government money.

The ABC’S Ramp up, a disability website, which provides a national platform for disability issues is no longer going to be funded, meaning that all the issues which will harm and further disadvantage people with disability will no longer have a voice.

There is no additional help with employment and with the changes already made to the DSP eligibility, there are a lot of people with disability on Newstart. so the new rules relating to Newstart, having to wait six months fif your under  30...will also apply to all those people who are sick/disabled and in need of health care and medicines which they now have absolutely NO INCOME to afford.

There will be an increase in household bills for people on pensions as we are no longer eligible for discounts and the few tax deductions which we could receive have been abolished.

And there is no getting away from all of this cos if you are receiving the DSP, and want to go overseas, you will have only four weeks to do that in before you get cut off and you will have to wait another 12 months before you can travel again. I guess they are expecting us to be too poor to be able to travel anywhere, ever.

So basically its fucked.  But we can march, we can raise our voices and we can try and do 10 things a day which would make Abbott very, very, uncomfortable, as a queer I aim to do that each and every day to the very fucking best of my ability!


(For more info see http://www.disabilitydirectory.net.au/articles/budget-lowdown/)

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