A GROUP of Bendigo residents will demand action on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) at a rally in Melbourne next week.
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About 25 people with disabilities, family members and service providers will travel to Melbourne on April 30 to attend the event at Federation Square.
Similar events will be held around the country on the same day as part of a push to make the federal government make real commitments to the NDIS. Golden City Support Services community development officer John Willis said thousands of people were expected at the rally in Melbourne.
“A group from Bendigo will be leaving at 8.45am on the train and we’ll be back in Bendigo about 4.15pm,” he said.
“We’re doing this, and also around Bendigo we’ve collected some signatures on a long, red banner. That was up at Bendigo Senior Secondary College on Friday and there would be between 200 and 300 signatures on it so far.”
The Every Australian Counts campaign, which has co-ordinated the grassroots push for this transformational disability reform, forecasts the event be the biggest disability rally ever seen in Australia. The nation’s top politicians are expected to attend and address concerns raised by people with a disability.
There will also be live entertainment, speeches and videos to highlight why disability reform is needed.
Both the federal government and Opposition have publicly supported the need to deliver a better,
fairer support system for people with a disability through the NDIS. However, rally participants will press for political commitments to be converted to tangible milestones prior to the May federal budget.
The NDIS rallies will call for legislation to introduce the National Disability Insurance Agency, nomination of the location of NDIS launch sites in 2013 and funding to make these things happen.
The Melbourne rally is on Monday, April 30, at noon at Federation Square in Melbourne.
