Queenslanders with a disability have every right to be fearful for the future under the Bligh and Rudd governments, Queensland Senator Sue Boyce said today.
“The decision to axe the Office of the Public Advocate is just the latest in a long line of Labor Government decisions that leave people with disabilities more vulnerable.
“The most frightening decision has been to turn all responsibility for disability services and for disability education over to the States without any Federal oversight of how those funds are spent,” Senator Boyce said.
Senator Boyce said an Independent Schools policy think tank had heard today that students with a disability can receive less than one-fifth of the help given to a similar student in a government school.
Some areas of education funding for students with a disability have not increased for six years.
“There’s certainly no oversight of what the State Government is doing from the Rudd Government and now there won’t be any independent oversight internally.
“I remember the first Public Advocate, Ian Boardman, stating that he had visited people with a disability in boarding houses and other environments in Brisbane ‘that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end in the middle of the day’.
“The Beattie Labor Government said the appointment of a Public Advocate ‘would protect the rights of Queenslanders with decision-making disabilities’. Who will do that now?” Senator Boyce asked.
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