In the lead up to the next Queensland Government budget, the Queensland Independent Disability Advocacy Network (QIDAN) has provided a written submission to Queensland Treasury about the level of funding needed for disability advocacy in our state. After analysing data from our collective advocacy work and the level of unmet need, QIDAN proposed a modest increase in funding that would allow us to grow our reach from 0.25% to 1.5% of the population of people with disability.
You can read our executive summary here, and the full submission linked below.
Executive summary
QIDAN is grateful for the opportunity to provide this submission, aiming to highlight the need of securing increased State funding for the disability advocacy sector in the upcoming Queensland budget. Currently, the State funding allocated to QIDAN is only enough to provide advocacy services to 0.25% of the population of people with disability in Queensland. Consequently, the disability advocacy sector is unable to effectively support our community, sustain our organisations, or adequately address the growing demand for disability advocacy – a service deemed by the Disability Royal Commission as being essential for people with disability to achieve autonomy and prevent violence, neglect, and exploitation.
Our submission outlines the current issues faced by the sector and demonstrates the impact this has on people with disability. We present an analysis of the data collected by the Queensland Disability Advocacy Program and Pathways during the 2022 to 2023 financial year. We examine the extent of unmet demand and need for disability advocacy services and provide estimates of the costs required to meet demand and need. Our submission also looks at the impact that inadequate funding has on the sustainability of our organisations. We hope that Queensland Treasury will appreciate the value of individual disability advocacy and will agree that our sector requires State funding to be increased to a minimum of $20,198,842 annually to enable us to service at least 1.5% of Queenslanders with disability.
