Disability Voices Tasmania, an NGO that advocates for people with disability, is set to close amid sweeping cuts in the Liberal-Lambie budget disaster.

The organisation made a desperate plea to Minister Jo Palmer for funding, and it’s imperative that the Minister comes to the table with the funding required to keep the organisation going.

The situation has become even more urgent with the loss of Autism Tasmania. The State Government signed a pledge before the election to provide state-based funding to Autism Tasmania of $300,000 a year for three years – an election commitment they now seem to be walking away from.

Disability Voices Tasmania is the only state-based diverse disability advocacy body in Tasmania, so failing to fund Disability Voices Tasmania is another example of a broken promise and failure to deliver from this government.

Clearly this government is comfortable making empty promises and has no shame in breaking them. The question is, are the Jacqui Lambie Network, who claim to be about transparency and accountability, comfortable propping up a minority government that has no concept of either?

Ella Haddad MP
Shadow Minister for Health