#Joyspring lead sheet cracker#

Half of all people with disabilities live near or below the poverty line. I enjoy paying my taxes and contributing to the economic life of Australia.Īustralia ranks last among the OECD countries when measured on quality of life for people with disabilities. I currently live independently without any funded support. I do have a wheelchair that suits my needs. I also need to declare my relative position of privilege as a person with disability in Australia. Without a wheelchair (or with a wheelchair that doesn't suit my needs) I would need full-time care. Let me make this clear my impairment is such that without a wheelchair, I can't do very much for myself. It has a couple of extra features that allow me to be completely independent - like a raise and lower mechanism to allow me to reach beyond my 88cm height, and a seat tilting mechanism that helps me alleviate pressure on my back - but as wheelchairs go, it's pretty lo-fi. Perhaps I should have clarified that my wheelchair is by no means a Porsche among Holdens. Surely, I must be sporting a luxury model. Interestingly, much of the criticism I've received since published my response has focused on the cost of my wheelchair. I wrote that because I live in Victoria where the current maximum funding for a wheelchair is $8,000, I paid $14,000 towards the total cost of my chair. I told Matt that I also spend money on my clothes, my food and my morning coffees, but that in 2012 I also spent quite a sum of my annual salary on replacing my 17-year-old wheelchair. I share some of Matt's concerns about wanting to decide what I spend my money on. In the spirit of healthy debate, invited a response from me. 'How selfish of me to want to spend money that I'm working hard for on myself! To put clothes on my back, food in my mouth and a few luxuries like a morning coffee.' Why shouldn't he get to spend it how he wants? It's just that he, like far too many Australians, seems to think that disability has nothing to do with him. Despite our shared surname, Matt is no relation to me and I don't know him personally. Yesterday published a piece by Matt Young. Predictably, cries of 'It's so unfair' and 'Why should I have to pay for these people' came thick and fast. The Opposition has refused to rule out a levy as a means of funding the scheme, so that's looking like a pretty likely scenario. That amounts to an extra $300 per year for the average person. The levy would be an addition to the Medicare levy currently paid by Australians - an increase from 1.5 to 2 per cent. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case and in the past few days, the Government has raised the prospect of a levy. That'd be great wouldn't it? Imagine if support for people with disabilities were considered core business in a wealthy country like Australia. The Productivity Commission recommended the NDIS be funded from general revenue. The money has to come from somewhere, right? But with the federal budget just two weeks away, I can't bury my head in the sand any longer.

#Joyspring lead sheet cracker#

I've been known to say quite publicly that I don't give a rat's cracker how we fund it, as long as it happens. We don't think about the NDIS in terms of dollars we think about it in terms of showers per week, mobility aids that meet our needs and general access to our communities.

The question of how we fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme is one that I've managed to avoid quite well for the past 12 months.įor people with disabilities, myself included, discussions about the money are simply beside the point. But the NDIS is not about people like me who currently live with disabilities, it's about all of those who might in the future, writes Stella Young. Far too many Australians seem to think that disability has nothing to do with them.