Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm rising to share my concern about the lack of specialist disability accommodation, SDA, in Wentworth. There are only 11 existing buildings in Sydney's eastern suburbs, compared with 36 in North Sydney and 107 in Parramatta, to support people living with disabilities. Worse than that, we're only expecting one new build, compared to 166 new builds in Parramatta. The Prime Minister's own backyard has the next lowest number of specialist disability accommodation, with only 19 existing SDAs. This is not because there are fewer people living with a disability in the eastern suburbs or indeed the inner west. It's because high land values mean that the policy that is designed to do this just doesn't work for our community. Since these are long-term residences, having just a couple of people on the waiting list could mean a decades-long wait for accommodation.

For parents of young people with disability like Karen, Ivan, Chana and Francesca, this is heartbreaking. It forces people to move outside their local area, away from friends, family and support. One of my local constituents, Nick, who is sick of the wait for his daughter, has started raising funds to build an SDA. While I think Nick is great to show this leadership, we need a systematic national solution. The current policy works for some communities but not for others. It's time for the government to make sure families across the country are supported, and I'll be strongly advocating that for Wentworth.