Vision Australia Radio faces a $700,000 gap after disability funding was transferred to the NDIS
Tue 20 Aug 2019 08.06 BST
Last modified on Tue 20 Aug 2019 08.07 BST
The non-profit that runs a network of radio stations for Australia’s blind and low vision community says it will be off the air by next year unless the government intervenes to restore its funding.
Vision Australia, which operates 10 radio stations across Victoria, southern New South Wales, Adelaide and Perth, says it is facing a $700,000 shortfall after responsibility for disability funding was transferred to the national disability insurance scheme.
Vision Australia’s manager of government relations, Chris Edwards, told Guardian Australia the lost funding was an “unintended consequence” of the NDIS.
Edwards, who lives with low vision, said the radio station was crucial for the low vision community, particularly among those who had recently lost their sight.
“Some people like myself have access to a range of technologies, but what the radio service really does deliver is that people who are newly blinded, that may not have the skills, can turn on a radio,” he said.
“Everyone knows how to turn on a radio even if you’ve just recently lost your vision.”
The network had previously received block funding from state governments, but the money has dried up after the introduction of the NDIS, which provides money to people with disabilities through individualised plans.
The issue extends beyond Vision Australia and has affected other advocacy organisations that are poised to lose their funding during the NDIS rollout.
In regional areas, the Vision Australia Radio network includes a service where volunteers read out news articles from local newspapers, as well as national publications, including Guardian Australia.
The network’s 10 stations are run by about 800 volunteers and the non-profit says its listenership of 700,000 extends beyond the vision impaired community.
At least two regional Coalition MPs, the National Damian Drum and the Liberal Russell Broadbent, have said they intend to raise the issue with the minister for the NDIS, Stuart Robert.
A spokeswoman for Robert said there had been “no change to funding from the Australian Government to Vision Australia Radio”.
“Vision Australia Radio and more than 460 community broadcasters continue to receive significant funding from the Australia Government’s independently operated Community Broadcasting program,” she said.
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The spokeswoman said Vision Australia Radio could apply for grants offered through the NDIS and to the community radio sector.
But Edwards said the grants programs suggested by the government would not fund services such as Vision Australia Radio.
He said the non-profit remained “hopeful” that Robert would agree to meet with the organisation and come to its aid.
Labor’s spokesman for the NDIS, Bill Shorten, called on the government to provide “funding certainty before it’s too late”.
“The government must consider all options to keep this long-running and vital community service from closing down,” Shorten said in a statement with Labor MPs Michelle Rowland and Lisa Chesters.
This month, Broadbent called for a meeting between the federal communications department, the National Disability Insurance Agency, and the states.
“But the bottom line is that to supply the radio service they’re going to need nearly another three-quarters of a million dollars,” he told parliament.
“That used to come in block grants. There is no facility in NDIS for that block grant to come. So, we have a problem. We will address that.”
The Fraser government first introduced a special radio communications service for the blind in 1978. Regional services, including those now operated by Vision Australia, began in 1997.
