Council Aisability Advisers Are Axed

Thirty members of various disability groups lobbied Auckland Council’s governing body on Wednesday 26 ^th of August, to protest the council’s decision to axe the jobs of the region's disability advisers. As reported in the New Zealand Herald last week “The council's Empowered Communities plan will cut community development and safety staff from 101 to 78 fulltime-equivalents to cut costs by $1.6 million this year and $2 million a year in future years.

The lobby group feared the loss of the disability advisors would deny the disability community a chance of having a direct voice to address the issues that concern them and the group also expressed the concern that with the departure of the advisors a lot of accumulative knowledge would be lost.

The Disability Advisory Panel (DAP), established by the Mayor in June 2011, passed two resolutions this year requesting that Council retain the specialist knowledge and expertise of the two Disability Advisors, to enable Council to meet its obligations to the disability community. The Panel sees the disestablishing of these crucial roles by Council as a backward step that threatens to seriously undo much of the progress Council has made in recent years.

As many people who work within the disability community point out, the Disability Advisors do much more than provide advice on physical access. They currently support staff training on disability inclusion, ensure that events and consultations can be made accessible, provide a disability perspective on Council and CCO initiatives, and act as a conduit between Council and the disability community. Council needs to seriously address these concerns before finalising any restructuring, as around 300,000 Aucklanders have a disability and this number will grow as the population ages. Any decision will have a huge impact on this large sector of the community. Here’s hoping for a positive outcome.

Ross Flood