PSA Media release:
The new Minister for Disability Services has shunned people with disability, their support staff and families, failing to meet with them on his first trip to the Hunter under his new portfolio.
The Public Service Association (PSA) said it was disgraceful Ray Williams instead chose to speak with big business on how it can profit from the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
“This proves the Berejiklian Government is not serious about caring for some of society’s most disadvantaged people and their families,” said PSA Assistant General Secretary, Troy Wright, who was in Newcastle to protest against Williams’s visit.
“Ray Williams comes to the Hunter region and doesn’t visit a group home, doesn’t visit his department’s clients, doesn’t visit their families and doesn’t visit staff,” Mr Wright said.
“Yet the Minister has plenty of time to go to a business club function and talk to his big business mates about how people can make a quick buck from the NDIS.”
Mr Williams was appointed Minister for Disability Services in the recent Berejiklian cabinet reshuffle. Since then he has been embroiled in a scandal alleging he received donations from property developers.
“That Mr Williams is the 23rd-ranked minister in a 23-person ministry says a lot about the priority the State Government gives care of people with disability in NSW,” Mr Wright said.
“The PSA wants the Government to slow down on its implementation of the NDIS, which it is using to flog off all care for people with a disability to the private sector, reducing clients’ choice and cutting out a safety net for some of the most disadvantaged members of our society.”