The government, advocacy services and people with disabilities should get together to work out how they would show whether services are working well for people with disabilities. The government should look at the way it gives money to advocacy services. For example, instead of giving services the same amount of money every year, the amount of money might be tied to the amount of time the service spends with its clients. Advocacy services should try harder to meet the needs of people with disabilities who are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, who have different cultures and languages, and who are from small communities in the country. The government should look at how advocacy money can be divided more fairly within States and Territories.
Advocacy based on the needs of an individual person with a disability is important.
But so is advocacy that focuses on issues that are important to many people with disabilities. The Australian and State and Territory governments need to work together to make the new structure of the advocacy Program work. There should be a national advocacy group to represent issues important to families of people with disabilities.