True Colours

 Our new Queensland government is showing its true colours.

It's targeting the most vulnerable in our community, people with disabilities, withdrawing funding support that bears directly on the quality of life of this group.

I've been working in this field since 1971, and this is the first time in my recollection that I've seen any government withdrawing vital support from people with disabilities.

The relevant minister (Tracy Davis) is keeping her head down and won't be interviewed, so it's left to the bureaucrats to speak up -

The Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services says funding is being redirected towards approved services such as respite, support equipment and therapy services.

This is another way of saying that the funding that went directly to families is being withdrawn. "Approved services" are already begging and scraping to provide the basics such as respite. In parts of regional Queensland where I work, families are lucky if they get access to respite once every twelve moths. I'll keep you posted on whether this changes under the the LNP.

"Redirected" has been, in my experience, shorthand for "withdrawn".

It says heaps about the values that drive the LNP.

You can tell a lot about a government by the way it treats its most marginalised groups.