February 2025
For the 2025-26 NSW Pre-Budget Submission the Government required people to prepare submissions with reference to the state's wellbeing framework and provided a form for completion.
The key messages from People with Disability Australia's (PWDA) pre-budget submission are that making NSW more inclusive and accessible offers:
- wellbeing benefits for people with disability
- wellbeing benefits for the wider community
- opportunities to save over $12 billion
Investing in a more inclusive NSW offers returns for everyone. The identifiable cost savings available in the short-term speak to the urgency of taking action on inclusion.
PWDA have reflected investment and cost savings for the financial year. However, investing in ending homelessness within 10 years offers the opportunity for NSW to avoid a compounding trajectory of negative impacts on educational achievement, employment, health and law enforcement that homelessness causes.
When you run the numbers, the cost of discrimination and exclusion is far higher than investing in inclusion.
Challenges PWDA would like addressed in the 2025-26 Budget
Ensuring the 1.74 million people with disability in NSW have equal access to the following domains can improve wellbeing in NSW:
- health - by investing in inclusive health services*, accessible preventative healthcare and healthcare staff training, the NSW government could save $1.498 Billion per year
- skilled and education -segregated education and employment damages the life chances of people with disability. We recommend that the NSW Government invest in $300,000 in pilots to learn what works best to support improved learning outcomes for children with disability, and in inclusive TAFE training*
- housed -By mandating the National Construction Standard to improve housing accessibility the NSW Government reduce the number of people reliant on social housing at a cost of $0 to government. Homelessness costs NSW $6.5B per year – $65B over 10 years. Investing $26B over 10 years- or $2.6B annually, a third of the cost, this offers an annualised cost saving of $3.91B
We recommend maintaining the investment in specialist homelessness services (SHS) like Together Home and in accessibility upgrades as this investment of $46.3M has saved $241.8M. SHS assistance has seen 24,790 homeless people assisted into housing, at total cost saving of $5.16B
- community - access to family, friends, community, recreation, diversity and culture are essential for wellbeing we recommend creating a $1M grant fund to help community groups improve accessibility
- secure - we recommend investing $1.01B in ensuring people are safe at home in the community and places of their choosing, free from violence, to save on $16.7B cost of violence, abuse and neglect
- connected – across NSW many people with disability face exclusion from accessing government services, healthcare, employment, education, due to the digital divide and a lack of accessible public transport.
Key ideas to address challenges
People with disability face barriers to becoming and remaining connected due to increasing digitisation and a lack of accessible public transport.
The reduction in face-to-face service provision, and a lack of accessibly designed digital service provision, excludes people with disability from accessing government services, essential goods and connecting with the community. We need greater investment in ensuring all people have access to accessible public services and public transport. This must include improving affordable access to the internet and mobile service networks, affordable access to data and up to date devices and also accessible face to face and telephone services for those unable to use digital services.
Our review of the emergency management system also highlights the lack of accessible transport to evacuate people with disability ahead of emergencies in line with their person-centred emergency plans. We call for mapping of public transport gaps, and urgent work to address them.
New or alternate ways to fund new, or continuing programs
Previous NSW budgets have ignored the true costs of 'doing nothing', but the wellbeing framework invites a different approach to investment. Allowing homelessness, inaccessible housing, healthcare, and safety issues to continue for people with disability in NSW has an enormous financial cost. Investing in change that improves wellbeing for people with disability, also offers the chance to save on the enormous cost of doing nothing.
