Page 164 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 15 February 2006
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Analysts have found that one in 10 people in Australia have a family member with a disability, so being seen as a business that is disability friendly can lead to increased sales. For example, Pizza Hut recorded measurable sales increases after hiring over 14,000 people with disabilities. Unfortunately, analysts have also estimated that the underutilisation of people with a disability in the work force is Australia’s greatest social problem, costing the community $18.8 billion, or $5,000 for each taxpayer.
Services like Koomarri’s are helping to change this problem. Its JobMatch employment service has been extremely successful in placing people into work and ensuring them better wages. Koomarri also employs a large number of people through its business services such as Ezi Iron, the Cut Cloth Shop, Pack ‘n’ Post, and Contract Solutions. These services have a dual focus: to provide supported employment for the disabled employees and to operate a commercially viable business. This dual focus demands that there is an effective balance between competing requirements to achieve success.
Koomarri has played an integral part in many people’s lives since its inception, but it was not until the destruction of its new building last year that the service realised how much it meant to the wider Canberra community. On 27 August 2004, the Chief Minister turned the first sod on the Koomarri Centre in Phillip. The centre aimed to give Koomarri clients and their families the confidence that Koomarri would be there with them for the long haul.
Expected to open on December 16 last year, the new centre was extensively damaged by a deliberately lit fire on 9 November 2005. The fire caused more than $1 million worth of damage to the $1.7 million building. The fire was extremely disheartening, not only for the people of Koomarri but also for the builders and the many contributors who had donated materials and money to build the centre.
But from the fire came the recognition that Koomarri meant a lot to many people in Canberra, not just those directly associated with the service. The association received phone calls, letters and donations for weeks after the fire, telling them how sad people were to hear about what had happened. Donations as a direct result of the fire have already raised over $200,000. It is a wonderful testimony to the generosity of the Canberra community. I would also add that I believe that it is a testimony to the fact that I and, I think, most people in the community were just totally stunned that anybody could do this to an organisation that provides such a wonderful service.
During the strong storms Canberra suffered in early December last year, the building was damaged again, but work is now well under way and the new centre is expected to open in late March to early April. The centre will provide an extensive range of services, including a specialist counselling service for people with disabilities and their families; a location to provide information about specific disabilities and how to access available services; a place to hold information forums; a drop-in centre for people with disabilities; a small prevocational facility for people preparing to enter the work force through Koomarri businesses or JobMatch; a training and development facility and an administration office.
Despite the adversity it has faced, Koomarri has continued to provide Canberrans with a high standard of support services. I offer my congratulations to Margaret Spalding and
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