Page 3623 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 28 October 2014

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for stadiums, with a view to learning from the experience of the consortium in building and operating the facility, and how this knowledge might be applied to a city stadium in Canberra.

With a view to learning from Singapore’s rail corridor densification experience, I met with SMRT Trains, a subsidiary to SMRT, and Singapore’s rail operator, and viewed firsthand the city’s rail network, including interconnectivity with other modes of public transport, workplace and lifestyle hubs such as sporting stadiums.

Continuing with the theme of public transport, I also met with Singapore’s Senior Minister of State, Mrs Josephine Teo, to discuss land transport policy frameworks and integration, and to learn from Singapore’s experience in developing an efficient public transport network. My time in Singapore also provided a number of media opportunities to promote the territory to a wider audience across Asia, including a televised interview with CNBC Asia and an interview with the Business Times.

I look forward to advising the Assembly of the ongoing benefits to the territory that we expect to arise from these continuing and important relationship building missions.

Disability—early intervention programs

Statement by minister

MS BURCH (Brindabella—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Disability, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Racing and Gaming, Minister for Women and Minister for the Arts) (10.15), by leave: Last week in my statement to the Assembly I said that I would provide an update on the results of the early intervention tender process, as it was finalised. Now this has occurred, ensuring certainty for families accessing early intervention services into the future.

In September, the National Disability Insurance Agency began a tender process for the provision of early intervention services from 2015. More than 40 organisations attended an industry briefing and around 50 attended the early intervention and therapy expo held at Exhibition Park on 13 September. The expo was a great success, with more than a thousand people attending, and many said that the range of services was more diverse than they had imagined. A number of the stallholders who attended the expo were already offering early intervention and therapy services in Canberra and more are intending to do so as the NDIS ramps up.

I understand that nine organisations submitted compliant tenders to provide early intervention services through the tender process, and I am pleased to say that there were six successful tenderers. These providers are now in final contract negotiations with the NDIA to provide early intervention services, and they will be there ready to provide services from the beginning of the 2015 school year.

The successful tenderers are Northcott, Noah’s Ark from Victoria, the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, Autism Spectrum Australia or ASPECT, EACH, and SDN Children’s Services. These organisations have the capacity, experience and interest in providing early intervention services that are evidence based, child focused and family centred. These will ensure that all children with a disability or developmental delay are catered


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