Page 172 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 February 2016
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I would be happy to support the amendment if it were an addition, not a substitution. My office asked Dr Bourke’s office to consider it as an addition, not a substitution. While this has now been proposed as a substitution, I do not think that the Canberra Liberals can support it, because it does not provide an option for Radio Print Handicapped.
MR DOSZPOT (Molonglo) (4.03): I have great pleasure in supporting my colleague Mrs Dunne in the motion she has brought forward for debate today, because it is an issue about which I am most passionate and because 1RPH is so deserving of public support and funding.
As Mrs Dunne has highlighted, 1RPH is an unfortunate victim of a consequence of the introduction of NDIS. Previously 1RPH received funding from the ACT government under the Disability ACT banner. When the NDIS rollout comes into full effect in July of this year, 1RPH will have this funding stream stopped. It accounts for 25 per cent of its total funding, so it is not an insignificant amount, as Mrs Dunne has highlighted. As a not-for-profit organisation run by volunteers—Madam Deputy Speaker, with your background you would be well aware of what volunteers in Canberra provide—it will struggle for funding. 1RPH will struggle for funding if this is cut. It will not be easy in these tight times for not-for-profits to easily replace this funding.
1RPH has played an important role in the delivery of services to the Canberra community and, more recently, an even wider audience. It had humble beginnings, starting with just a few volunteers broadcasting a limited range of programs from a small house in Ainslie from April 1985. In 1987 it moved to its present location on a five-acre block in Gungahlin. I understand that students from CIT building trades built the 20-square purpose-designed offices and studios, and since that time those studios have been well used.
I am proud to say, and I have to declare, that I have been one of the volunteer newsreaders and have spent considerable time in the studio at Gungahlin, along with many others, including Mrs Dunne, who, along with her husband, has done a sterling job over the past years. Mrs Dunne cannot quite remember how long it is, but it is certainly well in excess of 10 years. I think it is 12 years.
For those not familiar with the work that 1RPH does, let me list some of the work. Radio 1RPH provides news and other information needed by people who are print handicapped. 1RPH volunteers help people to overcome their disadvantage by turning print into sound, providing a broad range of detailed information which is available in printed form but not provided by other radio and television stations.
The definition of “print handicapped” is fairly broad. It covers people who are blind or vision impaired; people who are paraplegic or quadriplegic; people who are severely affected by arthritis, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis or dyslexia; those who have never learned to read; people from non-English-speaking backgrounds who understand but cannot read the language; and people who have suffered a stroke—all very important members of our community who need to be looked after. It is
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