Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to congratulate the board, staff and supporters of Lifestart disability services, who recently launched their online inclusion—or Oi—platform for people living with disabilities. On 28 July, I was pleased to join the Minister for Communications, who launched the new resource at the Sydney Opera House. The emcee of the event was my good friend, Paul Nunnari, a former Paralympian and great disability advocate in Australia. We heard from disability advocates, from families and friends and from the wonderful Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy choir, who performed a number of great Australian hits.

OI is a structured online support platform for people living with disability, their families, carers and support teams. The aim is to provide a disability information hub for everyone to access, with information, resources, support links and fact sheets, and, importantly, online group sessions and conversations for service providers.

The resource is also a wonderful educational tool for people living with disabilities, particularly those in rural and regional communities who cannot easily access educational services. I congratulate Bruce Corlett and the board of Lifestart; the wonderful Sue Becker and her staff, who do a tremendous job at Lifestart; and their wonderful supporters—in particular, Perpetual Trustees, who provided the seed funding for this great disability resource.

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