Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to place on the record the tremendous contribution Bedford Industries are making to people with disabilities in South Australia generally and in my electorate of Grey particularly. Bedford have been working with the disability sector since 1945 and have created opportunities and a future for South Australians with a disability by offering employment, recreational day activities, training, life skills, community housing and support services. In recent years, they have been expanding their footprint across the state, and I cannot tell you how pleased I am.

Next Wednesday I will have the pleasure of attending the opening of Bedford’s new supported accommodation complex in Port Pirie. Bedford moved into Port Pirie three years ago and committed to opening a supported accommodation facility. The group have renovated an existing home and built three new homes. The facility will provide housing for 10 people. I was fortunate to be invited to view the complex as it neared completion several months ago and was impressed with the state-of-the-art, homely, modern and functional accommodation.

With 24 employment sites across the state, including seven in my electorate—two in Port Lincoln, three in Port Pirie, one in Kadina and one in Wallaroo—Bedford has grown into one of the biggest service organisations of its type in Australia. On Friday, a new day option service is being opened in Wallaroo which will service 30 people. Novel and interesting ways to stretch employment opportunities include the Compass egg farm at Port Lincoln, where the workers learn not only how to care for animals but also modern egg-farming practices and have the opportunity to get outdoors. Eight hundred and twenty people across the state are in receipt of services from Bedford through supported employment; 2,000 are in open employment in the community; and 150 are in housing, with 200 more expected in the next 12 months—in total, more than 3,000 people. Bedford’s recreational programs for people with higher support needs assist 100 people across South Australia.

The expansion of Bedford outside Adelaide’s city limits has been a revelation in disability services. They have come into communities and taken over locally driven organisations which were struggling for critical mass, introducing sophisticated management procedures. The organisation have an annual turnover of $50 million, support 3,000 people, when just a decade ago they were assisting 520, and raise 75 per cent of their own funds, with most of the other 25 per cent coming from the federal government.

Bedford are an organisation to be proud of in South Australia. Their chief executive, Max Dyason, has just returned from Ireland, where he and other Bedford representatives were invited to speak on the Bedford model to the disability sector from across Europe. From my perspective, they have much to offer the world. I thank them for their contribution and wish them all the best for their opening next week.