The Greens have backed calls from the social services sector to save Ask Izzy, after the Albanese Government pulled the plug on the vital navigation service which helps connect thousands of Australians every year with housing, domestic violence, emergency relief and disability support services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Labor cut support for Ask Izzy in May\u2019s budget, with funding running out on June 30. Just $6 million over three years will help secure this service and ensure Ask Izzy will be there for people with timely connection to support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greens spokesperson on Social Services, Senator Penny Allman-Payne:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLabor\u2019s decision to wrench funding away from Ask Izzy is another baffling move from a government that seems hopelessly out of touch with just how bad things are for a growing number of Australians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt a time when more people than ever are in desperate need of support from community organisations and service providers, cutting funding to such a critical service seems especially cruel and utterly unnecessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUnder Prime Minister Albanese, Labor has rationed our aged care system to the point where older people are dying on waitlists; they\u2019ve chosen to let jobseekers die from poverty at almost ten times the rate of people not on welfare payments; and they\u2019re cutting NDIS supports from hundreds of thousands of disabled people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe only thing holding up Australia\u2019s underfunded systems of care at the moment are unpaid carers, volunteers, friends and family who are pushed to the brink alongside the people they support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Albanese Government is extorting the goodwill of our communities because they\u2019re too gutless to take on the billionaires and the big corporations and make them pay their fair share of tax.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Senator Jordon Steele-John, Australian Greens Spokesperson for Disability Rights, the NDIS, Health and Youth:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCutting funding for Ask Izzy is just so short-sighted. Millions of times a year, people use it to find the support services available in their local area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd right when the Government is changing the NDIS rules and making it harder for people to navigate the system, they\u2019re taking away another way for people to find help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor young people, disabled people and people doing it tough, Ask Izzy can be a lifeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe should be making it easier for people to get support, not pulling the rug out from under them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe government should reinstate their funding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Greens have backed calls from the social services sector to save Ask Izzy, after the Albanese Government pulled the plug on the vital navigation service which helps connect thousands of Australians every year with housing, domestic violence, emergency relief and disability support services. Labor cut support for Ask Izzy in May\u2019s budget, with funding … Continue reading “Labor must restore Ask Izzy funding”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41117,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41116\/revisions\/41117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}