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WINTER 2025 InTouch | 7 DPA’s initial response to last week’s Budget 2025 announcement was featured in Stuff’s Budget Day coverage. Our National President, Kera Sherwood- O’Regan, pointed out that the government’s budget demolishes the foundations of support for disabled people in Aotearoa New Zealand. Budget 2025 – DPA Comments “This budget is demolishing the foundations, while plastering over a few cracks here and there” she says. The small pockets of disability funding that were announced in Budget 2025 do not keep pace with the level of need, and are inadequate. They will not bring about equity, and are not enough to ensure that disabled people thrive in Aotearoa. We need investment in the foundational services like education, housing, health, and Disability Support Services, and we need that investment to be sustainable. DPA is also concerned that the weak progress on disability comes after years of underinvestment in disabled people; direct cuts to disability support and sector; and also comes at a time of increased need – which is to be expected since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. “We have been living through a mass disabling event, with unprecedented disruption to our health and disability system and society at large. It is common sense that governments need to invest more heavily in disability during a pandemic – to NEWS ROUNDUP address inequities and gaps, and also to be in the best possible position for economic recovery. So it’s disappointing on both a human rights and economic level that we don’t see this reflected in Budget 2025”, says Sherwood-O’Regan. One of the best investments the government could have made would have been to fund the pay equity claims. By stopping these from proceeding, the government is taking $12.8 billion dollars out of the pockets of low-income, hard-working women, and those include many disabled women. “We know that disabled people benefit when the people who are supporting us are paid fairly. We also know that disabled women who work in these sectors along with their families also benefit when they are paid fairly.” So, while DPA welcomes the increased funding for learning support, we note that teacher aides were one of the groups who have been impacted by the cuts to pay equity. We are deeply concerned to see the government celebrating Budget 2025’s funding for military style bootcamps – despite the strong evidence that this will harm Māori, Pacific, and disabled young people. DPA is also extremely concerned about the government’s plans to start means testing 18- and 19-year- olds’ access to benefits with Work and Income, forcing young adults into economic dependency on their parents. This is a major disability and equity issue, particularly for disabled and queer youth who are more at risk of abuse and mistreatment, and who face greater challenges accessing employment. The safety and rights of young people should never be cut to balance a budget. DPA welcomes the lifting of the freeze on funding for Residential Care and the increase in funding for Disability Support Services (DSS), although the increase only covers about a third of what is needed. We encourage the government to ensure that DSS are fully and sustainably funded in the near future. DPA also acknowledges that the move to 12-month prescriptions will be welcome news to many of our community living with chronic health conditions. For this to be successful and equitable, the government must ensure that this change does not negatively affect critical medication monitoring and overall patient care. For more information, CCS has put together this article on how to read the budget in Budget Day Basics 2025: https://tinyurl.com/mryp78dn Above: A test print of Budget 2025 Photo credit interest.co.nz