Vickie Chapman MP

The Rann Government has failed to deliver its election promise to immediately clear the waiting list for disability equipment.

Despite pledging during the election to spend $7.7 million by 30 June to clear the list the Government have been unable to do so.

Shadow Minister for Disability, Vickie Chapman, said the latest failure to clear the waiting list was further proof the Government couldn’t be trusted.

“They haven’t spent the money and they haven’t cleared the waiting list” Ms Chapman said.

“The Government has failed to deliver and in turn prolonged suffering for people on the waiting list.

“Until recurrent disability funding is increased to allow quicker assessment and delivery of equipment people will suffer.

“The Rann Government have made a number of one-off funding commitments for equipment which have failed to clear the waiting list.

“In this instance they haven’t even spent the money they had budgeted!”

One of the key problems with letting the waiting list explode before reigning it in is that some people then need to be reassessed, Ms Chapman said.

“Often people wait on a list for a piece of equipment and by the time the government makes funding available for their equipment they need to be reassessed” Ms Chapman said.