Bendigo Advertiser: 'We are bleeding workers': Disability workers strike over funding shortfall

By Ben Loughran

March 26 2026 - 6:00am Link to original story here.

Disability support workers are concerned some of the community's most vulnerable may end up filling hospital beds or on the street if a state government funding subsidy was not renewed.

In December 2025, a funding subsidy which had been in place for nearly a decade and helped five disability providers run former state-operated group homes lapsed.

Peter Romer has been a disability support worker for two decades including nine years in Bendigo.

Picture by Ben Loughran

Disability support workers rallied outside of Premier Jacinta Allan's office in Bendigo.

Mr Romer said the funding subsidy was critical in allowing services to carry out the best care available to people in group homes.

He said the consequences could be dire if people with disabilities were forced out of their homes.

"If there is no support and their homes are not viable then they won't have staff in their houses... participants could end up in local hospitals, aged care facilities, anywhere that has really got a bed," he said.

"This is what the Victorian public really need to understand, it is not just a disability issue, it is an everyone issue."

Disability support workers have now taken to the street under protected industrial action to fight for this funding arrangement to be reinstated.

More than two dozen workers, members of the Health and Community Services Union, rallied outside Victorian premier Jacinta Allan's office on March 24.

Mr Romer emphasised that an impact on people living with disabilities had wider-reaching ramifications for the community.

"When you want to try and take your kid to the hospital and there is no beds that is because we've got people with needs that don't have a home taking those beds up."

Struggling' to attract staff

He said this, in turn, risks participants not being given the best care available.

"We are already struggling to attract quality workers to this industry, a lot of workers are going off to aged care and childcare which is being funded by the federal government," he said.

"We are bleeding workers hand over fist."

Mr Romer said it was "likely" group homes in Bendigo would be affected the longer they went without adequate funding.

Another disability support worker at the protest echoed these sentiments.

Photo by Ben Loughran

Zelda has been a disability support worker for 14 years. Picture by Ben Loughran

Zelda has been in the industry for 14 years and said the state government has "let down" the group home participants, support workers and the families of participants.

She said every day was a fight to provide the best quality of life and care for participants who "deserve amazing lives".

Zelda said the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was not a one-stop-shop for all people living with a disability.

"What we are facing now is a situation where the structures that are giving (group home participants) safe, consistent support are deteriorating around them," she said.

"A lack of funding endangers participants and workers... workers are increasingly expected to go into high-pressure situations with no training and no supervision."

Heartbreaking conditions

She also reinforced the staffing crisis affecting the industry and labelled some of the conditions participants lived in were "heartbreaking".

"Some of our most qualified, experienced staff are leaving the sector, wages are just one thing, it is lack of respect we get for the work we do," she said.

"One of the big issues you see is the NDIS wants evidence but they don't value word of workers... they want to see it from OTs, they to see it from behavioural support practitioners and we are getting told we are worth nothing, our experience is worth nothing.

"It is heartbreaking to see conditions get worse and being asked to turn up days after day in less safe conditions getting paid less and getting no respect."

She was concerned that if group homes in Bendigo closed, participants could end up needing homelessness services or moving into aged care.

She said she had "no confidence" the state government would reintroduce the subsidy.

"We are wearing high-vis and hard hats because we think the only way the Labor Party will pay attention to us is if we look like construction workers," she said.

A spokesperson for the state government said it had agreed to transfer funding for supported independent living services to the NDIS, run under the federal government.

The spokesperson said this decision pre-dated the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We thank disability support workers for the hard work they do day in and day out, looking after Victorians living with disability," the spokesperson said.

"Market sustainability is the responsibility of the Commonwealth Government - we continue to advocate for the Commonwealth to ensure providers are viable.

"We supported the transfer of Supported Independent Living services to the NDIS with a clear contractual end date of December 2025 - these contracts were in place from 2019."

However, Mr Romer urged the government to honour the funding arrangement previously in place - saying there needed to be a greater variety of care instead of simply the NDIS.

"We are calling out the Allan Labor government to continue the promise that was made by Dan Andrews and his government that nothing would change for (group home) participants," he said.

"The fact is that the funding expired and are changing because the government have not come back to the table, they have not come to negotiations they have just wiped their hands clean.

"The NDIS is not meant to be the only lifeboat in the river, but it seems the Allan Labor Government has pulled out all of our life rafts and expect us to all jump on the NDIS which is not possible."