Disability Workers Take a Stand to Save Homes and Protect Care
- HACSU Communications
- Oct 7
- 3 min read
Disability support workers have written and passed a powerful motion calling on governments to save Victoria’s disability workforce and protect group homes.
After years on the frontline, workers are sounding the alarm: without urgent action, more homes will close, wages and conditions will be gutted, and people with disability will lose the stability and care they rely on.
When Supported Independent Living was privatised eight years ago, the Victorian Government stepped in with a $2.1 billion subsidy to protect what workers and families built together. That subsidy ends next year — and workers refuse to watch the system collapse.
The motion calls for governments to restore funding, protect jobs, and ensure quality, safe care for every participant.
As one worker put it: “We’re not just fighting for our jobs — we’re fighting for people’s homes and dignity.”
To request a disability worker at your Labor Party branch, please contact Steph on 0436363612. The Motion: Motion: Save Victoria’s Disability Workforce and Protect Group Homes
That this Branch:
Notes:
Eight years ago, when Supported Independent Living (SIL) services were privatised, the Victorian Government stepped in with a $2.1 billion subsidy to protect the wages and conditions that disability support workers, participants and families fought for over decades.
That subsidy ends on 31 December 2025, and without urgent action:
Over 7,500 disability support workers could lose more than one-third of their wages and conditions.
Around 580 group homes are at risk of closing, with 60 group homes already shut.
Nearly 5,000 participants—the very people who need the NDIS most—will lose the care, stability, and homes they rely on every single day.
The State government is yet to respond meaningfully to the union, families or the media about the unfolding crisis.
Some participants becoming prisoners in their own homes, trapped by a broken funding model, while families—often ageing parents—are carrying unbearable stress.
Affirms:
That Victoria’s gold standard in disability support - safe staffing ratios, mandatory training, clear career paths for workers, and quality care that puts people first—must not be dismantled.
That decent wages and conditions for workers are not optional extras, but the foundation of safe and dignified care for participants.
That Labor has a moral responsibility to stand with people with disability, their families, and the workers who care for them.
Calls on:
The Federal Government to:
Introduce a $900 million workforce compact for SIL providers who bargain to protect wages and conditions.
Transition NDIS funding to the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA) and restore block funding.
Implement mandatory registration and training for the disability workforce.
The Victorian Government to:
Extend the current subsidy until the Federal Government delivers a sustainable solution.
Recognise its role as the provider of last resort and guarantee certainty for participants, families, and workers.
Maintain the Victorian Disability Worker Commission and restore the Parliamentary Secretary for Disability position.
Rationale: This is no longer a distant risk - it is a looming disaster already unfolding. Sixty homes have already closed. Thousands more are in danger. Participants are being left to languish, trapped in their own homes, while families face heartbreak and workers risk losing their livelihoods .
If we do nothing, we will lose the standards Victoria fought decades to build. The gold standard of care - once a source of pride - will vanish, leaving people with disability abandoned and workers discarded.
Victorian Labor must act. We cannot allow participants to be turned into prisoners in their own homes. We must protect their dignity, safeguard their homes, and stand up for the workforce that holds this system together.
Moved: Seconded:
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