Letters to the Editor, The Age, 3 March 2012

Speculation that the Coalition would fund generous parental leave payments ahead of the National Disability Insurance Scheme ("Division over Abbott's parental leave plan", The Age, 29/2) would be a cruel blow to our many people with disabilities, who often do not have basic needs met due to inadequate funding and a chaotic system allocating whatever funds are available.

Much money is wasted by endless bureaucratic meetings to placate people not receiving the services they need. In our case, the more strident we became about our daughter's complex needs not being met, the more DHS and service provider workers attended these meetings —14 in one instance. People with disabilities can wait their entire lives without receiving the help they need. Provision for adequate resources needs to be the priority.

Marianne Darton, Balnarring, Victoria

LISA Comment: "Well said Marianne!"

Bureaucratic waste is everywhere within DHS Victoria!

Unlike non-government services (CSOs), the department’s reactive management has endless government money to ‘buy its way’, rather than properly and proactively manage its way.

CSOs have to efficiently manage their services, whilst the department keeps most of its state government budget for itself – to blunder from one disaster to the next. As no one cares, no one ‘owns the company’ and nothing is anyone’s responsibility in this public service captive market where consumers have no choice and must feel eternally grateful for any crumbs they may get from the totally out-of-control juganaught – DHS Victoria.