History of Disability in South Australia

2000s
2000: Australia hosted the Paralympic Games in Sydney. It was host to 3843 athletes from 125 countries
2000: The last Miss Australia, Sheree Primmer, was crowned thus ending 46 years of the Miss Australia  Awards
2001: The publicly funded Human Genome Project and the private company Celera jointly announced that they had mapped the bulk of the human genome
2003: Dignity for Disabled formed as an advocacy group
2004: The first Disability Expo held at Port Adelaide Football Club
2005: The Crippled Children’s Association of South Australia changed its name to Novita
2006: A single State Government disability services system, Disability Services SA created to provide a ‘one stop shop’ for people needing more than one service. Services provided by Intellectual Disability Services, Julia Farr Services and Independent Living Centre will be delivered by the same staff, but through Disability Services SA
2006: Julia Farr Services is now a part of Disability SA but a new organization has been formed. The Julia Farr Association runs the Julia Farr Housing Association and manages the MS Mcleod Benevolent Trust
2006: The Commonwealth Government introduces major changes to the Disability Support Pension. You are now no longer eligible for DSP if you are assessed as being able to work for at least 15 hours per week independent of support
2006: Disability Services Office was renamed the Office for Disability and Client Services (ODACS), reflecting its role in promoting inclusion for all people with disabilities
2006:Dignity for the Disabled formed a political party “Dignity for the Disabled Inc.” It fielded 14 candidates at the South Australian state elections, including seven with disabilities. The party achieved 2.1% of first preference votes in the ten lower house seats contested, outpolling established parties like the Australian Democrats in five of these ten seats
2007: In February 2007, the Social Inclusion Board released a five year action plan Stepping Up: A Social Inclusion Action Plan for Mental Health Reform 2007- 2012
2007: Australian Council for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled (ACROD) changed its name to National Disability Services (NDS)
2007: In June the State Labor government’s Budget cut $750,000 of funding from ten health and disability groups (including DIRC)
2007: Dignity for Disabled (D4D), an organisation that has lobbied for the rights of people with a disability since 2004, was disbanded

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