Federal Social Services Minister Christian Porter has reconfirmed an estimate that the NDIS would create 2500 jobs across Tasmania by the completion of the rollout.
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Mr Porter visited the St Michaels Association in Launceston on Wednesday, which he said had recently increased employment levels from 39 people to 90 people.
The 2500 figure was initially released in December in a joint statement from Mr Porter and state human services minister Jacquie Petrusma.
“As we’ve been rolling out the NDIS in Tasmania we’ve been able to work through with organisations like (St Michaels Association) and assess what the increase in employment has been and come to a figure that we think has been a relatively accurate estimate of what the employment uplift will be,” Mr Porter said.
“What we’ve estimated is that there will be in excess of 2500 new jobs in this sector for Tasmania at full scheme operation by 2019-20, that is a very significant number of jobs that simply did not exist previously in this great state.”
National Disability Service Tasmania chief executive David Clements said the government’s figures on job creation due to the NDIS rollout in Tasmania were similar to modelling his organisation had undertaken in 2012, which estimated between 2000 and 2500 new roles would be created.
Mr Clements said the modelling was “not an exact science.”
“We don’t entirely know still what role technology will play in providing support for individuals, and there’s an expectation that the sorts of things that people were doing … may change a little bit,” he said.
Mr Clements said his organisation had been working with Skills Tasmania and the disability sector to ensure existing employees were retained and new workers were attracted to the industry over the next three years to avoid a skills shortage.
Mr Porter also announced that 11 volunteer organisations in Northern Tasmania would benefit from $32,911 in federal grants.
Grants will be recieved by groups such as the St Vincent de Paul Society, George Town Neighbourhood House, Dorset Community Association Incorporated, and Ravenswood Community Garden. Mr Porter said the grant recipients had been decided by his department before the election was called.
