Special duty for disabled

Press, 24 May 1986, Page 8

Special duty for disabled

Lloyd Stephenson, aged 44, looked at his $2 car on his birthday yesterday and said: “It Is the best present I have ever had.” It was his first car. Mr Stephenson, an unmarried medical beneficiary, won the goldcoloured Mitsubishi Spacewagon in a national raffle organised by the A.F.S. (N.Z.) International Exchange Programme. It is valued at $19,500.

The new Under-Secre-tary for Social Welfare, Mr Peter Neilson, will have a special responsibility for the disabled, says the Minister of Social Welfare, Mrs Hercus. Mrs Hercus told the Fourth National Disabled Persons Assembly at Lincoln College last evening that Mr Neilson would try to ensure there was as much co-ordination as possible between all services provided for the disabled. However, Mrs Hercus told the assembly that groups representing the disabled had to work together, and try to coordinate their own work. “In a time of limited resources, all organisations for the disabled must co-operate to use existing resources to the best advantage,” she said. It was very important that groups like the Disabled Persons Assembly sorted out their own priorities, and presented them clearly to the Government

“Neither conflicting interests nor unrealistic shopping lists are helpful,” she said. This did not mean they had to confine themselves to changes in limited areas, but that they should bear in mind some changes would take time.