12-Oct-2009

Ballina Advocate Oct.1.2009

Catherine Ryan, from Alstonville, is very happy, indeed. The 30 year old with disabilities has scored her first job. She works part time at Eagle Boys pizza shop in Ballina. “It’s pretty cool,” she said. And she put it all down to the help she received from ON-Q Human Resources. Last Friday, she attended the official opening ceremony for ON-Q’s new Ballina head office in Tamar Street.
Anticipated expansion of the Federal Government’s employment programs for people who have a disability led to ON-Q moving its head office to Ballina. And Managing Director Peter Tanner welcomed this expansion.

Since it’s inception in 1986, those services have been capped, previous governments have allocated numbers of new places each year to community providers, but the additional support has never met the demand, he said.

“We couldn’t be happier with the Government’s planned changes,” Mr. Tanner said. “For over 20 years we’ve been lobbying to make sure that every person who had a disability and wanted to work could get the support they needed to get a job. Now if you have a disability and you want a job, there will be someone to help you get it.”

From March 1 next year, the Government will be removing the cap on these specialised services. As long as a person is eligible for the program, they will be able to choose a provider to help them find paid work.

“When we come out of this global financial crisis, employers will again find it hard to get good staff,” Mr. Tanner said. “Research in Australia and overseas has shown that people who have a disability have lower rates of absenteeism and workplace injury that their non-disabled co-workers.”
The new head office has been designed to provide ON-Q Human Resources with a central hub from which to provide quality services to their clients and valued partners on the Northern Rivers.

The new office is at 106-108 Tamar Street, Ballina.

Open for Business:  at the opening of ON-Q Human Resources's Ballina Head Office. 

 (from left) Federal Minister for Page Janelle Saffin, Cnr Sharon Cadwallader, Catherine Ryan and ON-Q’s Peter Tanner