THEY are the friendly team in green vests who greet you at the gate. They direct you to the bathrooms, to the bag collection area or whatever you need to find at Newcastle Airport.

Until now, Australians with disability have seemingly been cast in the role of passive welfare recipients, with little control over whatever support was available. With the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Ya'el Frisch hopes this role shifts to active empowerment, where people are able to imagine, enable and realise the life they want.

All parents go through different struggles with their children. Some may be faced with a fussy eater, a late walker, or a child who pushes their boundaries beyond belief. But for approximately 54,600 people in Australia, their lives are just a bit harder: they are the main carers to children with a disability.

As the Parliament prepared to pass laws allowing for an increase to the Medicare Levy to help fund DisabilityCare Australia, the Prime Minister reminded the nation what a significant transformation was underway.

SOMETHING extraordinary happened on Friday night on a football field. In the AFL it was the indigenous round; a time when the sport celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players and their culture.

THE National Disability Insurance Scheme will kick off in Newcastle next month with the help of $585 million from Tuesday's state budget.

I'M SITTING in the chapel at Brisbane's Mater Hospital. It's a cold, wet Friday evening in the middle of June, last year. It's not a place I would usually be found, but upstairs, my younger brother Matthew, 39, is dying.

TAXPAYERS' money will be protected from fraudulent claims under the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the federal government has said.

Creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people with a disability will be the focus of a forum hosted by The City of Newcastle this Friday 21 June.

Thousands of vulnerable children in NSW will benefit from measures announced in this year’s budget. Almost $800 million will go towards the 18,400 children living in foster care, with $415 million of that going towards welfare groups that provide out-of-home care services.