The South Australian government will fund disability support placements for refugees and skilled migrants.
The government has promised $11.6 million over five years to fund National Disability Insurance Scheme supports like transport, therapy and equipment for people on humanitarian or temporary visas.
South Australia is one of the last jurisdictions to introduce the gap funding for people who are unable access the NDIS due to their visa status.
"I don't think it's right that kids who are born with a disability, just because their parents are on a temporary bridging visa, means that they don't get access to the sort of assistance that we can afford in a first-world country," Premier Peter Malinauskas said.
The government said people eligible for support included those on Temporary Protection Visas, Safe Harbour Enterprise Visas, Bridging Visas or Temporary Migrant Visas (work or study), as well as New Zealand citizens who arrived after February 26, 2001, and children of temporary migrants born in South Australia.
Services covered include transport, provision of mobility equipment, therapy, specialist assessments, home modifications and daily activities.
Previously, the state Department of Human Services was providing some people some services on a case-by-case basis.
Big support for Tahani
Afnan Oyshe, who came to Australia in 2016, has just started getting support for her three-year-old daughter Tahani, who has the rare muscle weakness condition nemaline myopathy.
"I was really worried and I didn't know what to do," she said.
"Then I found the exceptional needs unit from one of my friends and … [they] arranged all the therapy and equipment and I saw within a couple of months my daughter was improving.
"I never thought that she could sit without support holding her head and she can engage to play, she can move her hands. I never thought about that but she is doing that.
"She is playing with us, she is communicating with us. We just saw that everything is changing."
Ms Oyshe said the services had changed her child's life.
"I'm really grateful to the exceptional needs unit for giving the support and everything," she said.
"Hopefully, she'll go the school like other kids, playing with other kids."
Human Services Minister Nat Cook said the government wanted to ensure vulnerable people in the state's multicultural communities were not missing out.
"It's the right thing to do," she said.
"This is reflective of the kind-hearted approach that we want our community to take to support people who are facing enormous challenges in order to engage into the community and thrive."
