Executive officer Martin Butcher said the Wodonga-based Disability Advocacy Information Service and the Wagga-based Disability Advocacy Network would bring significant benefits to people living with a disability throughout the region.

He said the organisation’s mission was to give people with a disability a voice.

“As a newly merged organisation, we want to be the advocacy service provider of choice in the regions in which we operate, particularly at a time when the National Disability Insurance Scheme is so prevalent in the minds of those who have a disability,” he said.

“We looked at the services which both organisations had been providing and really felt that there were efficiencies and benefits to people in bringing the two organisations together.”

Mr Butcher said RDAS would be governed by a board of Wodonga and Wagga representatives.