Joint Statement - Normanhurst Disability Employer Upper Crust Must Keep Operating

Federal and State MPs Philip Ruddock, Paul Fletcher and Matt Kean have expressed their strong support for Normanhurst disability employer Upper Crust Catering, a catering business and café, to keep operating.

Upper Crust’s owner, the large charity House With No Steps, recently announced plans to close Upper Crust by 9 August.

‘Since that time, a number of us have met with Werrigal and House with no Steps and raised this matter with Federal Families and Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin and State Minister for Disability Services Andrew Constance’, Messrs Ruddock, Fletcher and Kean said.

Upper Crust was originally opened under the ownership of Werrigal Inc, a charity which was formed in 1985 by parents and family members of a number of people with disabilities, with a view to giving them appropriate employment in a sustainable and viable business.

In 2006, House With No Steps acquired Upper Crust and its assets – including a building valued at that time at $600,000 with an outstanding mortgage of only $74,000.

Werrigal Inc’s position is that the business and assets which it handed to House With No Steps in 2006 should be returned on the same terms. If House With No Steps is unable to operate Upper Crust as a sustainable business – which had been achieved for many years before – Werrigal seeks the opportunity to find another ‘Australian Disability Enterprise’ which will.

Werrigal Inc has now formally put this proposal to House With No Steps.

‘We support the position taken by Werrigal and call upon House With No Steps to accept Werrigal’s proposal’, Messrs Ruddock, Fletcher and Kean said.