Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Stuart Robert, said the latest NDIS Quarterly Report highlights the Scheme’s continued support of Australians with disability with $4.3 billion paid for disability supports during the quarter – a 70 per cent increase on the same time last year.
The Australian Health Sector Emergency Response Plan for Novel Coronavirus guides the Australian health sector response. This management and operational plan focuses on people with disability.
The focus of the meeting was on the national response to the coronavirus pandemic, in particular the effects of the response on people with disability. The Council noted the coronavirus pandemic has caused a significant shift in the Council’s immediate priorities.
The Morrison Government has committed more than $154 million in additional support for Australians living with disability, experiencing domestic and family violence and families doing it tough amid the coronavirus outbreak.
People with disability feel left behind or ignored in the government and community responses to the pandemic, the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability said on Thursday. The commission said it was deeply concerned about the pandemic’s impact on people with disability, calling for governments to take all necessary steps to ensure their protection and safety.
The Government is committed to ensuring the well-being of Australians with disability are considered as the coronavirus pandemic unfolds. As such, an advisory group has been established by the Morrison Government to guide development and implementation of a response plan focusing on the unique health needs of people with disability during the coronavirus pandemic.
Preventative measures such as social distancing and self-isolation are solutions that many First Nations communities do not have the lifestyle to adhere to. “As we know, a lot of our mobs live in overcrowded situations and have limited access to equipment and supplies day-to-day generally before this. So now they are locked into a situation where they’ve got less access to important needs or daily supplies,” said FPDN Deputy CEO, June Riemer.
As a growing number of businesses and services shutdown in response to the COVID-19 the disability sector says it’s increasingly vulnerable. The Australian Greens are calling for an emergency plan for a stand-by workforce for the sector.
The disability sector is pleading for clearer guidelines on how the government will protect disabled children and young people during the coronavirus crisis.
“We call on the Federal Government to urgently update the Australian Health Sector Emergency Response Plan for Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 to include the needs of people with disability. In addition, people with disability must have a place at the table when talking about how we respond to this emergency.”
Australia needs a targeted response to coronavirus for people with disabilities and the disability service sector, experts warn. Leading health and disability researchers say people with disability are a vulnerable group in the COVID-19 pandemic and that the health and disability sectors were underprepared for the crisis.
The Victorian and NSW governments have accused the Commonwealth of holding back $1.7 billion in extra funds for the National Disability Insurance Scheme to prop up its promised budget surplus.
One of the applications rejected by the Federal Government was a project to improve disability access to Horsham’s aquatic centre, in western Victoria, for upgrades that disability advocates rallied for many years for.
The Australian Government is leading the development of a new National Disability Strategy to replace the current National Disability Strategy when it finishes at the end of 2020. The ‘Right to opportunity’ consultation report has been released and is available in a variety of accessible formats. The second stage of consultations with people with disability on a new National Disability Strategy for beyond 2020 were due to take place in the coming weeks. However, following the escalation of events surrounding the Australian response to COVID-19, the decision has been taken to defer the consultations.
The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) has launched a hunt for a cloud vendor as it battles ongoing criticism of its much-maligned IT system.