Attorney-General Christian Porter announced on Tuesday that the government will amend the Royal Commissions Act 1902 to guarantee that written submissions will remain confidential even after the royal commission concludes.
Take a few moments to check the most common mistakes social purpose organisations make when it comes to advocacy, campaigning and engagement with government – are you doing any of them?
Low income Australians, including those on the Disability Support Pension, are set to receive a $500 handout from December – a welcome but ‘band-aid’ outcome of the 2020-21 Federal Budget according to peak body representatives.
The government is appointing independent assessors to review everyone on the National Disability Insurance Scheme to ensure the funding is fairly distributed and not just given to “those who can pay the most for a report”.
Mr Wallace has been a disability activist for decades, but he hasn’t yet spoken out about this incident, even though it happened almost 40 years ago. He is sharing it now to explain why some members of the disability community are deeply fearful of a new government plan to introduce an independent assessment process for access to the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
The response is so full of government doublespeak and responses with no discernible relationship to the recommendation that it’s taken us a full week to even understand as much as we do. And while many of the proposed changes sound good at first, there is some serious room for error in how they are implemented.
The NDIA says the assessments help to develop an overall picture of a person’s function in a number of areas of their life But disability activists such as NDIS participant Craig Wallace are not convinced.
The Australian Government welcomes the 2019 review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (the NDIS Act) report completed by Mr David Tune AO PSM. The Report contains 29 recommendations to improve the experience of participants with the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and support the introduction of the Participant Service Guarantee.
The government’s decision to support all of the recommendations in the Tune Review has been labelled a “step in the right direction” for the National Disability Insurance Scheme by advocates, who hope the reforms will make the scheme quicker and easier to navigate.
Materials were seized from the sites in Western Sydney to assist the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Fraud Taskforce in its “Operation Pavo” investigation. In a joint release by the AFP, NDIA, and Services Australia on August 27, the authorities said the case’s current fraud value is estimated to be over $120,000.
The reporting will ensure accurate and timely information is being provided to the community. The data is collated through reporting mechanisms of the NDIS Quality and Safeguard Commission and compiled by the Commonwealth’s NDIS Critical Response Group.
Opposition spokesman for NDIS Bill Shorten says while government data includes breakdowns for aged care, there is nothing on how many people with disabilities have died or been infected.
The Marshall Liberal Government is actioning disability safeguarding gaps highlighted by the independent taskforce – including bringing forward the expansion of the Adult Safeguarding Unit and committing new funding for individual advocacy. “Individual disability advocacy has not been funded by the state since 2007, when the former Labor Government defunded it as a cost saving measure.”
Closing date: January 1, 1970
The newly established Disability Rapid Response Group (DRRG) will provide dedicated capability to support COVID-19 outbreak management throughout the course of an outbreak in a disability setting, including the allocation of a ‘Disability Incident Case Manager’.
In an historic new partnership between government and indigenous organisations, the Closing the Gap program is undergoing a major reset. A key Indigenous group is disappointed that disability has not been included in the 16 new Closing the Gap targets. While disability is a significant issue in health, education, justice and employment, it hasn’t been included as a target.