Some disabilities are “over medicalised”. Disabilities are often seen as medical problems when many really arise from a lack of accessibility. As Dylan Alcott recently explained, when he is in an accessible space, he is not disabled. It is inaccessible spaces that disable him. This is the social model of disability.
The NDIA has introduced a new plan review process. Instead of each participant attending a scheduled plan review when their plan is due to end, they will now receive a phone call to participate in what the NDIA calls a Participant Check-In. During this call, the NDIA representative will discuss the participant’s well-being and see if their supports are meeting their needs.
“We went to the AAT last time to actually obtain adequate services for him. Then 12 months later, at the review, the services then deemed “reasonable and necessary” by the tribunal were slashed. We’re now looking ahead and saying does this have to happen every year?”
The CPSU has been contacted by many NDIA employees with disability, who have experienced a lack of support and reasonable adjustment from the agency to allow them to perform their work.
Both sides of politics remain fully committed to the scheme, publicly, amid fears of another “mediscare”-like campaign. The scheme’s participants and the large diaspora of carers and their families are a potent political force and have been rallying to ensure the scheme remains supported.
“It’s obviously very topical at the moment,” Reynolds said. “I think the context of this is really important … Remembering we’ve got half a million people now on the scheme, the overall percentage of people who are going through to the AAT appeals process is still minuscule.
For the next five years, Arts House will fund artist fees, as well as access and production costs to support two residencies and presentations each year for Deaf, Disabled, neurodiverse and chronically ill artists, curators, collectives and their collaborating allies. The inaugural residents are Catherine Dunn and Sam Martin, Leisa Prowd and Mishka.
If you asked me at the time, I would have gladly skipped school and played video games instead. And yet, I did learn. I learnt how to spell, write, to do maths, languages, chemistry and drama. More importantly, I learnt soft skills. I made friends, navigated social cliques, traded lunchbox snacks, was teased, teased others, took risks and learnt from them, avoided girls then later discovered they weren’t so bad after all.
So I don’t care if the next prime minister does not have the best memory or feels blessed to not have a child like me. What I do want is a prime minister who will listen to disabled people, and work with us to resolve the many challenges we face not only with the NDIS but also in the many other areas of life where we face death, discrimination and disadvantage.
Kerriene Minjoot never felt like her blindness was a barrier to her succeeding at work, until she joined the very government agency tasked with improving the lives of Australians with disabilities. “I did not expect to go into working at the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and ending up feeling more disabled than I ever have before,” she said.
Many have been forced to close their books. Waiting times for an AAT decision have blown out. “It’s more like civil litigation, going up against lawyers,” says Toby’s advocate, Belinda Horne, who notes she is not a trained lawyer. “Like if I had a broken arm, I could go to the doctor and show up. I don’t have to go to a solicitor.”
“Our policy on the NDIS is to defend and fix the NDIS, lifting the NDIA staffing cap, doubling existing funding for advocacy, fixing regional access and stopping waste… it’s to put people at the centre of the NDIS,” Albanese said.
With the Federal Election on 21 May 2022, the major parties have been out making promises, promises to voters. Here is a comparison of the disability announcements and policies of the major parties made to date.
“It’s been so difficult historically for people with disability and families to get heard and be treated like their concerns are worthy and important enough to consider”
Functions which were to be conducted by staff with delegations could not be outsourced: delegation for decision making remained within the agency. Processes as well as functions needed to be broken up. Outsourced functions would be information gatherers and information givers, ruled by KPIs. These KPIs would become problematic.