The Albanese Labor Government will continue its commitment to leaving no one behind and holding no one back by progressing a National Autism Strategy and committing further funds to the Autism Cooperative Research Centre (CRC). Minister for Social Services will today announce that a further $2 million in Commonwealth funds have been allocated to the … Continued
The Inquiry examined reportable incidents and complaints made to the NDIS Commission in connection with the supported accommodation services (specifically group homes). The Inquiry’s purpose was to enable the NDIS Commissioner to identify trends in issues occurring in supported accommodation, what is causing those issues, models of best practice to eliminate or address these issues, and how the NDIS Commission can use its powers to support the delivery of higher standards of support in these settings.
The Federal Government has announced it will abolish the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) and replace it with a new body. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says the former Government “irreversibly damaged” the AAT’s public standing over the past nine years.
One of the most notoriously politicised bodies, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, will be abolished after the attorney-general declared its reputation had been irreversibly damaged.
The Disability Services Act has not undergone significant change in almost 40 years. Disability Employment Services, advocacy funding, service provider certifications and disability services regulation standards are all governed by this legislation. Since then, the federal government signed on to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and conducted a royal commission into the violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability.
Yet the NDIS is not working for everyone. Many within the grass roots movement that created the NDIS have lost faith. First, interaction with the scheme must be made simpler. NDIS access is not needed for everyone seeking entry to the scheme, but for those with significant and permanent support needs, entry and ongoing access can be more customer centric and less red tape intensive.
NDIS minister Bill Shorten says the two-part review would report back to disability reform ministers by the end of October 2023, but said where consensus emerged around specific reforms, changes to the scheme could be enacted “well before” the final report is delivered.
The Independent Review Panel comprises of Co-Chairs Professor Bruce Bonyhady AM and Ms Lisa Paul AO PSM and Panel Members Mr Kevin Cocks AM, Ms Judy Brewer AO, Dr Stephen King, Mr Dougie Herd and Ms Kirsten Deane OAM. Part 1 of the NDIS Review, which will be led by Dr Bruce Bonyhady AM, will examine the design, operation and sustainability of the Scheme. Part 2 of the NDIS Review, which will be led by Ms Lisa Paul AO, will analyse ways to build a more responsive, supportive, and sustainable market and workforce.
Despite the escalating costs of the scheme, Shorten told reporters the review was “not about a razor gang and cost-cutting” and he said any reforms would be grounded in the principle of co-design with people of disability.
Disabled Australians will soon receive an app that implements a welfare compliance system devised by the same individuals who created robo-debt. However, this is not at all good news. The point is that it is evident that the Australian government intends to extend technology-driven compliance to all Australians, with an emphasis on punishing your failures rather than theirs.
It will focus on the “operational processes and procedures” employed by the NDIA, as well as the “nature of staff employment”, and the impact this has on the “experiences of people with disability and NDIS participants trying to access information, support and services from the agency”.
To achieve this improvement will require an immediate uptick in collaboration between interdepartmental taskforces to discuss and resolve cases collaboratively, regular sector roundtables and an elevation of the Office of Disability’s role (in states that have established such an office) to have larger oversight and a co-ordination role.
National Disability Insurance Scheme Minister Bill Shorten struck the deal with his state and territory counterparts in Melbourne on Friday, to help speed up patients leaving hospital. The plan will address the 1,100 NDIS recipients in medical facilities – some for several months – while they wait for appropriate accommodation to be made available.
However, Dr Charlton now reckons it has far too much independence from government, which has far too little control over its spending. Unlike most other taxpayer-funded agencies, the NDIA sets its own budget and reports to a board, not to a federal minister. “The fatal flaw in the NDIS: It cries wolf but has no shepherd to control its spending,” he wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age last year.
The announcement is welcome news to voters with disability and their families. Currently they face many problems to become an NDIS participant and to keep the support they need.