While much of the attention on the scheme is around Tier 3 supports, a major driver of costs is a lack of investment in Tier 2 services. If we do not see adequate investment in mainstream and community services, such as in health and education, people with disability are more likely to require Tier 3 services.
Mr Shorten said there was still “more good than bad” in the scheme, but he outlined a six-pronged plan to overhaul the NDIA, including a lift in staffing, longer-term care plans, addressing fraud and rorting, supporting more people with disability to live at home, purging ineffective providers and linking other community services up to the NDIA better.
The federal government is foreshadowing an overhaul of the national disability insurance scheme. NDIS Minister Bill Shorten warns the scheme has lost its way and needs a reboot. In his address he outlines the six key policy reform areas.
At today’s National Press Club Address Minister Bill Shorten made some important announcements and reminded me why I have such deep respect for this man and gratitude for his commitment to improving the lives of disabled people. Then it ended with something really scary that freaked me out!
The Independent Review flagged 19 out of 95 procurements for further investigation due to inconsistencies with the Commonwealth Procurement Rules (CPRs) or good practice. The approximate value of these 19 procurements was $374 million. Five of the procurements were for the NDIA and 14 for Services Australia.
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.
With only a quarter of public maternity hospitals reporting adequate services for women with disabilities, Ms Benzie says the time is now to implement disability identification – which would lead to a better understanding of the needs of women with disabilities.
Another State responsibility, the education systems, could also be letting children with developmental delay down, Minister Shorten believes, causing more parents to look for support from the NDIS and driving growth in participant numbers above expectations.
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.
Held in Melbourne on 17 October, the program set out to “unpack and examine the impact and effect that advocacy has in a variety of areas” from large-scale policy to community-led projects. Opening address was presented by Amanda Rishworth MP, Minister for Social Services with keynote provided by Ben Gauntlett, Disability Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission. The livestream is still available so catch up now.
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.
My research and that of others shows the challenges faced by this group were always characterised as a “specialised field”. This means governments were aware of the issues but still failed to properly engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability in remote regions.