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.
It won’t surprise many readers that people live with multiple disabilities. But when a person requests funds for a support related to a disability not listed on the access request form or in the NDIS system, the NDIS can be unnecessarily difficult.
On 30 March 2022 the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Participant Service Guarantee and Other Measures) Bill 2021 (Bill) was passed by Parliament. The Bill will amend the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (NDIS Act). In this Explainer, we aim to assist participants and advocates by summarising and analysing the major changes to the NDIS Act.
The Australian Government has today delivered the most significant improvements to participant experience since the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was established in 2013. Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Senator the Hon Linda Reynolds CSC said the passage of the NDIS Amendment (Participant Service Guarantee and Other Measures) Bill 2021 will reduce red tape and increase flexibility for participants, their families and carers.
On International Day of People with Disability 3 December 2021, Australia’s new Disability Strategy was released with an initial investment of $250 million over the life of the strategy. The strategy sets out a plan through which governments at all levels will work with the community, business and people with disability to
deliver services to meet the needs of all people with disability and create an inclusive Australian society. Melissa Hale, the DARU Coordinator, hosted this session in conversation with Dr Ben Gauntlett, Disability Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission. They discussed the scope of the strategy, how it works across all levels of government and how advocates can get involved through its implementation over the next 10 years.
The Strategy) is a national framework that all governments in Australia have signed up to. It sets out a plan for continuing to improve the lives of people with disability in Australia over the next ten years. The Strategy supports Australia’s commitment under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Strategy’s vision is for an inclusive Australian society that ensures people with disability can fulfil their potential as equal members of the community.
Advocates for the rights of people with disability have long experience in successful and high-impact campaigning. Below, the Every Australian Counts campaign shares some of the backstory to their recent success in fighting off the Federal Government’s plans to introduce independent assessments under the NDIS.
Ms Smith’s death sparked numerous investigations and reviews, including by police, the state government and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. The NDIS Commission’s independent investigation led to 10 recommendations, including that vulnerable NDIS participants should have multiple carers.
What exploded was not a fight about ‘reform’. You see, the disability community desperately wants reform: after all, it was from the community that the NDIS was created. But reform is needed because the NDIS has been either accidentally or intentionally steered away from its intended purpose. And the community might just know a thing or two about exactly where that reform is needed.
Research reports contained in the collection were produced between 2012 and 2021 with the aim of sharing evidence and knowledge on a range of topics to help advance the rights of people with disability. Designed to improve policies and practices, this Collection is for people with disability, their family, caregivers, allies or supporters, disabled people’s organisations, policymakers, researchers, advocacy organisations, service providers and practitioners.
The statement was made at the end of VALID’s two-day online conference, We Won’t Be Beaten, where people with intellectual disabilities and their families shared their fear and anger about the plans to overhaul the Scheme. “We will not be bullied or bought off. People with disabilities and their families will come together across the country and we will fight you.”
The practical details of how the IA program would be implemented are still shrouded in a heavy fog of mystery. Making matters even more confusing, the NDIA itself appears to still be figuring out technicalities. However, every day we learn just a little bit more about what the Agency has planned. Recently, the hottest source of IA-related goss has been none other than Australia’s very own Parliament House.
On Thursday, June 3, the NDIA released a technical paper on Personalised Budgets, the Agency’s new term for NDIS plans, which have a whole new planning process behind them. The term has been dropped into NDIA communications since late last year, but there has been a notable lack of information about what Personalised Budgets are and how they might inform a plan.
Senator Hughes, who established the Country Autism Network, told the Parliament she was a “huge believer” in the National Disability Insurance Scheme, but warned there was “a lot more work to be done to make it truly fit for purpose”. Two years later, Senator Hughes is fighting her own party’s controversial plan to introduce independent assessments to determine eligibility and funding for the scheme.
It was revealed that the results from the series of diagnostic tools used in independent assessments would allocate a ‘score’ to participants who would then be matched to some 400 ‘personas’. Each persona would be developed utilising a complex matrix of information including gender, age and postcode. The persona that a participant matched would determine their funding and supports. This is a massive movement away from a model where plans were specifically developed for participants based on what was reasonable and necessary for them, as individuals with unique goals and needs.