To mark the International Day of People with Disability (I-Day) today, the Federal Government has published a ‘landmark’ strategy setting out Australia’s disability policy for the next decade.
The $250 million National Disability Strategy 2021–31, released today, will break down barriers for the 4.4 million Australians with disability, said Senator Anne Ruston, Federal Minister for Families and Social Services.
The Strategy has been designed with the disability community and all jurisdictions, including the ACT.
“The strategy is really important,” Emma Davidson, ACT Minister for Disability, told Canberra Daily. “It’s all of the states and territories and Commonwealth coming together to say, here’s the framework we want to work within, here are the principles and values we want.”
The National Strategy includes targeted action plans for employment, safety, and community attitudes, and will set up a research partnership to turn research into policy, an advisory council, and an employment strategy to encourage businesses to hire more people with disability.
It will also extend the National Disability Data Asset to measure and assess disability services; increase funding for the Disability Gateway, which helps people with disability find support; and improve individual advocacy services.
“The vision is to build a society in which people with disabilities can participate as equal members with equal opportunities to fulfill their potential,” Ms Davidson said in the Legislative Assembly yesterday.
The national strategy will influence the ACT’s own 10-year disability strategy, Ms Davidson said – how disability is viewed within the Canberra community, and how spaces, programs, and services can be more accessible and inclusive.
“Accessibility and inclusion aren’t just putting a ramp into a building,” Ms Davidson explained. “Sometimes, it’s about how we engage with a service, and how we communicate more effectively.”
Wendy Prowse, CEO of ADACAS (the ACT Disability, Aged and Carer Advocacy Service), said she was pleased to see the Federal Government and all the States and Territories coming together, with people with disability, to launch the Australian Disability Strategy 2021 -2031 today.
“Ensuring we have an inclusive community where people with disability of all ages have their rights upheld: can participate in all aspects of society, have a career of their choice, the ability to live in their own home and receive any supports that they might need,” she said. “The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities outlines Australia’s responsibilities to people with disability, and all of us need to continue to work together to address the extra barriers, stigmas, and discrimination that many people with disability continue to face today.”
Concerns about NDIS reforms remain
But another Federal government policy is cause for concern, she and disability advocates believe.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), in Ms Davidson’s view, is a social insurance scheme like Medicare that pays for personal care, mobility aids, programs that help people with disability manage their lives.
The Commonwealth proposes giving the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) power to alter NDIS participants’ plans without their permission – albeit, NDIS Minister Linda Reynolds says, only in a crisis, or if emergency funding was needed – and to give Senator Reynolds herself the power to amend rules without formal agreement from states and territories, even though they co-fund the NDIS.
(Earlier this year, the Commonwealth proposed introducing independent assessments, which they said would make the system more flexible and less bureaucratic; the controversial policy was dropped in July.)
Ms Davidson thought those proposed changes were as dangerous as independent assessments in terms of cutting those plans and arbitrarily reducing access to services people needed. (The Australian Council of Social Service also fears the reforms could lead to cost-cutting.)
Ms Davidson believes these reforms go against the principles of the NDIS. The scheme, she said, was intended to be a partnership between the states and the Commonwealth, co-designed with people with disability, but these changes would put decision-making power solely in the hands of the Commonwealth Minister and the NDIS CEO, Martin Hoffman.
“It’s not meant to be about concentrations of power in single people; it’s meant to be a collective effort,” Ms Davidson said.
Moreover, the concentration of power could give people with disability less access to natural justice if a wrong decision was made, and less transparency around rules, which had not been agreed by consensus with states and territories.
Similarly, Nicolas Lawler, from Advocacy for Inclusion, said the Bill should not be passed unchallenged. People with psychosocial disability might find it difficult to access the scheme, or face inconsistent decisions on access. If the NDIA CEO’s powers are not limited, and further control and collaboration provided for states and territories, the scheme could be less secure and transparent for participants and those attempting to access the scheme.
Worryingly, the Commonwealth only gave people with disability four weeks to consult – in the middle of the pandemic outbreak.
“It’s not enough to go out with a four-weeks consultation period when people are dealing with real life and death decisions in their community,” Ms Davidson said. “That is not acceptable. We asked for more time, and we asked [Senator Reynolds] to show a bit of kindness – and we didn’t get it.”
“The disability sector is repeatedly being put in the position of commenting on concerning and poorly constructed reforms in extremely short timeframes,” Mr Lawler said.
Ms Davidson voiced her concerns before a Senate Committee last month. She wants the Senate not to “ram” changes through “in a great rush”, but to take the time to reform the NDIS properly, consult with the people with disability who will be affected, and engage with the states and territories as partners.
The ACT, she pointed out, was the first jurisdiction to roll out the NDIS in 2013. It will invest $716.8 million in the scheme between 2019 and 2023, and increased its contribution by 4 per cent to $182.6 million this financial year.
Ms Davidson wants to see the NDIS improved, but to stay true to its original intents: “Choice and control for people with a disability to access a social insurance scheme that pays for the supports and schemes they need to live a good life. I still believe we can do that. We just need to sit down and have a genuine conversation together – all of us as partners in that scheme.”
True and effective co-design with people with disability would identify many solutions and positive ways forward, Mr Lawler thought. “This would go a long way to re-establishing trust in the NDIS for people who rely on it, but have been negatively impacted by inconsistent decisions and repeated proposals for concerning changes.”
For instance, Ms Davidson said, the NDIS does not cover all the needs of people who end up over 65 who end up with a permanent disability after an accident, while in the ACT, hospital in-patients need the NDIS to process their applications, so they can live in their homes.
Ms Prowse (ADACAS) said NDIS had transformed the disability landscape in Australia. “Whilst for some people, we have seen significant benefits, for others, further work is required to achieve the outcomes that the scheme was intended to provide. We welcome the NDIS’ commitment to work together with people with disability, their carers, families, and advocacy and representative organisations to continue to make positive changes to the scheme.”
Ms Davidson and ACT disability and carers representative organisations signed a joint letter calling for an end to damaging Federal Government commentary about NDIS costs, and a return to the principles of choice, control, and participant co-design.
Ms Davidson believes the Federal Government’s proposed changes can be stopped, just as independent assessments were.
“We’ve done it before, we’ll do it again, and I will never stop advocating for people with disability to have their human rights respected, and be able to live a life with dignity, with access to the supports they need.”
Read more:
- Celebrate International Day of People with Disability
- Fun and learning for International Day of People with Disability
- COVID-19 challenging for people with disability
- ACT Government wants to make a better Canberra for people with disabilities
- Opinion: Respect and make space for disability leadership
