To whom it may concern
In concert with Australia’s DDA the NDIS Act 2013 ignores the triad of impairments that are “autism”, the biggest primary disability type in the NDIS. Basically, the law lets the NDIS ignore autism impairment categories, being social, communication, and behavioural impairments, in people with severe and profound disability. These impairment categories are omitted from section 24 and s 25 of the NDIS Act 2013. While this is lawful disability discrimination in Australia, the DDA will remain unsatisfactory.
Another issue with the NDIS is that it avoids making hard decisions itself; instead it send harder decisions especially about supports for autistic participants to the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) - see https://a4.org.au/node/2567. This is discriminatory practice … but the DDA provides no protection.
The ART routinely fails to recognise and accommodate people with disability. Again, the DDA provides no discernible support.
Australia’s lack of actual rights for its citizens is a continuing international embarrassment. Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia (A4) doubts that the Australian government will deliver laws giving people with disability the rights that they signed up for in international treaties like the UN CRPD and the UN CroC.