A NEW AND BETTER WAY FOR CHANGE RE-NDIA AND NDIS REFORM

INTRODUCTION:

My name is Stormy (Storm), Meiying Liu, Vic.

When a younger woman, I had the joy, honor and pleasure of meeting Bob Hawk, and he be a true statesman and one of the most sincere and honest men I’ve ever met. I just happened to be in the right place and time to converse when shopping in Coburg all those years back, and stood chatting with party members and the public as I was so excited and enthused by the elloquence and presence of a great Labor leader. I also hold the Tasmanian Liberal member, the Hon. Bridget Archer with equal esteem and respect and admiration.

Now, I feel a deep anger and sense of betrayal as I be a blind woman and Neurodivergent, with BPD and Autism, late in life and I want reform.

I be not only a blind woman, but feminist activist, I fought in the 1980’s for Equality for blind and other people with a disability. I was in the background and not in the lime light but many of us worked behind the scenes and put our bodies on the line for our group “People for Equality, not Institutionalisation.”;

I would love to be on a new itteration of that committee, despite the fact I believe it to be an anacronism and we need a new Horizontal Management Membrane, supported by NDIS recipients and those agencies we nominate with checks and balances and others with complete oversight but we’ choose the new structure’s appointies and not those intrenched stalwarts of self-interest and careerist aspirants that are over and over, recycled, this is not acceptable.

We need to not only recognize but bring those on the grassroots, of genuine lived experience for all of us who use this scheme that could be great, and an example to the world of how to create an inclusive, diverse and progressive new structure that we can, all of us, be proud and play a part.

I implore you to convey not only my wishes but to my many friends who be Neurodivergent and those suffering mental health issues and the sensory communities of which I also be a part and listen to us, turn to us, hear us and let us engage and invest in our first-hand lived experience not these people and failed agencies who have never had our interests front and centre.

Sincerely and in Solidarity

Miss Storm Meiying Liu AKA Stormy

(End or introduction)

Greetings ,

Decoupling corporate culture from NDIA:

The costs to all recipients are much too high, as the corporate structure of the NDIA is both counterproductive and daylight robbery of funds and resources that ought to and must go to clients.

Page 3

The Committee’s sallaries, so-called CEO, again, a wasteful sallary regime, and not representative of people with disability, and those chosen, be either ex-politicians that because they may have somebody they know or in their families with a disability, is no reason thay should recieve a ridiculously corporate level income, at our expense. Further more, celebrity individuals with a disability with little to no experience in governance, others that are in the hip pockets of agencies and make a living via a culture of the ‘communicrat’ what is needed is a new and simpler structure with far less remunoration as that, be our money, not theirs.

Creating a Grassroots structure to replace the existing interior pro-corporate model is both fair, desirable and ought be people with a disability who are both grassroots, and that we can relate to as these are lived experience, in other words, have not only a disability but are like the majority of people who need and must have a voice and the sallires far smaller and the current structure based upon a ’Horizontal platform, with a convenor, not a high-paid CEO, out with the board structure and the new membrane of the NDIA be a new body made up of those of lived experience, across all disability categories including appropriate peer supports - advocates and activists, to make sure they are both respected, and ‘listened to’

The cream of all those beneath the NDIA to be part of this reciprical membrane, disability and support coordinators of a high standard and who be not only supports but respect our voices, and work with us and the support workers, and whilst those milking the system be removed, such as those gouging, as per fees on that sliding scale clients by arrangement with the junket allowed under the existing model, it ought to be a fixed rate, and if applicable additional modules to plans ought to be kept as a low price. Let us not forget that these providers, have and are behaving like land speculators, charging always the highest rates, and the current legislation is flawed and allws this, so instead of the joke that be ‘section 34’ a renegotiation of intergrated requirements we have and wholistic system that takes all disability needs into account instead of the bottom-line compartmentalization of disability and the lack of consideration to equity conjoin our requirements on needs, not on funding and budgetary prejudices that in many and I dare say this, in most cases denies us agency and body sovereignty.

The restrictions to additional funding for example, if I have a fall, and am blind, I am denied access to adaptive footwear solely as it is not considered part of my disability, so what then if I fall and lose motor function, suffer other injuries and lose function and my disabilities compound a huge deficit in QL ‘Quality of life’ then one would seek justice through other mediums and that can be costly.

Registration fees, for individuals, around 4 K and with zero’s added to providers only to have them dredge our funding through charging the highest prize, one could be forgiven to view this as a

• sweetheart deal with said ageincies and providers who charge ridiculous rates, and lets not forget, these
• so called Charities charge top dollar, and one, Vision Australia legally purchased the tech company Quantum, like any corporation does in the mainstream, and convenient contracts for profit, yes, for profit with software and tech companies.
• If you seek to weed out corruption, the NDIA and these theiving corporat providers, the larger ones and it isn’t difficult to find these. Also, the smaller ones need to be cleaned up, protections for clients and staff and a better set of guidelines to protect those most vulnerable in areas of severe disability.

In short, the corporate model and those bleeding us dry through this junket have been intrenched and have done nothing for people with disabilities, save make the lives of around 4,4000 people a nightmare, I salute the federal government for funding the AAT list resolution strategy, in my current plan the words I thought I would never hear,“not value for money” was put in writing, and I feel to base the value of our lives and requirements on finite sliding scales is economic rationalism at its worst, and be repugnant beyond measure.

Disability Insurance Agency, an organisation, which is creating a new layer of misery and discrimination due to its millimoles, bloody-minded, bureaucratic processes. They are even making blind people who want screen magnifiers appeal to the administrative appeals Tribunal, just to get vital much-needed, AIDS and equipment.

paraphrased from a friend who is near blind: Kurt Fearnley chair,-Graeme Innes and MarieAnn Diamond again ho-hum ho-hum anyone would think they’re only two blind people in Australia, and a very narrow range of disabilities. Surely it’s time to give new people with disabilities opportunities to get more people doing more things rather than just giving the same, three or four people all the gigs. also,a diversity of opinion, and disabilities is important as well, what

about people with hidden disabilities, mental illnesses, neuro,

diverse people.

…

And about that, we see in Victoria for example, one peak body responsible for representing all people with disabilities - refusing to appoint those of us with lived experience to the disability body overseeing our community, railing against us in the new so-called, “Inclusion Bill” patronisation alive and well with nonsense such as “aspirational” just another example of patting us all on the head, when we ought to be heading all these agencies under governments, people with lived experiences and on the cutting edge, we live this daily, where as these ableist appointments extinguish our agency, capacities, and our voice! The Bill as it stands ought to be called, “The exclusion Bill”

I am part of Reframing Autism, blind and Neuro divergent, 65 and living a full life as an activist, advocate on the IAC the “only” body that is run by and for Autistic and the Intersectional community, this ought to be the new template, and the flagging tiresome and fractious rabble of the Public service that are not elected, belittling and misrepresenting us, are an utter shambolic embarrassment to good governance, thi must stop now.

I am disgusted and disolusioned, given what we had hoped would be a complete reform and restructure of the NDIA which be nothing but a cradle for self-interest and greed ‘jobs for the boys and some girls’

These people and the agency appointed, clearly has a poor and shocking track record, and please don’t tell me Bill hadn’t done his homework? the jury’s still out on the reform process so the previous itterations of the NDIA are an unmittigated disaster, of that there can be absolutly no doubt. So I do hope real positive change be on the agenda and if they start sacking good people that work with us, like our supports, wonderful coordinators that do a great job, and I know some do not but you don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, you get rid of the corporatocracy that is, “the NDIA” and cut out the bureaucratic parasites and agencies like Guide Dogs and VA and others gouging our funds.

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