~ National Legal Aid
31 March 2021
Committee Secretary Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 ndis.sen@aph.gov.au
Dear Committee Secretary,
Inquiry into Independent Assessments under the National Disability Insurance Scheme
National Legal Aid (NLA) represents the directors of the eight state and territory legal aid commissions (LACs) in Australia.
NLA brings together the practice experience of the eight LACs. In the 2019-20 financial year, LACs provided around 1.9 million legal services to people across the country. LACs offer specialist legal advice and representation for people with disability and receive funding from the Department of Social Services to provide legal representation in NDIS matters on appeal before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
NLA aims to ensure that the protection or assertion of the legal rights and interests of people are not prejudiced by reason of their inability to:
- obtain access to independent legal advice;
- afford the appropriate cost of legal representation;
- obtain access to the federal and state and territory legal systems; or
- obtain adequate information about access to the law and the legal system.
NLA respectfully asks that the Committee take into account the matters raised in our attached submission to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Consultation Paper: Access and Eligibility Policy with Independent Assessments, as our submission to the Committee’s Terms of Reference.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide this submission.
Please do not hesitate to be in touch if you require anything further from us.
Yours sincerely,
Suzan Cox OAM QC Chair