National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024

Submission 265

It has been brought to my attention that important concerns have been pointed out by expert lawyers, including the following:

Co-design is not required.

This is a concern because conversations with representatives of people with a disability must be heard and understood clearly before writing into law. Co-design is the way to ensure that realistic and mutually beneficial amendments are enacted. No-one understands the impacts of living with disability except people who live with disability.

Does not take a “Whole of Person” Approach.

lives with multiple, severe disabilities. If only one disability is considered, he is doomed to being under supported. This will result in him not being able to live the life he chooses. His needs are such that appropriate support is critical to his health and wellbeing. He lives in supported accommodation with five other people. They are all individuals with different support needs. The interactions between those residents and their respective support workers is vital for all the residents’ health and wellbeing. If any of them are under supported, the whole household is detrimentally affected.

Unclear review and appeal rights.

In 2022, on behalf of I was forced to go through the AAT process in order to reinstate active overnight funding and to gain extra support for critical hydrotherapy for health and wellbeing. Prior to the last federal election, the promise was made that Labor would “get rid of the waiting list at the AAT ‘’ and create a new, internal review panel within NDIA. I am unsure whether this has been enacted and how effectively reviews are conducted now. Our process was extremely stressful and cost a lot of time and money, as we had to engage a lawyer. NDIA engaged an external lawyer and two internal lawyers for our case(?!) How costly was that? A clear right-of-reply appeals process is absolutely necessary, respecting people’s needs. People’s health and wellbeing is at the heart of the NDIS.

Yours sincerely Jenny McAllister.