From: To: Community Affairs, Committee (SEN); Subject: sub961Submission to the Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill 2012 Date: Thursday, 17 January 2013 2:52:52 PM
Please consider this email a formal submission by me to the Senate Standing
Committee on Community Affairs Inquiry into the National Disability Insurance
Scheme Bill 2012.
The current disability system has many problems that need to be addressed.
My family, for whatever reason (luck, genes etc) does not have a member with a disability. However I have friends with disabilities and have in the past employed and worked with people with disabilities. I find it disappointing in the extreme that people with disabilities are neither seen nor heard. Expected not to make it into the workforce. Left to elderly parents and families who can’t cope, or in nursing homes that are unsuitable and without equipment that would make their lives easier. Every citizen is capable of contributing to society, even if it’s only by allowing others to learn about empathy or to provide a job opportunity for those interested in the caring professions. Those whose lives are already extremely difficult, and for whom the lives of their families and carers are fraught and stress filled, do not deserve to have to queue, wait or live in hope for support that never seems to come, or arrive in the right size or shape on the odd occasion that funds are made available. As a society, we should be focusing on creating infrastructure that works for people with disabilities; making equipment that doesn’t cost a fortune because a private company wants a profit for its (non-disabled) shareholders;finding ways to fund nursing homes that are age appropriate. Too many people who could be productive members of society find themselves stuck at home, or attend workshops where private providers take government money but don’t actually engage their attendees with useful work or activities and leave them sitting in corners. The current disability system doesn’t work for me because being disabled, adequately supported, in the community and a productive member of society doesn’t even seem to be something it considers, let alone sees as a priority.
The main features of the NDIS that will make a difference to the community are:
Better access to education and work opportunities, More employment of people with disability and less reliance on social welfare, Removal of age barriers to services for children
The most important services for the NDIS to provide are:
Equipment and home/vehicle modifications, Support for families and carers, In home care and domestic assistance
I support the introduction of the NDIS.
For too long people with disabilities have been relegated to the fringes of society. We all have the ability to build a better society. It’s not something that is the prerogative of the able-bodied alone. Even when people with disabilities have made the enormous effort required of them to participate more fully in life, they are met with prejudice, bias, unsupportive and downright hostile environments. Our infrastructure has been designed by the able-bodied for the able-bodied, with the disabled out of sight
and out of mind. Those who care for relatives and friends with disabilities, those who perform caring roles for a living, have done so for too long without the support of mainstream society. The high cost of medical bills, power bills, inability to work to earn a decent living have all taken their toll. The mark of a society is not how much individual wealth its members can rake from the efforts of others, it’s how well that society cares for and caters to it’s weaker citizens. I work. I pay tax. I want my taxes to go towards providing a better quality of life for those who are unable to do either. I want carers and elderly parents to feel the relief of knowing their loved ones will be supported when they are no longer able to do so. I want this to be a just and fair society where equality actually means equality for all.
I agree for my submission to be made public
Regards,
Ms phoebe dangerfield