Submission 2598
Thank you for the opportunity to express my views below, and respectfully request that they are reflected in your deliberations to Parliament.
At the outset I unequivocally commend the urgent and well overdue “re-set” of the NDIS to restore the intended core purpose of specifically serving those Australians personally experiencing profound and permanent disability.
Together with the eradication of well publicised and widespread racketeering and price gouging, it is hoped that this sovereign fund achieves the vital financial sustainability outcome sought. Perhaps then the NDIS will again enjoy its status as a proud and innovative national treasure to the envy of the rest of the world!
With so much current ado about “intergenerational inequity”, in the interests of balance it would be highly appropriate for this Inquiry to formally acknowledge the 2013 bi- partisan agreement which decreed the entire 50+ disability cohort be arbitrarily and unceremoniously “dumped” into the aged care system.
As you will observe below, I am but one of many thousands directly and significantly impacted by such a blatant - dare I say unconstitutional - act of age discrimination!!
Notwithstanding total and permanent paralysis from the polio virus as a 3yo in 1951 in Tasmania
- then becoming fully dependant on crutches and leg orthotics- I left my family home at 17 to move 200kms away to Hobart to commence a successful 25 year career in the Commonwealth Public Service, including a two year secondment to the Tasmanian Government as a senior ministerial adviser. A new career in announcing & marketing beckoned in Perth radio where I enjoyed a further 26 years, equating to 51 years of continuous full time employment. All mobility appliances, house renovations and vehicle modifications were funded entirely from my salary. Ten years prior to retirement, and newly single, I regularly accessed my superannuation entitlements to cover my ever increasing ageing needs. When after 60 years on crutches and callipers, a permanent move to a wheelchair was deemed essential to preserve the remaining strength in my overworked shoulders and arms, I sought an additional $10k from my super fund for a hydraulic remote controlled wheelchair hoist in the ute cargo bay. The process was excruciatingly harrowing and embarrassing before my funds were finally released.
Coincidentally at the same time the WA Government was promoting availability of a $1M fund for welfare recipients for that very purpose!!
Due to devastating NDIS age ineligibility, five years after retirement all superannuation and property assets were exhausted after paying a non-refundable $54k incoming contribution to secure a perpetual life lease in a modest one bedroom apartment in a South Perth retirement village.
After such a prolonged working life never did I envisage becoming wholly dependent on the age pension and a small mobility allowance.
While access to aged care funding in the past 4 years is helpful and appreciated, anyone who considers that somehow aged care and NDIS funding processes are synonymous is out of touch with the reality of yet another cumbersome and convoluted agency.
Submission 2598
Finally, I have long suspected that the NDIS age eligibility rules have been compromised. In a candid discussion with a lucid friend in her late 80s just before her death two years ago, I queried her NDIS eligibility. With a wry smile she stated that “it is her little secret”! Moreover, my opinion is also validated by the publicity a few years ago surrounding the former national television identity who successfully sued the Commonwealth for large reimbursement of medical expenses incurred in the treatment of her husband’s traumatic fall, after NDIS declined eligibility because he was in his late 60s.
Should Inquiry members be inclined to invite me to appear in person to be a “face” of those affected by past bi-partisan legislation, I would be most happy to oblige.
Thank you.
Kind regards
Brian Coogan
Submission 2598
(* IMPORTANT: In the interest of clarity - and to avert any confusion that may arise in cross referencing my name elsewhere - hopefully it becomes apparent that the contents and objectives of the submission outlined below is markedly different from the personal aspects of the NDIS detailed in my first submission yesterday).
Thank you for the opportunity to respectfully canvass my following observations, which are at variance with an apparent consensus that NDIS funding of group housing should remain the panacea that underpins the Federal Government’s responsibility to living arrangements for Australians with permanent and profound disability.
While it is conceded that modern, purpose- built houses are readily established in suburbs and regional centres across the nation, it is evident that these structures mask a myriad of problems for the people involved:
- Occupants are not really residents in the true sense of the word. *They are not involved or consulted in the selection process to approve or deny new occupants.
*Family and friends can only attend at appointed times approved by the duty house manager, rendering spontaneity and surprise - and indeed basic freedom of choice - meaningless.
*Their main contact with the outside world are paid support staff, exacerbated by the rapid turnover of mentors which is now a hallmark of the industry, especially since COVID.
*Location of the houses are usually at the discretion of ignorant or unscrupulous developers driven by the Government-guaranteed investment. This usually means the houses are built in distant sub-divisions often lacking appropriate transport infrastructure, shopping and medical facilities. The glut of specialised and unoccupied houses nationwide was recently exposed in a scathing report on the ABC’s 4 Corners programme In summary, they are not homes per se, but small institutions.
By way of contrast, I am a proud and long-standing member of a community and family based Microboard to support the prolonged well being and aspirations of a gentle, pleasant, much loved, non-verbal man in his early 30s with complex disability.
With 24/7 mentor support, he is the sole occupant of his own free standing home which he bought with a mortgage seven years ago with financial leverage support from his extraordinarily devoted (and primary caregiver) Mum who lives just a kilometre away. He has modest earnings from two regular jobs to supplement his disability pension. The welcome mat is always out to attract family, friends and neighbours who are encouraged to drop in unannounced at any time. Blessed with a keen eye for gardening, a sense of humour and enjoying regular drives, he continues to experience wide community and family affection and respect.
Periodically NDIS staff had suggested that he should be in a group “home”, otherwise it would be expected that his home be made available to other occupants.
Imagine the national outrage if Centrelink decreed that home owning age pensioners were required to house other age pensioners to maintain their entitlements.
Submission 2598
Finally, the extraordinary, never ceasing pressure on the major care givers - predominantly mothers - is a grave concern for their general well-being, indeed very existence, as they run the additional gauntlet of needless funding and policy changes within NDIS to date.
Therefore, as the pending NDIS “reset” unfolds, I respectfully yet vigorously contend the establishment of a highly active wellness advocacy unit within to diminish the overwhelming pressures on these remarkable humanitarians.
Thank you.