People with disability and family members talked with Prime Minister Scott Morrison today about what’s working and what’s not working with the NDIS.
Inclusion Australia and Council for Intellectual Disability (CID) supported a major delegation of NDIS participants when they met with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and other government MPs to talk about how the NDIS can be made better.
People with disability and family members spoke about their experiences with the NDIS – both positive and negative – and responded to questions from the Prime Minister.
They raised a number of issues, including the need for
- more accessible information for people with intellectual disability
- more flexibility in the NDIS
- more trust between the NDIS and people with disability
- family sensitive planning processes and decisions.
The Prime Minister said the NDIS “can really transform people’s lives and lead to a higher quality of participation and involvement and engagement, which is what everyone is looking for.” He said he wants to understand what the “frustrations and blockages” are with the NDIS so that these can be removed and “make sure it’s everything that we want it to be.”
Inclusion Australia and CID welcome the Government’s intention to get the NDIS on track. At the meeting we presented the Prime Minister with Inclusion Australia’s priority issues, including the need:
- to continue the positive investment in people with disability through the new Information, Linkages and Capacity-Building (ILC) strategy;
- to remove the staffing cap for the NDIA so that it can maintain and improve the expertise of staff;
- for a national priority for people with disability to join the open workforce; and
- to establish disability support as an attractive and viable career.
We welcomed the Prime Minister’s intention to improve coordination and collaboration between State, Territory and Commonwealth governments, including on issues such as housing, justice and health.
Inclusion Australia and CID will continue to support our members and others with disability to call for improvements to the NDIS.
