News Hub Opinion

Voices of experience on living with disability, inclusion and how the NDIS is transforming lives.

Opinion 12 February 2024

We won’t let the NDIS review take away our right to choose – An open letter to Bill Shorten

Douglas used AI technologyto generate the photo above

Douglas Fogg is a NDIS participant with a passion for making technology inclusive and accessible.

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Opinion 1 February 2024

NDIS review: Regulation does not keep people safe. People keep people safe!

Linda Hughes is president of the Self Manager Hub and parent of an NDIS participant. Together they self manage and directly employ support workers. Here Linda describes some of the problems with the changes proposed by the NDIS review.

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Opinion 1 February 2024

Too Much About Us Without Us: Psychosocial Disability and the NDIS Review

Muriel and Neil participated in our NDIS Review forums where we came together to share our perspectives on the recommendations in the final report. Here is a summary of their perspectives that were developed in collaboration with six NDIS participants who are members of the Australian Psychosocial Disability Collective.

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Opinion 1 February 2024

The NDIS review “makes me so angry and scared”- by Samantha Petersen (pronouns are you/your)

Samantha Petersen participated in our NDIS Review forum in December where we came together to share our perspectives on the recommendations  in the final report. Here are some of Sam’s concerns.

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Opinion 29 January 2024

The NDIS Review housing and living recommendations are “outdated and unethical”

The above image was drawn by Peter to help visually represent his concerns about the NDIS Review.

The issues identified through the NDIS Review are not new or unexpected. However, the solutions proposed create a level of bureaucratic overreach that intrudes into people’s lives and does not align with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (UNCRPD).

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Opinion 31 August 2023

My Take On “Redesigning the NDIS”

This week, Australia’s national representative body of independent disability advocacy organisations, Disability Advocacy Network Australia, released a report calling for “urgent and radical reform of the NDIS”.

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Opinion 22 August 2023

Independent Assessments 2.0? NDIS Review Chair Forecasts Massive Changes – check them out…

Today the NDIS Review Chair gave us a first look at some huge changes that they want to make. In case you missed the speech by Professor Bruce Bonyhady, here is a summary:

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Opinion 6 July 2023

What Would Life Be Like Without the NDIS? & 5 Reasons to Defend It

This week, 10 years ago, our community won the fight for a National Disability Insurance Scheme. Today, the media cycle is dominated by stories about the cost of the scheme, so it’s important that we remind ourselves about what life was like before the NDIS, why the NDIS was introduced and why it needs to succeed into the future.

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Opinion 15 May 2023

Budget 2023 with Minister Shorten & How the NDIS Is Changing… In Plain(ish) English

Is the government putting a cap on the NDIS? Are our plans going to be cut?  Will it be more difficult to get onto the NDIS? These are

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Opinion 26 April 2023

NDIS Minister National Press Club Address and what you might have missed (it’s scary!)

At today’s National Press Club Address NDIS Minister Bill Shorten made some important announcements and reminded me why I have such deep respect for this man and gratitude for his commitment to improving the lives of disabled people.

Then it ended with something really scary that freaked me out! Here is a summary of his announcements and my take on what he had to say. You’ll have to read to the end for the scary bit.

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Opinion 25 October 2022

What can we expect from the new chair of the NDIA Kurt Fearnley?

Our friend Dr George Taleporos sat down with the new Chair of the National Disability Insurance Agency, Kurt Fearnley, for his latest episode of Reasonable and Necessary. He finds out why Kurt took on the job, and what we can expect from his leadership of the Agency.

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Opinion 18 May 2022

Explainer: What were the original intentions of the National Disability Insurance Scheme?

One of the things people with disability and families have been asking their federal election candidates to reflect on this year is a promise to bring the NDIS back on track with it’s original intentions. To look at why we all fought so hard for the NDIS in the first place. What were the ideas, intentions and principles behind the idea for an NDIS? Our friends from PIAC have written a new helpful explainer…

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Opinion 13 April 2022

Explainer part 3: New changes to the NDIS Act

Last year thousands of you emailed our Senators urging them not to support certain changes to the NDIS Bill as originally proposed by NDIS Minister Linda Reynolds. And your message got through loud and clear – the changes were changed! The NDIS Bill was voted through parliament recently – thankfully our friends from PIAC have another explainer to help us all make sense of it all…

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Opinion 10 March 2022

Is your organisation returning to face-to-face meetings? You need to read this…

Lockdowns have lifted – and some disability organisations are moving back to face-to-face meetings, and interstate travel. The pandemic is not over. People with disability are still at risk of serious health complications and death – even with some protections from vaccines. And apart from that – we cannot now or ever forget the enormous gains mainstream society has made in online accessibility over the last couple of years. Our friend Dr George Taleporos has some important advice for these organisations based on his recent personal experience.

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Opinion 13 December 2021

Goodbye Mum, I’ll be okay

“Like most parents, my mum wanted to know that I was okay. But unlike most parents, her middle-aged son needs round-the-clock support from others, to stay alive.” Our good friend Dr George Taleporos has an important message for NDIS decision-makers, following the recent death of his Mother. “When we say the NDIS is for 450,000 Australians with disabilities – we are leaving out millions of family members who rely on the scheme to provide them with the assurance that their loved ones are going to be okay when they die.”

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Opinion 2 December 2021

Safety net in danger: High price of changes to NDIS legislation

Jessica*, 23, is working with her occupational therapist, to build the living skills she needs to move out of her parents’ home. She lives with both cerebral palsy and autism, and hoped to apply for NDIS supported independent living.

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Opinion 30 November 2021

Planning for life with COVID – getting some answers on what people with disabilities need to know to stay safe

As Australia opens up despite ongoing COVID community transmission, people with disabilities need to work through some complex questions. One of these questions hits our friend Dr George Taleporos a bit too close to home – so he got some answers to share with all of us in his new series of Reasonable and Necessary.

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Opinion 4 November 2021

Australia should invest in the NDIS to help the economy after COVID

Emma Dawson, head of independent think tank Per Capita has had a good look at the numbers behind the NDIS – and the Federal Government’s cost-blowout scare campaign. While people with disability and families are all aware of how valuable the NDIS is when it’s working well, Emma also found that for every dollar invested in the NDIS, $2.25 is returned to the Australian economy. The NDIS is a good investment. Here’s why…

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Opinion 4 November 2021

NDIS was transformational for Australians living with disability

Of all the disappointments from the last decade of Australian political dysfunction, the National Disability Insurance Scheme is not one of them.

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Opinion 3 November 2021

Explainer part 2: What are the proposed changes to the NDIS Act?

On 28 October 2021, the Government introduced the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Participant Service Guarantee and Other Measures) Bill 2021 to the House of Representatives. If passed, this Bill will make changes to the NDIS Act. Our friend Chadwick is a Senior Solicitor from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and he has very helpfully written a follow-up NDIS Act explainer to try and make it easier for people to understand.

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Opinion 5 October 2021

Left behind – disabled people and the COVID vaccine

A new report from the Disability Royal Commission into the COVID vaccine rollout is just the latest in a long list of documented failures by governments to address the needs and rights of disabled people. In the race to “open up”, governments must prioritise the needs of disabled people and do a much better job of engaging with the expertise of disabled people and the sector’s organisations, says El Gibbs, an award-winning writer and disability rights advocate.

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Opinion 20 September 2021

Explainer: What are the proposed changes to the NDIS Act?

What are the good, concerning, and missed opportunities in the draft NDIS Act and Rules? Our friend Chadwick is a Senior Solicitor from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and he has very helpfully written another NDIS Act explainer to try and make it easy for people to understand.

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Opinion 27 August 2021

Support for decision making and the NDIS

The NDIA have just given everyone an extra two weeks to tell them what they think about support for decision making in the NDIS. We asked our friend Catherine McAlpine from Inclusion Australia to tell us what people with intellectual disability and their families think needs to change, and what Inclusion Australia is already working on.

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Opinion 26 August 2021

Vulnerable Australians forgotten in race to reopen

In January 2021 the Commonwealth government released its COVID-19 vaccine rollout strategy. The plan prioritised those most likely to be exposed to COVID-19, and importantly those most likely to become ill and die from the disease – a sensible approach, similar to many jurisdictions around the world.

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