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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News 4 December 2023

This Week is Going to Be Huge

This is one of the most important weeks ever for our community.

State and territory Premiers will be meeting with the Prime Minister on Wednesday to decide on the future of the NDIS.

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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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News 8 November 2022

Are the NDIA and their external lawyers being ‘model litigants’? Are they on their best behaviour with you at the AAT?

If people with disability don’t get what they need from the NDIS they might have to take their case against the NDIA to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). The NDIA and their external lawyers are meant to follow ‘model litigant obligations’ – which are rules about being really decent and fair. If they don’t, there can be a big power imbalance, which is really unfair for people with disability. We want the NDIA to act like model litigants each and every time – but we need your help to make sure it really happens…

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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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News 13 October 2022

What’s happening with NDIS AAT appeals? Recap: online forum with NDIS Minister Bill Shorten and NDIA Chief Counsel Matthew Swainson

Did you catch our live forum about NDIS AAT appeals with NDIS Minister Bill Shorten and NDIA Chief Counsel Matthew Swainson? You can find a quick summary, as well as the video recordings and the transcript right here.

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News 26 September 2022

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten’s announcement on the new NDIA CEO, Board Chair and Board Members

Today Minister for the NDIS Bill Shorten has announced five new people who will all play important roles in running the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) – a new CEO, a new Board Chair, and three new Board Members. They start on Monday, October 17, 2022. Find the details from the announcement right here…

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News 18 May 2022

An open letter to all members of Australia’s next Federal Parliament

More than 50 disability advocacy organisations representing millions of Australians are urging the next Federal Parliament to reverse the “death by a thousand cuts” that is devastating the lives of people with disability and undermining the NDIS. In the Open Letter to Australia’s Future Parliament released today, the disability advocacy and support organisations are calling on future MPs to back key reforms that will ensure no one with disability who needs support is left behind. Read and sign the open letter here.

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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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News 10 March 2022

Which NDIS recommendations has the Federal Government actually delivered on?

How many? Which ones? Why? We know a lot of those recommendations were made because of you. You have made thousands of submissions via us – and directly to the inquiries over the years. So how many of the recommended changes were actually made? What has been ignored and forgotten? Thanks to a new tool from our friends at Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), it’s easier than ever to find out…

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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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News 25 November 2021

Every Australian Counts website blocked from Federal Parliament wifi

Several people have reported getting “access denied” when trying to visit the Every Australian Counts website on Parliament House wifi today.

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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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News 29 October 2021

Vaccinating people with disability against COVID-19

People with disability are at much bigger risk of getting very sick or dying from COVID-19. But getting a vaccine has been really hard for lots of people in our community, and vaccination rates are still too low. So we have been asking people with disability, families and the people who support them to tell us about their vaccine experiences, so we can tell the government what they can do to make it easier. Here’s what we have heard so far…

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News 25 October 2021

Inquiries into NDIS, Independent Assessments, and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission have been released by the Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS

A huge report on NDIS independent assessments has just been released. Here’s our very quick summary of what the Joint Standing Committee said they heard, and what they recommend the Federal Government and NDIA should do next.

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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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