Page 3148 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 August 2013
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With regard to the disability portfolio, the ACT is on the brink of massive change when it comes to the provision of funding of services in the disability sector. From 1 July 2014, only 10 months from now, the national disability insurance scheme will commence operation in the ACT. Whilst this is an exciting time for both individuals with a disability and service providers alike, there is also a great deal of uncertainty.
As we are on the eve of the biggest change the community services sector has seen, the estimates process is a good opportunity to review how well prepared we are as a jurisdiction for this enormous shift to not only the way in which funding is provided but also how services will be accessed.
From the outset, I would like to stress that there is consensus across the political spectrum with regard to this reform. The change to the funding model is a welcomed reform, as is the empowerment that it will provide to the individuals involved in this space and their families.
The new reforms will, for the first time, empower people with a disability or their families to have a choice. They will have a choice with regard to the types of services that they access and a choice of who provides the services, allowing them to take control of the decisions made about their wellbeing and care and hopefully providing some greater certainty not seen before.
The question is: how robust and effective is the process by which we transition to this reform and the management of unintended consequences that may crop up?
I wish to flag here some of the feedback that I have received from the sector with regard to the pending transition. It is disappointing that there is still a lack of clarity and detail, in the budget papers or in the public arena, with regard to the transition. Locally we are still to learn how the transition will occur. Will it be on an age basis, by disability type or by service?
Service providers have expressed great concern about how much the NDIS will pay for the different types of services on offer and whether specific competitive challenges that face all employers in the ACT will be reflected in the pricing schedule. There are also some complexities around how group housing will be managed under the new scheme. A number of organisations that currently receive block funding from the directorate for work in the disability space primarily deal with people aged over 65. They are yet to be informed how their funding will be provided given that the majority of their clients will not qualify for payments and supports under the NDIS.
Although it has been funded solely by the federal government, it is appropriate to raise the advertising campaign promoting DisabilityCare. That, I might add, came at a significant cost of $22 million. These advertisements are short on detail and go a long way to building the expectations of individuals with a disability and the wider community that DisabilityCare Australia is the silver bullet that will solve all their woes. A number of organisations that rely heavily on donations and fundraising have already reported that the perception in some parts of the community is that the disability sector is now cashed up as a result of the scheme coming into action and
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