Page 4060 - Week 11 - Thursday, 21 September 2017
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ACT government is committed to a strong partnership with the commonwealth and the other jurisdictions to ensure that the development and implementation of the NDIS is successful.
Part of making it a success is also being willing to raise the concerns of the ACT community and work towards solutions. We came on board as one of the first trial sites understanding and expecting that for people with disability to benefit from the potential of the scheme, community organisations and government alike needed to make significant business and service adjustments. That work is not helped by disproportionally complex administrative processes. I am looking forward to these barriers to participation being addressed.
The ACT and other jurisdictions have worked with the commonwealth to establish a new national quality and safeguards framework to support participants in the NDIS. The framework will become operational under the Quality and Safeguards Commission, an independent statutory body which will oversee three of the five core areas. These are: a national registrar and registration process; a national complaints and notifiable incidents system; and a national senior practitioner to oversee implementation of restrictive practices. States and territories will continue to have responsibility for worker screening and authorising restrictive practices.
In the ACT the national safeguards will take effect from 1 July 2019. NDIS participants in the ACT and other people with disability in Canberra will also continue to be protected by the ACT’s ongoing disability safeguard framework. Creating a fairer scheme for people with disability is a journey that we are all committed to. Our community recognises the need for the NDIS and ensuring that people with disability have more control of their lives and have the opportunities and choices that previously were not available.
Madam Speaker, it is the responsibility of all Australian jurisdictions to work to fulfil these community aspirations. Establishing the NDIS is complex, as you would expect of such a nation-changing initiative, but the rewards for people with disability and the broader community are worth it. I present the following paper:
National Disability Insurance Scheme—Role of the ACT Government—Six monthly report—June 2017—Ministerial statement, 21 September 2017.
I move:
That the Assembly take note of the paper.
MS LEE (Kurrajong) (10.41): I thank the minister for updating the Assembly today on the important subject of the role of the ACT in the transition to the NDIS. I once again acknowledge, as I did yesterday, the minister’s willingness to always engage with me to discuss matters relating to our portfolio area.
The ACT bravely took the opportunity to be the first jurisdiction to transition to the NDIS. There are obviously sound reasons around size and uniformity of the territory as to why we were an appropriate subject. Being the first is always difficult, and some
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