Page 1141 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 10 April 2018
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is critical to ensuring that ongoing and necessary improvements are made to the NDIS.
The 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. To realise this success and the benefits of the NDIS, we must be willing to raise the concerns of the ACT community and work towards solutions.
This is why, for example, I previously wrote to and spoke with both the Honourable Christian Porter MP, then commonwealth Minister for Social Services, and Dr Helen Nugent, chair of the NDIA board, to highlight the emerging market issues in the ACT, and in particular to express the ACT government’s concerns about the pricing levels for short-term accommodation. The ACT government will continue to advocate to the NDIA to ensure that there is an adequate and reasonable pricing schedule for the provision of short-term accommodation.
As I have also previously noted, the ACT government has also raised concerns about market failure in supports for participants with high and complex needs in its submission to the Productivity Commission and in bilateral conversations with the commonwealth government.
We are able to identify these issues and advocate to the NDIA because people are willing to come forward and share their NDIS stories and frustrations. They are not only seeking a better outcome for just themselves, their children or family member but are also wanting to see the system work for everybody. They are people like those who participated in a recent forum on the NDIS, which was hosted by the member for Canberra, Gai Brodtmann MP, and the federal shadow Minister for Disability and Carers, Senator Carol Brown, or those community members who attended the forum on disability and multiculturalism hosted by People with Disabilities ACT last week.
Getting people together through forums such as these to identify the major issues is an important way of enabling people to be heard and is a first step towards the NDIA making necessary improvements. The ACT government will ensure that people’s voices are heard and their frustrations acknowledged, and will continue to advocate to and work with the commonwealth to see that these issues are addressed and the NDIS is a success.
Recommendation 12 of the report requested an update on “outcomes of the supported decision-making trial as undertaken by the community advocacy group, ACT Disability, Aged and Carer Advocacy Services, Supported Decision Making and link and learn pilot project”. We know that decision-making is an important part of life. When we make decisions we ensure that we are living a life that includes the things we value. Through our decisions, we can explore our hopes, try new things and express our choices. Some people, however, find it challenging to make decisions. This may be due to, for example, an acquired brain injury, mental health issue or cognitive disability. Getting the right forms of support and information so that people can make their own decisions is important, and this type of assistance is referred to as supported decision making.
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