Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese REPORT
27 Jul 2012
The Federal Government's determination to continue with trials to test the cost and effectiveness of a future $15 billion per year National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) by using a small and non-representative group of people with a disability is a waste of money, says Maree Buckwalter, President of the Carers Alliance and mother and carer of a severely disabled 26-year-old son.
Maree's comments have also been backed by many of the country's 400,000 disabled and their carers who say they have seen their pleas and submissions, promises and inquiries strangled by politics.
According to the Carers Alliance they have been totally let down by the Federal Government when all they want is a fair go - something that has been promised for years.
The proposed trials, discussed with the Prime Minister and Premiers this week, involving 10,000 people with severe dependent disabilities are set to begin in July 2013. They would be expanded to include 10,000 severely disabled the following year. The idea of the trials is to refine the scheme prior to full implementation in 2018 which would provide individual supportive care to the 400,000 severely disabled Australians and their carers.
But instead of 10,000 of those with severe disabilities taking part in the initial trials, the Government has decided to allow South Australia to trial the scheme using children with disabilities aged seven and under, even though children are not part of the NDIS and would not be eligible to be part of the scheme until they reached adolescence and adulthood.
The Federal Government failed to secure NDIS trials this week in any of the big states when NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland refused further funding, on top of the $7.1billion states already spend on disability services. These states said the Federal Government should adopt the Productivity Commission recommendation the commonwealth should be the single funder of the NDIS through general revenue.
Meantime the Government also decided to accept Tasmania for the trials despite the state limiting the trial to just 1,000 young people aged between 15 and 24 years of age. This also follows Tasmania being originally rejected for the trials and the NSW-Victoria model being the only model to have met the original criteria for NDIS launch sites by capturing a significant number of disabled clients and all age groups and backgrounds.
"A third place the trial is set to take place is the ACT where the sample of those with severe dependent disabilities will be far too small to be representative," Maree says.
She points out the whole purpose of the trials was to get data from a strong representative sample of Australia's severely disabled to ensure when the NDIS was implemented nationally any problems would have been identified and services to be delivered streamlined with any duplication of costs between states and the government prevented.
"But this isn't what has happened," she says and describes the Prime Minister's decision to go ahead with the non-representative trials as a meaningless publicity stunt.
"Children with disabilities have quite a few services available to them including early intervention. It is also much easier to care for a small child than it is once a son or daughter with severe disabilities reaches adolescence and adulthood. And this is what the NDIS was set up to address," she says.
Maree says she was also disheartened this morning to discover that earlier this week at a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) dinner with the Prime Minister all the states were in agreement not only of the need for an National Disability Insurance Scheme, but that the scheme should be funded by a national levy, much as the Medicare levy is applied or the way last year's flood levy was introduced.
But according to reports, this was knocked back the following day by the Prime Minister who claimed introducing a levy would leave the way open for Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to accuse the Government of yet another "big new tax." Instead she insisted states co-fund the trials.
The Prime Minister has not given any details as to how the $15 billion per year scheme would ultimately be funded once it was operational in 2018-19.
"I am also concerned the Government plans to set up yet another large bureaucracy to administer the scheme," Maree says.
On Wednesday this week, PM Julia Gillard admitted of the $1 billion put aside in the May budget for the NDIS, $650 million would go towards infrastructure with just $350 billion spent on the front line and the disabled men and women chosen for the trials.
"Only a small bureaucracy would be needed and hopefully no duplication between states and the Canberra," Maree says pointing out that once an NDIS was up and running, it would be delivered by the states.
The scheme is designed to provide tailored individual support and with each state already having systems in place for assessments and disabled services, all that is needed is to streamline what is already there rather than build a vast new department in Canberra, she says.
But she is adamant that if the scheme does go ahead, funding must be administered from Canberra to ensure continuity and surety.
"If ultimately it is decided to fund the NDIS through a levy it is also important that the money is quarantined for disabilities and not put into general revenue to be used in ways by whichever Government is in power," she warns.
Maree and many other carers of those with dependent disabilities, are disappointed at the latest politicking by both sides over the proposed NDIS.
While the Government did not consult with the Coalition when designing the proposed NDIS, Maree is convinced if the Coalition if elected next year, the NDIS will become a reality.
"We have made submission after submission to the Government as well as countless letters," she says. "Most often the response has been either a standard letter rather than a personal reply, or a letter that seems to think we are asking for more money when in fact we are simply pointing out discrepancies resulting in unnecessary hardships and difficulties that need to be addressed by the NDIS."
The response from the Leader of the Opposition however has not only been a personal letter from Tony Abbott but most recently one where he said that the NDIS was too important to be partisan and should be implemented not by one specific government but by both sides of Parliament as both will be involved with implementing the scheme over the next 20 or 40 years.
The Opposition leader said today the NDIS is a national reform designed to ensure people with serious disabilities is a fair go and needs "a bi-partisan approach to take the politics out of it".
The stalemate between NSW-Victoria and the Federal Government seems to have hardened with the states unwilling to sign off on the trial agreement until further discussions with the Federal Minister, Jenny Macklin and the Minister not agreeing to a meeting until the states sign off over a launch suite trial for 15,000 disabled people in the Hunter Valley of NSW and the Barwon district in Victoria.
"At the end of April Ms Gillard told thousands of people with disabilities, family carers and disability support workers rallying in Homebush 'You've waited long enough' and led us to believe that the NDIS would become a reality a year earlier," Maree Buckwalter said.
"Looks like we've all been seriously conned by a government playing wedge politics against cash-strapped states who don't toe the party line.
"The NDIS is a fair-go scheme. It would benefit all Australians and put us in the vanguard of disability service provision. But it has now been twisted and pummelled into a political football.
"It is simply unconscionable to play mean and tricky politics with the lives of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children who are severely disabled and depend on help and support each and every day.
"The Gillard government made the promise to introduce the NDIS then without any collaboration or consultation set about watering it down to be barely recognizable and then demands the states pay for it," she said.
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
27 Jul 2012
Maree Buckwalter, President
of the Carers Alliance
of the Carers Alliance
Maree's comments have also been backed by many of the country's 400,000 disabled and their carers who say they have seen their pleas and submissions, promises and inquiries strangled by politics.
According to the Carers Alliance they have been totally let down by the Federal Government when all they want is a fair go - something that has been promised for years.
The proposed trials, discussed with the Prime Minister and Premiers this week, involving 10,000 people with severe dependent disabilities are set to begin in July 2013. They would be expanded to include 10,000 severely disabled the following year. The idea of the trials is to refine the scheme prior to full implementation in 2018 which would provide individual supportive care to the 400,000 severely disabled Australians and their carers.
But instead of 10,000 of those with severe disabilities taking part in the initial trials, the Government has decided to allow South Australia to trial the scheme using children with disabilities aged seven and under, even though children are not part of the NDIS and would not be eligible to be part of the scheme until they reached adolescence and adulthood.
There are 400,000 severely disabled
Australians - still waiting for the NDIS
Australians - still waiting for the NDIS
Meantime the Government also decided to accept Tasmania for the trials despite the state limiting the trial to just 1,000 young people aged between 15 and 24 years of age. This also follows Tasmania being originally rejected for the trials and the NSW-Victoria model being the only model to have met the original criteria for NDIS launch sites by capturing a significant number of disabled clients and all age groups and backgrounds.
"A third place the trial is set to take place is the ACT where the sample of those with severe dependent disabilities will be far too small to be representative," Maree says.
She points out the whole purpose of the trials was to get data from a strong representative sample of Australia's severely disabled to ensure when the NDIS was implemented nationally any problems would have been identified and services to be delivered streamlined with any duplication of costs between states and the government prevented.
"But this isn't what has happened," she says and describes the Prime Minister's decision to go ahead with the non-representative trials as a meaningless publicity stunt.
The NDIS political stalemate doesn't provide much
light for the disabled, according to Carers Alliance
light for the disabled, according to Carers Alliance
Maree says she was also disheartened this morning to discover that earlier this week at a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) dinner with the Prime Minister all the states were in agreement not only of the need for an National Disability Insurance Scheme, but that the scheme should be funded by a national levy, much as the Medicare levy is applied or the way last year's flood levy was introduced.
But according to reports, this was knocked back the following day by the Prime Minister who claimed introducing a levy would leave the way open for Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to accuse the Government of yet another "big new tax." Instead she insisted states co-fund the trials.
The Prime Minister has not given any details as to how the $15 billion per year scheme would ultimately be funded once it was operational in 2018-19.
"I am also concerned the Government plans to set up yet another large bureaucracy to administer the scheme," Maree says.
On Wednesday this week, PM Julia Gillard admitted of the $1 billion put aside in the May budget for the NDIS, $650 million would go towards infrastructure with just $350 billion spent on the front line and the disabled men and women chosen for the trials.
Under 7s will be part of NDIS trials even
though children are not part of the scheme
though children are not part of the scheme
The scheme is designed to provide tailored individual support and with each state already having systems in place for assessments and disabled services, all that is needed is to streamline what is already there rather than build a vast new department in Canberra, she says.
But she is adamant that if the scheme does go ahead, funding must be administered from Canberra to ensure continuity and surety.
"If ultimately it is decided to fund the NDIS through a levy it is also important that the money is quarantined for disabilities and not put into general revenue to be used in ways by whichever Government is in power," she warns.
Maree and many other carers of those with dependent disabilities, are disappointed at the latest politicking by both sides over the proposed NDIS.
While the Government did not consult with the Coalition when designing the proposed NDIS, Maree is convinced if the Coalition if elected next year, the NDIS will become a reality.
Premier Barry O'Farrell unhappy $650
million will go on infrastructure
of NDIS and just $350 million
on supporting the severely disabled
million will go on infrastructure
of NDIS and just $350 million
on supporting the severely disabled
The response from the Leader of the Opposition however has not only been a personal letter from Tony Abbott but most recently one where he said that the NDIS was too important to be partisan and should be implemented not by one specific government but by both sides of Parliament as both will be involved with implementing the scheme over the next 20 or 40 years.
The Opposition leader said today the NDIS is a national reform designed to ensure people with serious disabilities is a fair go and needs "a bi-partisan approach to take the politics out of it".
The stalemate between NSW-Victoria and the Federal Government seems to have hardened with the states unwilling to sign off on the trial agreement until further discussions with the Federal Minister, Jenny Macklin and the Minister not agreeing to a meeting until the states sign off over a launch suite trial for 15,000 disabled people in the Hunter Valley of NSW and the Barwon district in Victoria.
Mary Lou Carter with her son Nicholas
who has a severe intellectual disability
and needs full time care
who has a severe intellectual disability
and needs full time care
"Looks like we've all been seriously conned by a government playing wedge politics against cash-strapped states who don't toe the party line.
"The NDIS is a fair-go scheme. It would benefit all Australians and put us in the vanguard of disability service provision. But it has now been twisted and pummelled into a political football.
"It is simply unconscionable to play mean and tricky politics with the lives of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children who are severely disabled and depend on help and support each and every day.
"The Gillard government made the promise to introduce the NDIS then without any collaboration or consultation set about watering it down to be barely recognizable and then demands the states pay for it," she said.
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
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