Page 402 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 18 March 2014
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this we will work with the National Disability Insurance Agency and engage with people who will use services and the community to inform investment from the sector development fund in workforce development, targeting roles and workforce required to see the ACT through transition into full scheme.
Madam Speaker, there is still much work to be done to ensure that people in the ACT make the smoothest transition possible from July this year. I am pleased that through initiatives like the enhanced service offer grants we are supporting Canberrans to imagine different ways to have their disability-related needs met and to take a step closer to being able and resourced to achieve the lives they want for themselves.
MR WALL (Brindabella) (10.38): We are 106 days away from when the transition begins, this year on July 1. Yet we are still no closer on when any of the detail of the ACT’s transition to the NDIS is actually going to be released, what form it is going to take when it is implemented, who is going to be included and over what time frame.
Madam Speaker, I stood up in this place in November of last year and I said that the sector is still no clearer about what services would continue to be provided by the ACT. Here we are less than four months away from the beginning of the transition date and still no more clarity has been provided on what role the biggest provider of disability services in the ACT will play come July 1.
This is continuing to build angst, uncertainty and concern within the disability sector, not just with individuals that rely on these services, but also those individuals that work for service providers and who are at the front line providing services to these vulnerable people in our community.
The minister and her directorate have failed. We took an additional year to transition in the ACT and they have failed to be ready and failed to use the time effectively to make sure that the sector, the community and everyone are prepared effectively. We are still no closer to fulfilling the detail on this issue.
Large issues still arise in workforce preparedness and workforce readiness. It is going to be the single biggest shift in the way disability services are provided in this country. With 106 days to go, many service providers are still unsure how their funding is going to be allocated come July 1—if it will be even continued at all. There is still some concern among providers as to whether this is going to be the case.
With Disability ACT being the largest provider of services in the ACT the government needs to state its place—whether it is going to continue to be a government-funded operator in this space or whether they are going to continue to disband and break up services. Will we see more closures, minister? We saw closures of the respite services already this financial year. What else is to come? We have got 106 days. I would imagine that there is more to come but you are going to keep it to the last minute and bury it in the budget. You will leave more uncertainty for families that rely on these services, yet hide under a cover of darkness.
I want to put on the record here that I smell partisan politics creeping into the NDIS. It was a bipartisan policy federally. There was also bipartisan support in this place to
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