Page 1771 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 4 June 2014
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
I do not think delaying is the right answer. I think that we need to work hard to get to the deadline. Delaying simply delays all of the good sides of the national disability insurance scheme that so many people championed, that so many people think is one of the most significant reforms seen in Australia in a very long time. That is what we are striving for. I do not doubt that it is difficult, but what I am interested in is working through those issues so that we get to that place as quickly as we can, in a timely way, and with people feeling as confident as they can.
On that basis, I will be supporting the amendment, because it seeks to set out some of those steps and some of those assurances that I think carers, providers and parents are looking for.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Health and Minister for Higher Education) (4.29): I welcome the opportunity to talk on the national disability insurance scheme and the motion that Mr Wall has put forward today, and specifically the amendment that has been moved by the minister, Ms Burch.
This is a very significant reform to the way disability services are provided, not just in the ACT but across Australia. I am very proud of the work the ACT government has done with the commonwealth government to prepare our city for the transition to the national disability insurance scheme. I have worked closely with the minister on this since the commonwealth really indicated their desire to establish a national scheme for the provision of disability services in 2012.
The ACT government has been, I think, one of the first to really put our energy and weight behind this transition to new arrangements, fundamentally because we believe it is the right thing to do and because we believe that it will provide people with a disability, of whatever age, a better level of service, more say in the services they get and an ability to determine the support they receive.
We have been very keen to make sure that the transition to the new scheme is orderly and is done in a way that our service system can manage. We do not underestimate the challenge that is presented by the changed arrangements both to the service sector as a whole and to the individuals that use it—and, to be honest, to the government, which has been a very significant provider of disability services since self-government.
I speak to this subject with a level of expertise and understanding in that this is the sector that I worked in before coming into the Assembly. I spent probably 15 years working in the disability system in the community sector in various roles. The first of those was working with children with a disability from the age of nought to five. I then moved into working with younger adults with very significant disabilities before moving into the advocacy area, where I worked with adults with intellectual disabilities on their transition out of Bruce Hostel and John Knight Hostel, and the closure of the sheltered workshops in the city.
So I have been a support worker working with people who had never left an institution. I vividly recall spending months working with a young man of my age at
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video