Page 4805 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 27 November 2018
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themselves when, for instance, they have broken a leg and they are in a wheelchair—that sort of thing. They are often in an excellent position to advocate for themselves. But some people are not in a position to advocate for themselves and some people do not have family or friends who are in that position. Those people are not doing as well as they need to be doing. We heard from a number of ACT advocacy organisations that the demand for their services had gone up and that their funding had gone down. I am pleased to say that the last ACT budget included some more money for advocacy. But I fear that that is still not enough.
The other thing I really wanted to highlight, because neither of the previous speakers have highlighted it, goes on from my theme of advocacy. It is clear that some groups are under-represented in the NDIS participants. Culturally and linguistically diverse people are significantly under-represented in NDIS. Believe it or not, so are women. You would have thought we would not have been under-represented, but statistics I have seen suggest that we are under-represented there. I assume also that the Indigenous community is under-represented. I have to say “assume” because we did not even get any figures about Indigenous representation. Based on everything else, you tend to assume that the Indigenous community has not been able to make as good a use of the NDIS as some other parts of the community.
I commend this report’s recommendations not only to the Assembly but also to the ACT government and the NDIA. We said that we would send a copy of the report to that organisation. I hope that we, together with many other organisations and many other parliaments that are looking to these issues, will make a positive impact on the NDIS because, as Mrs Dunne said, this is a really important program. We want to do our best to make sure that it works well and that it works better than the previous program. We obviously have an increase in funding. We need to make sure that that funding is well used.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Administration and Procedure—Standing Committee
Statement by chair
MS J BURCH (Brindabella) (10.45): Pursuant to standing order 246A, I wish to make a statement on behalf of the Standing Committee on Administration and Procedure. On Monday, 5 November this year the committee considered a letter from the Commissioner for Standards written to the Clerk of the Assembly in which he raised two matters for the committee’s consideration. The commissioner indicated that he had received a complaint against a member of the Assembly that involved words spoken in Assembly proceedings.
The commissioner sought guidance from the committee as to whether it was intended for him to investigate such matters. In considering the matter the committee was mindful that the UK Commissioner for Standards, upon which ours is based, does not have as part of their remit the ability to investigate members’ actions in the House of Commons or its committees.
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