Page 744 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 19 March 2019
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Disability services—national disability insurance scheme—government response
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Minister for Planning and Land Management, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister assisting the Chief Minister on Advanced Technology and Space Industries) (3.05): Pursuant to standing order 211, I move:
That the Assembly take note of the following paper:
Health, Ageing and Community Services—Standing Committee—Report 4—Inquiry into the Implementation, Performance and Governance of the National Disability Insurance Scheme in the ACT—Government response, dated 19 March 2019.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH (Kurrajong—Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Disability, Minister for Children, Youth and Families, Minister for Employment and Workplace Safety, Minister for Government Services and Procurement, Minister for Urban Renewal) (3.05): The introduction of the NDIS represents transformative change in the way we think about the delivery of disability services in Australia, providing people with disability, their families and carers with greater choice and control to respond to their support needs, and greater certainty that the funding will be there to ensure that their care and support needs are met.
With any change of this size, the most significant social policy reform at the national level since the introduction of Medicare, ongoing work is required to manage the challenges and maximise the opportunities that the NDIS provides. The Standing Committee on Health, Ageing and Community Services conducted its inquiry into the implementation, performance and governance of the NDIS in the ACT at an interesting time in our NDIS journey, during the transition from trial to full scheme.
By the time the inquiry started, most eligible people in the ACT had transitioned from ACT government services to the NDIS, but there were significant changes being made as a result of the national rollout, and there is no doubt that these have affected both new and existing NDIS participants over the past two years.
The ACT’s formal NDIS journey commenced in July 2012 when the then Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and the then Chief Minister, Katy Gallagher, signed the NDIS trial agreement. The ACT was the first state or territory to recognise what an important and essential development the NDIS was, and consequently the first jurisdiction to fully commit to this massive reform. From July 2016, the ACT became the first jurisdiction in Australia to accept all eligible participants into the scheme.
The move to individual choice and control and a market-based model of support under the NDIS was a major change for organisations as well as individuals across the ACT. It has transformed the way in which the community supports and includes people with disability, their families and carers, providing greater choice and control and a lifetime approach to a person’s support needs.
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