The ACT Disability Directed Advocacy Caucus, which includes Advocacy for Inclusion ACT, Women with Disabilities ACT and ACT Down Syndrome and Intellectual Disability has welcomed today’s debate on disability reforms in the ACT Legislative Assembly and called for continued transparency, engagement and actions to ensure that Canberrans with disability receive adequate supports during rapid service transitions.
The debate concluded with the carriage of a Private Members motion by Chiaka Barry MLA which provides for a 6 monthly progress update on reform to the ACT Assembly.
We acknowledge and appreciate the efforts that the ACT Government and Minister Orr have made to reach out to the disability community and seek feedback on essential design principles.
We also appreciate the attention and focus to the pressing needs of people with disability and families today by the ACT Shadow Minister, the ACT Greens and Ms Carrick as well as the need for accountability to Canberrans with a disability.
In our advice to government, we have highlighted the need for the new service system to be locally responsive and controlled, and for design work to be adequately resourced – the ACT government has made a welcome start to this by setting aside some funding for co-design and consultation and we look forward to working with Government on the next steps. The Caucus welcomes the commitment to work with us on these things.
As several speakers in today’s Assembly debate made clear, progress on the new system is slow and fragmented. With changes to the NDIS already in motion and supports being withdrawn or reduced, foundational supports must accelerate rapidly to ensure people are not left behind. We agree with comments by a number of speakers that the ACT is a vitally interested partner in the progress of reforms.
We are already receiving significant evidence of service removal, cuts to plans and reductions of services for people in Canberra. Some Canberrans with disability have lost almost all of our services.
The ACT is at particular risk due to historically thin services, service withdrawal, and a lack of sustainable locally grounded providers.
We have urged the ACT Government to be a proactive partner and ensure that this new system does not replicate past issues in the NDIS rollout. We agree that the ACT needs to retain an interest and a stake in the Federal reforms. The ACT is a funding partner with the Commonwealth and the current disability reforms are highly consequential for Territory funded healthcare, education, justice and other community services.
Foundational Supports must be rights-based, person-centred, and locally controlled – and most importantly, services must be designed and governed in genuine partnership with people with disability.
In relation to Thriving Kids, the Caucus has welcomed funding but raised significant concerns about implementation risks, funding adequacy, workforce capacity, and the need for tailored rather than “one-size-fits-all” approaches.
The case has not been made for removing children with autism into a parallel program outside the NDIS which is shaping up to provide less certainty and less choice and control.
We have instead called for an ‘orderly reform process’ where changes and reassessments of people’s NDIS supports are better aligned to the timing, growth and scope of new support systems.
This should also include adequate engagement with the ACT disability community and requires that the ACT must continue as a strong and assertive partner with the Federal government.
It was surprising and disappointing that the States were not made aware of these changes prior to them being announced. This points to a need to ensure that there is better engagement by the Federal government with the States and Territories including the ACT government in reforms going forward. While there are complex issues at play within the multilateral discussions, some additional Assembly attention and oversight of the intergovernmental discussions is welcome. We also acknowledge and appreciate the existing efforts of government to work with the community and keep us informed.