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Mr River Night
Leading National Disability Sector Advocate
Co-founder at Developing Australian Communities
Public Officer at the National Disability Leadership Organisation
Mr Night is an adult Living with Disability, a National Disability Sector Advocate, carer, father and outspoken supporter for reform and improvements in the Disability and NDIS sector with a 30+ year career working across Disability, Youth Justice, Guardianship, Child Safety, Education, TAFE, Aged Care, Forensics Disability and Mental Health sectors.
“Some of the new, but still rather vague rules for the recent legislation change will take affect today but most of us in the sector are still scratching our heads asking, so what will this do to help cost blow outs?”, said Mr River Night, National Disability Sector Advocate and Disability Sector Professional.
“We have seen 222 recommendations from a massive Disability Sector Royal Commission with hundreds of those not even accepted in full or actioned in any observable way, yet in the last few months we have seen rapid development of legislation with next to know engagement with the sector passed and now implemented.
“Mr Shorten’s own words stated that this change won’t affect the majority of people on NDIS in any way. The items he mentioned this new legislation would stop funding are items practically no one ever gets approved yet this minor piece of work with next to no impact on the 40 billion dollar a year cost blow outs of NDIS seems to be the major focus. We have had a clear price and item guide and list since the schem started 10 years ago.
“Cost blow outs are from a lack of foundational supports, state based services and NDIS being the only option for most people now using the most expensive model possible. The mess that NDIS is with the way it is run so inefficiently is what needs urgent fixing.
“The vast majority of people with disability could care less about these minor things Mr Shorten says this legislation is cutting out. What we care about is the cost of living and housing crisis, becoming homeless or forced into hospital admission because NDIS take months to fix their own mistakes.
“We need urgent, concrete fixes for the cost blow outs and the mess that NDIS has become and these changes today and the legislation at hand still represent little impact on any of that. What was the point of the Disability Royal Commission and its 222 recommendations to fix the sector? It seems it has been shelved in favour of attention grabs to sound like they doing something, but in reality we are all still waiting for action and codesign.
We certainly hope you will join us next month for Victoria's biggest Disability and NDIS related event for 2024.
https://developingauscommunities.com.au/melbourne-expo-2024/
Contact details:
M 0401429403
