People with Disability Australia welcomes the opportunity to provide this submission to the Australian Government’s review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (the NDIS Act): the Tune Review.
The Terms of Reference for the Tune review of the NDIS focus on “opportunities to amend the NDIS Act to:
- remove process impediments and increase the efficiency of the Scheme’s administration; and
- implement a new NDIS Participant Service Guarantee
- as well as any other matter relevant to the general operation of the NDIS Act in supporting positive participant and provider experiences.
In making this submission, we note that a previous review of the NDIS Act was undertaken in 2015. However, while the recommendations of this review were accepted by the COAG’s Disability Reform Council, the recommendations did not progress to changes in the legislation at the time.
PWDA believes that this current review of the legislation should include the amendments to the legislation that were recommended in 2015 and are yet to be implemented. In this submission, we have reviewed the proposed 2015 amendments and we outline why the majority of them are still current and should be adopted as part of this legislative review.
As the Terms of Reference highlight, this review must also have regard to “the objectives and principles of the NDIS Act and the experiences of people with disability, their families and carers with the Scheme’s administration and decision-making, including: access, planning, review and appeal processes.”
Our submission is informed by our strong and continuing support for the Objects and Principles of the Act. PWDA recognises that the NDIS represents a key plank within the broader National Disability Strategy (NDS) which seeks to deliver on Australia’s commitments under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD).
Read the full submission in Word format: SB 111119: PWDA Sub to Tune Review of the NDIS Act