Royal Society for the Blind

Ms COOK (Hurtle Vale) (15:27): Hashtag #nothappydan. Since 1884, the Royal Society for the Blind (RSB) has been the primary source of assistance for people with blindness or vision impairment. It provides services to people of all ages and improves the quality and independence of their lives. Because of the success of intervention, client assistance is not all the time but episodic. Service is needed when something changes or when a client becomes aware of new technologies that may assist them. If their ability to engage useful strategies to manage vision loss and changes when they notice further reductions in their sight, they seek help.

The crux of the matter is that if assistance is needed, it is needed. If it is not provided then, independence is lost and life quality is reduced with often disastrous consequences. During the transition of under 65s to the NDIS, we are seeing some disastrous consequences due to the withdrawal of state block funding. Under the bilateral agreement, the state government is obligated to ensure that the transition of people with disability in SA to the scheme occurs as smoothly and effectively as possible, with minimal service gaps or disruptions.

Block funding was approved to a snapshot of clients who are under 65 and accessed one of any number of services from the RSB in the preceding year, 331 of them. The data only reflects the last service provided by the RSB to each individual. These clients are now named in service orders attached to block funding and only those clients can seek support. Episodic services are now needed by 854 clients under 65, with 500 unnamed clients. They cannot access the service and they are waiting for NDIS.

Ironically, there are 331 clients who are covered by block funding and they do not need service at the moment but can access it. Some common sense has to take over in this regard. The delays in rollout are making this even worse in terms of NDIS. Some people who have new diagnoses are not able to access critical services, and there are waits of up to nine months for assessment and even then there is about a 40 per cent rejection rate for applicants.

Some issues causing rejection include the burden of proof. With blindness rarely curable, clients do not have recent specialist assessments and reports and there are huge waits to get them. There is only a 28-day grace period for further information granted by the assessment team, and it is impossible to meet this with the wait times the way they are. There is a lack of materials in accessible format for blind or low-vision clients. Once approved, there is funding to access this, so it is pretty counterproductive to request it when they are not approved for funding yet. Imagine working for years to be independent then suffering the humiliation of rejection because your disability just is not severe enough.

Even if clients do get onto a plan, then there are also problems. The fierce independence of RSB clients masks the degree of their need, and changing plans are just not agile enough for them. Assessors who lack the understanding of specialised visual support needs are doing assessments, and practical, individualised services such as guide dogs are not even funded. Clients need funded support for support coordination to access information so that they can activate and fully use the services approved in their plan. It goes on.

If all of that is not enough, RSB has recently lost federal funding to provide South Australians who are blind and vision impaired with a translation service. This means changing documents and texts to large print, Braille, e-text and audio. Minister Dan Tehan's decision to consolidate suppliers to two suppliers rather than four has left South Australia with a large population of isolated people with visual impairment. They have no access to local service and are having to send documents, etc. interstate to be translated for them. It is just not practical.

With these challenges, the RSB still provides incredible support with the assistance of donations and fundraising. I will put some questions in writing to minister Lensink asking what she will do to ensure that all people with identified needs can access state funding until they enter the NDIS; how the minister will ensure that people who are blind or have vision impairment are not unjustly rejected by the NDIS, and ensure they have access to critical services now and into the future; and what the minister will do to assist South Australian agencies such as the RSB to survive these transitions into the NDIS.

What will minister Lensink do to ensure South Australians have equal access to the essential services? If federal funding cannot be reinstated for these translation services, I call on the minister to seek the $250,000 per year required. Hashtag #nothappyDan—feel free to join the RSB campaign.