Safeguarding Taskforce

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (14:26): My question is to the Minister for Human Services. What is the status of the funding for the individual advocacy safeguarding service that was funded by the government in response to the death of Ann Marie Smith? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TELFER: In response to the recommendations of the task force into safeguarding, which was established following the case of Ann Marie Smith, the South Australian government provided funding to UC legal to provide individual advocacy for people with a disability. On 29 June 2023, the minister indicated that the funding for this program would end in December.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Before the minister responds, the interjections across the chamber in relation to points of order that may or may not be raised are generally unhelpful. They exhaust the time that's available to the opposition to ask questions.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is warned. Order! There was no ruling in relation to the matters raised by the member for Chaffey. He didn't press leave in the end, and the matter was resolved on that basis, not by direction from me.

The Hon. N.F. COOK (Hurtle Vale—Minister for Human Services) (14:28): As I have explained as well in estimates and on various other platforms, the NDIS review is nearly ready to be reported on, with recommendations, as well as the royal commission into the neglect and abuse of people with disability. Those are all coming to a head over the next six weeks or thereabouts. We are currently waiting on briefings regarding some of those recommendations, and that will help to inform how we further pull together advocacy and safeguarding, from a bigger picture point of view, across the whole sector.

The reports I had from that advocacy group the last time I met with them, earlier in the year I think it was, a lot of the people who were reaching out were indeed reaching out in respect of barriers in accessing the NDIS and an appeals process that they were finding really challenging. I know there was really great work being done by UC in respect of supporting people through that process to try to help them get better service by the NDIS and actually get their plan.

The last figure I saw, the appeals to the AAT had dropped by about 30 per cent and there has been a really big push and a real focus on the federal Labor government in terms of turning the NDIS around, making it easier to access clearer pathways, trying to avoid some of the waste and fraud that was going on, for sure, which would make the NDIS a more efficient and effective system going forward.

I think those initial targets that have been set by the federal government are having some definite impact and improvement in terms of those people who have been finding it really tough. That's not to say there aren't still, as we all know, people who do find it tough in terms of the NDIS. They have been doing a great job.

As we move forward with the review and the report from the royal commission, I think we will find there potentially would be some other changes, so to make premature arrangements, that's not what I am going to do. I am going to wait to be informed by both those reports, and that will happen over the next four to six weeks. As soon as that is available and I can, I am very happy to sit down and provide a briefing about that as well as we move through to the next phase.