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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-05-14 Daily Xml
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NATIONAL DISABILITY INSURANCE SCHEME

Mr SIBBONS (Mitchell) (15:19): My question is to the Minister for Disabilities. What has the government done to deliver a stronger, fairer society for South Australians in the past 2,400 hours?

Mr PISONI: Point of order. A stronger and fairer society is an opinion.

The SPEAKER: No.

Mr PISONI: There would be many in the community who would have a different opinion—

The SPEAKER: No. The member for—

Mr PISONI: —and standing orders No.—

The SPEAKER: I've got the point of order. Would the member for Unley be seated. I've got the point of order. I understand the point that is being raised but these are not questions with comment in them because it is, of course, open to the minister to say, 'Well, nothing in particular.' I don't think the minister will say that but it is open to the minister. Minister for Communities.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light—Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (15:19): Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I would like to thank the member for his question. When we talk about a fairer society nothing could be more important than helping those most vulnerable in our community. The government's commitment to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, now called DisabilityCare, represents a major shift in our level of social inclusion and fairness in our community. In my short time as minister, just over 100 days, I have witnessed firsthand the restrictions that rigid 'block' disability funding agreements can have on individuals and their circumstances.

A fundamental principle of the NDIS is to consider a person's care and support needs over their lifetime. For many people, this will involve the type of support that they are familiar with, for example, therapy, respite, equipment, supported accommodation and personal assistance. However, a key objective of the scheme is to develop increased flexibility and innovation, so many people will be able to access different types of support than they receive today.

This will be developed as part of a new planning process with people with a disability, their families and carers, during which their goals and aspirations, and how their daily life is affected by their disability, are fully understood, and support options explored more fully. Freedom of choice is a right of everyone in our community and, as a government, we have a responsibility to ensure that the range of choice is broad and far reaching, especially for those who are most disadvantaged in our society.

If a person wants to watch their footy team play on a particular occasion of their choosing, they should have the same choice as everyone else does in the community. If a teenager living with an intellectual disability wants to go out for pizza with their friends on a Friday night instead of a Monday night, as deemed by their current funding arrangement, then they deserve the right to do so, and under the NDIS they will be able to do so.

It is important that the wider population is aware of what their tax dollars can be spent on under the scheme and what they cannot. Where a disability care participant chooses to manage their own funding, in most instances, the money to which they are entitled will be paid directly into their bank account. Participants will be able to choose their providers of services and be responsible for payments for services, and they will have some flexibility in how the funds are spent. However, they will not simply be able to spend the money on whatever they like.

A participant will have a support plan, so the funding will need to be spent in accordance with the plan that they devise. For example, if they are given money to purchase a wheelchair, you would expect that the money would be spent on a wheelchair, if that is what they choose to spend their money on. The funding allocation needs to be spent on disability-related supports so cannot be spent on other things like mortgage payments, which the person would be expected to pay for from their own personal income.

This reform will change the disability sector forever, and the government is 100 per cent committed to its successful implementation. As a person at the coal face of disability care here in South Australia recently said to me:

Not only will this change fundamentally how anyone with a disability is assisted but will also bring about that real shift in our cultural mores, and bring about an acceptance that anyone with a disability is as equal as anyone else in terms of our diverse societal and community situations.

If members would like to know more about the NDIS, they can go to www.ndis.gov.au.

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