Australia’s new Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Jenny McAllister, says she is trying “not to waste a single day” as she adjusts to her portfolio.
The Minister was in Melbourne last week for DSC’s Annual NDIS Conference and gave a keynote speech looking ahead to the future of the scheme, and her role in it.
“This time last week, I was sitting with my colleagues in Government House, waiting to be sworn in as a minister. I’ve tried hard not to waste a single day since then. I am conscious of the task we face together to ensure that people with disabilities are at the heart of the NDIS,” McAllister said.
Since then, the minister said she has been reading up on reports into the NDIS from its Review and the Royal Commission, as well as talking with many of those who work with – or depend on – the NDIS.
Putting lived experience at the heart of change
The Minister said many of her “most important” conversations have been with scheme participants, people with disability themselves.
Speaking to conference attendees, she said she understood how important it is to make sure the “NDIS is not done to or for participants without their input” and that decisions on its future should be made together.
It’s a positive sign for the sector, still waiting for many long-promised changes to take effect – like the introduction of foundational supports.
McAllister also spoke about better integrating the health, disability and ageing sectors for improved outcomes for participants and patients.
She acknowledged the challenges that many people with disability have faced, from long stays in hospitals with no clear path to discharge to living in aged care as a young person, and the fight that many people with lived experience have had to put up for appropriate support, adding that better connecting the sectors would “support the social model of disability embodied in the NDIS”.
Where to from here?
The speech struck many of the right chords: promising to collaborate, centre lived experience, and tackle known issues.
The new term of government has a big agenda for the NDIS, after a tumultuous few years. The implementation of foundational supports is likely to be front of mind for many people with disability and their families, as well as for ministers.
Meanwhile, although the growth rate of the NDIS has dropped, thousands of people join the scheme each year, searching for support to live their lives on their own terms.
Minister McAllister ended her speech by stating that her hope for the NDIS is that it is “a source of profound empowerment for Australians with a disability and those that support them and love them”. Thousands of people with disability share that hope and are eagerly awaiting the scheme’s evolution.