mulberry road

A truly hypothecated levy, with proceeds invited in a sovereign fund for a legislated purpose could enable Australians to look at our pay slips and know that we are assuring against the costs of key equipment or therapies if they or a family member acquired a disability. Jaded insiders will tell you that nailing down spending in the Commonwealth’s public accounts is a dark and murky art.

Announcements get repackaged and funding slides across financial years or between programs. Add in state contributions and it gets blurrier still. A levy going into a secured fund could bring the investment into clear view and guarantee the entitlement vision recommended by the Productivity Commission. In line with accountability, another good idea is the Coalition’s suggestion of a cross party committee to oversee the delivery of NDIS in the next Parliament.

Australians with disabilities deserve a funded scheme which joins the best minds across the parliament to get it right. The slow expiry of Medibank, the first health insurance plan introduced in the dying days of the Whitlam government, provides a warning about the fragility of social insurance that fails to secure funding and bipartisan support.

13:12 13th Feb 2013

Notes: 1

Reblogged from mulberryroad

Tags: ndis NDIS Julia Gillard disability disability politics

image: Download

mulberryroad:

Help for 410,000 disabled Australians | Herald Sun

This is one of the best NDIS photos I’ve seen yet.

And these are tough times, and it needs reblogging.

10:39 5th Feb 2013

Tags: NDIS Every Australian Counts

why the NDIS is needed - submission from the campaign to the Senate Standing Committee into Community Affairs

A summary from the Every Australian Counts campaign’s submission to the recent Senate inquiry into the legislation for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS):

These submissions continue to highlight how the severe underfunding of disability services has a punitive financial effect on people with disabilities and their families as well as the nation as a whole.

Without adequate support, equipment and services, people with disability are not able to carry out the most basic of human tasks, like getting up and showering, getting meals and transport, which of course restricts their ability to maintain any kind of working or community life.

Furthermore it almost always requires family (where available) to fill the gap of service provision and the time consuming task of dealing with the disability system, so often by foregoing their own career and the monetary and social benefits this brings. Families are forced to the brink of poverty and despair resulting in broken relationships, and a cycle of poverty and mental health issues. Where funding and services are provided, there is a constant theme of wasted resources and inflexibility that does not assist the person with disability towards independence and productivity.

Diagrams and snapshots of personal submissions here.

12:58 30th Nov 2012

Tags: disability politics NDIS

'Once in a generation' NDIS introduced to Parliament - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Yesterday was a very exciting day, despite all the other nonsense going on. Stella Young, the editor of ABC’s disability website, Ramp Up, is interviewed on her hopes for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the legislation for which was introduced into Federal Parliament.

Support the campaign here. We still have a way to go…

19:45 26th Apr 2012

Tags: NDIS disability politics

image: Download

Rally to Make It Real

As the poster says (the URL provides more detail if this is not so readable), this Monday, April 30, at 12 noon in all state capitals. They will all be memorable occasions.

This has been such an exciting year, I’ve had my heart in my mouth for most of it. The fragmented demographic to which I and my family belong, which has been voiceless through division for too long, is building universal support across the country, including bipartisan support amongst all elected representatives for much needed reform of a disability sector that is teetering on collapse.

If you’re in town that day, consider popping along, and/or signing up to support the campaign on the website. it’s going to be a great day.