SUBMISSION ON THE NATIONAL DISABILITY INSURANCE SCHEME BILL 2012 TO THE SENATE STANDING COMMITTEES ON COMMUNITY AFFAIRS JANUARY 2013

The NDIS is an important and needed reform to Australia’s disability system. There is much of merit in the NDIS Bill. Its implementation poses some challenges, to ensure a clear, sustainable and rights-based system, resulting in the outcomes desired by the community. This submission seeks to contribute to the current review of the draft NDIS legislation, and to the design and implementation of the Scheme. We have concentrated on areas where we believe we have something constructive to offer in the timeframe. None of our comments or suggestions implies a need for delay in the Scheme. Our suggestions are framed in the context of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities (CRPD), the technical framework of the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF) and an entitlement-based service system which supports people’s rights to participate in all areas of life and seeks to provide an environment which enables these rights to be exercised. Our main suggestions are as follows: Section 23: Residence criteria should be based on Medicare criteria, to promote the equity of the NDIS in the wider service system. Sections 24, 25, 27: Disability requirements and related rules should be based on an accurate representation of the ICF. Embedding the old linear causal model of disability in the Bill will lead to confusion, inefficiency and challenge. The idea of ‘permanent impairment’ is not helpful and should be changed. New provisions for these Sections are proposed. Some suggestions about the design of assessment instruments are included. Section 26: Our discussion provides some ideas about why and how additional expert reports may assist the process and the person with disability involved. A medical examination should not become routinely sought and nor should a health condition become part of the eligibility criteria. Long-term cost containment suggestions are made – including developing models which better estimate the costs of reasonable and necessary supports, as the NDIS matures and experience builds. Such measures are needed, to protect the universality and sustainability of the Scheme. Chapter 5 on compensation should be removed and replaced by government-togovernment agreements and compensation reforms, to preserve the primacy and universality of the NDIS, and to avoid the costs of adjustment being borne by individual people with disabilities. National statistics must be published as part of the Agency’s responsibilities and as part of its public accountability for outcomes from the Scheme. As recommended by the Productivity Commission, data should be made available for research. Data should be based on the ICF so that it relates to population survey data and data from other sources based on this international standard. Such data must include information on the environment of people and the service system surrounding the ICF. A critical part of the Australian environment is information and communication Submission on NDIS Bill 25 January 2013 2 technologies; at present, however, there are shortfalls in access of Australians with disabilities to digital technologies — a 'disability digital divide'. Nationally, we have little precise idea about the scale, scope, and impact of this digital exclusion. This will affect, but can be remedied by, the administration of the Scheme. There should be at least 3 people on the NDIS Board with experience or knowledge of the provision or use of disability services (Section 127). There are lessons to be learned from international experience, service systems and the wider literature. Implications for the NDIS frameworks, principles and terminology are discussed in our final section.Centre for Disability Research and Polic

Resistance in public disputes dataset

This is the dataset for the paper 'Resistance in public disputes' paper. This includes eight clips, taken from public disputes found on social media (e.g. YouTube, Twitter). Where possible, both the full recording, an extended version and the clipped extract from the paper have been provided. These are labelled as such. Each clip corresponds to the similarly named transcript. Links to the original recordings can be found in the transcript, but these might fail to work after a period of time