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The Way Forward – A New Disability Policy Framework For Australia

Part 2: Need for Change

The Australian system of formal support is currently failing many people with disability, their families and carers. In future, the system will be under greater pressure because of demographic changes that reflect the ageing population and the shift towards more single-person households.

In July 2008, the Australian Government signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The parties to the Convention:

…recognise the right of persons with disabilities to an adequate standard of living for themselves and their families, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions, and shall take appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realisation of this right without discrimination on the basis of disability.11

To lift Australia’s record in assisting its citizens with disability to live the lives to which they aspire, the current disability system needs immediate and significant reform. This must be on the scale of the Medicare reforms or the introduction of compulsory superannuation.

Greater stress in the future

With increasing numbers of people with disability, decreasing availability of informal carers, and an ageing population, there will be even greater stress in future on the fragmented service system and a growing unfunded liability for families and governments.

Recent trends indicate growth in demand for specialist disability services of 7.5 per cent per annum in real terms.12 Government spending on disability services has not kept pace with this. Improving system efficiency and effectiveness is critical in managing the future costs of disability from an intergenerational perspective.

The reforms under the new National Disability Agreement to build new disability service systems within each State and Territory will undoubtedly improve the current disability system, which has been ‘hamstrung for years by buck-passing and a culture of reactive crisis management, to the detriment of those it is meant to support'.13

Under the Agreement, the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments’ commitment to person-centred approaches, single access points, quality assurance systems and benchmarking is welcome and an acknowledgement of the need for change. However, the DIG believes that more fundamental reform is needed that builds on the practical experience of the injury compensation and no-fault motor accident schemes operating in some Australian states, New Zealand and other countries.

Support over the life course

Internationally and across Australia interest in new approaches that have a life course perspective is growing—an approach which recognises the way lives develop and change, rather than the static point-in-time approach of our current welfare system.

Fundamentally re-engineering the way public and private resources are invested in disability would allow people with disability, their families and carers to plan with more certainty across the life course, and to contribute more to Australian community life. For governments, a new and sustainable funding system, with a rigorous governance framework, would ensure an unprecedented level of prudential and social planning.

The recent National Disability Strategy Consultation Report SHUT OUT: The Experience of People with Disabilities and their Families in Australia14 prepared by the National People with Disabilities and Carer Council cited a significant number of submissions arguing for fundamental reform to the disability services and support system. While details varied, these submissions argued that a lifetime care and support scheme such as the proposed NDIS would remove existing inequities and provide the resources needed to ensure that people with disability are able to reach their potential and live as independently as possible.

Committing to long-term investment

The DIG proposes a three pillar policy based around long-term investment to support people with disability. At the heart of the proposed new system is the goal of realising personal potential through a new National Disability Insurance Scheme.

By introducing a new approach government investments would no longer focus on just the care and support that people with disability need. The focus would shift to assisting people with disability to manage their own lives, to maximise their independence and contribute more to the community.

Income support and the new insurance arrangements would operate side by side, supplemented by improved arrangements for families to make planned complementary provisions for the future for family members with disability.

Improved employment and social housing services would maximise the potential of these long-term investments.

  1. United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Article 28.
  2. AIHW 2007, Current and future demand for specialist disability services, AIHW, Canberra, pp. 87–8.
  3. Macklin, J & Shorten, B 2008, ‘Supporting People with Disability, their families and carers’, media release, May.
  4. National People with Disabilities and Carers Council, SHUT OUT: The Experiences of People with Disabilities and their Families in Australia 2009.

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