‘Blood on your hands’: disability reforms blasted
Angry disabled Australians are warning their lives could be at risk and families could be torn apart by sweeping changes aimed at making the NDIS more financially sustainable.
The disability discrimination commissioner has warned that the overhaul, which would include around 160,000 people being diverted from state-run supports from the $56 billion-a-year program, could also undermine Australia’s human rights obligations.
Actor and disability advocate Hannah Diviney warned that the consequences of the law could be catastrophic, with people losing the support they rely on to live their daily lives.
“When disabled people die as a direct result of this bill – as they will – their blood will be on your hands,” Ms Diviney, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, told the committee on Wednesday.
“How do I know people are going to die? Because you’ve made it impossible for them to live in so many ways.”
Advocates say the reforms could eliminate supports that people with disabilities use to work and socialize and put more pressure on family caregivers.
Rosemary Kayess, Australia’s disability discrimination commissioner, echoed these concerns and warned that “structural change” in support failed to account for the ways disabled people live.
Ms Kayess told the inquiry: “This bill suggests that they can isolate a person’s disability and only provide support related to that disability.”
“One’s circumstances and the things one wants and does on a day-to-day basis are irrelevant.”
Disability groups warned that the three-day senate inquiry was not enough to reasonably question the bulk of the proposed changes and called for a six-month delay to ensure proper oversight.
“The systems are not ready. If the systems are not ready for reform, there should be no transition,” Australian Autism Alliance co-chair Jenny Karavolos said.
“Yes, financial stability is important. But financial stability alone cannot tell parliament whether reforms will be successful for the people expected to live with the consequences. The cost only tells half the story.”
Although the opposition has previously expressed broad support for reducing NDIS costs, it has expressed concerns about the impact of the proposed changes.
Coalition and Green MPs continue to negotiate to delay reforms by expanding the current investigation.
“This is more or less a legislative godsend that will allow the minister of the day to shape and reshape the lives of disabled people as he sees fit,” Greens NDIS spokesman Jordon Steele-John told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
The opposition is also threatening to hold the bill hostage to gain political influence over unrelated reforms to the tax on investments.
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