On 27 March 2024, the Standing Committee on Community Affairs Legislation Committee called for submissions to provide input into the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track Bill No. 1) Bill 2024.
The National Mental Health Carer and Consumer Forum (NMHCCF) welcomed the opportunity to contribute to this inquiry, with this Bill marking the first of a significant tranche of legislative changes in response to the Independent Review into the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS Review).
The NMHCCF believes it is important to respond to the proposed amendment and its impacts on people with lived and living experience of psychosocial disability and their carers, family, and kin, as too often policy and legislation enacted within the disability space will overlook or misrepresent psychosocial disability. Being the national voice for mental health consumers and carers in Australia and with NMHCCF members representing lived experience of mental health challenges and service engagement throughout the country, the NMHCCF speaks as an authority on psychosocial disability across the Australian landscape.
The NMHCCF commend the Australian Government for taking an ambitious approach to reforming the NDIS and endeavours to aid and support the Government throughout this process. The inclusion of psychosocial disability in the NDIS has been seen as a significant development to assist people have meaningful lives in the community. The importance of choice and control, a recovery-orientation, life-long support, and the successes that can be achieved through a well-functioning NDIS cannot be underestimated for people with psychosocial disability.
This submission will discuss what impact the Bill will have on the experiences of NDIS participants with lived experience of psychosocial disability and their carers, family and kin. Further, the NMHCCF notes that this Bill is the first of several upcoming amendments to the NDIS Act 2013 (NDIS Act) which are intended to improve the experiences of NDIS participants. In recognition of this, this submission will also address the approach to NDIS and broader disability reform currently being taken by the Government.
The NMHCCF is supportive of the principles of the changes to the NDIS Act that have been included within the Bill. This includes amending the legislation to better facilitate a whole of person approach in determining participant support needs, improving the quality of services and safeguards, and reforming participant pathways onto the NDIS. However, the NMHCCF are concerned that the Bill lacks an understanding of psychosocial disability and the experiences of people with lived experience. Further, the NMHCCF is disappointed that greater efforts to consult on the Bill during its development were not pursued by Government.
NMHCCF Submission to the Community Affairs Legislation Committee's Inquiry into the Getting the NDIS Back on Track Bill
