The McClure review into Australia’s welfare system is an important milestone - but it is not the end game. The report, chaired by former Mission Australia head Patrick McClure, has undertaken an analysis…
State and territory regulators need to start gearing up to meet the growth.
Jaren Jai Wicklund/Shutterstock
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is revolutionising the provision of services to Australians with disabilities. The cornerstone of the scheme is its demand-side reforms: people with disabilities…
Aunty Gayle Rankine, chairperson of the First Peoples Disability Network, is the subject of a portrait from Unfinished Business, a photographic project by Belinda Mason.
Belinda Mason/Unfinished Business
The International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPWD), December 3, is important for commemorating the successes and efforts of the disability rights movement. The theme this year is Sustainable Development…
About one in ten people released from prison has an intellectual disability.
Jes
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) promises to deliver better support to the one in five Australians living with a disability. But what about those inside prison or who have just left prison…
Current funding criteria count against the ParaRoos and other athletes with disability who are represented by mainstream sports bodies.
ParaRoos
The Australian Sports Commission has announced the funding of national sport organisations and individual sports for 2014-15. Overall Olympic funding enjoyed an increase of about A$750,000. Paralympic…
Opposition leader Bill Shorten attacked the government’s budget as ‘ideological’, but his own vision in the battle of ideas is far less clear.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Opposition leader Bill Shorten was emphatic in his budget in reply that the Abbott government’s first budget was an “attack” on the Australian way of life. In his speech on the floor of parliament last…
Charis Palmer, The Conversation and Emil Jeyaratnam, The Conversation
Since publication this infographic has been amended. The original version stated the NDIS was scaled back. There are no planned cuts to the funding of the NDIS.
The Big Society policy of Britain’s Conservative Party was to harness entrepreneurialism to social justice. The results have been mixed.
Paul Clarke
As we hear more about looming federal public sector spending cuts and budget deficits, Australian governments seek new ways to meet diverse and growing human service needs. The challenges of an ageing…
Everything provided under the NDIS already has to meet the test of being ‘reasonable and necessary’.
Image from shutterstock.com
Treasurer Joe Hockey warned earlier this week of a “massive blowout” in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) if the system wasn’t made more efficient. This follows subtle re-positioning of the…
People living in the remote communities face system failures in health care, disability services, housing and infrastructure.
Flickr/publik
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) presents an overwhelming opportunity to revolutionise the care and support given to Indigenous people. But the equity of the scheme is already at risk, with…
Legend has it that before the introduction of Medibank (now Medicare) in 1974, then-prime minister Gough Whitlam convinced the premiers at a Commonwealth-states meeting to introduce a national disability…
The rollout of the NDIS will place considerable pressure on the disability workforce. But are 457 visas the answer?
AAP
With the legislation now through both houses of parliament, The National Disability Insurance Scheme, or DisabilityCare, is law, and will quickly become a defining feature of Australia’s social policy…
Today’s budget will not be a typical big-spend budget.
AAP
Softening up voters for harsh measures, Julia Gillard observed a fortnight ago that “Tuesday 14 May will be no old-fashioned pre-election budget night”. The budget would not be a “political pamphlet” but…
Julia Gillard’s NDIS has bipartisan support, but the debate has been marred by politicking.
AAP/James Knowler
In the end, the disabled outsmarted the politicians. Julia Gillard will bring legislation to the current parliament for her tax increase to contribute to the cost of the national disability insurance scheme…
The remaining A$3.5 billion needed to fully fund the NDIS will still need to be found from other sources.
Image from shutterstock.com
The announcement that opposition leader Tony Abbott will support a 0.5% increase to the Medicare Levy to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) takes the politics out of about half the additional…
Certainty of funding is important and that’s why an income tax levy or premium is the way to go.
Image from shutterstock.com
While an income tax increase may be hard to sell to some people in the community in the lead-up to a federal election, it’s the right choice for a sustainable National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has confirmed the Medicare levy will be increased to fund the NDIS.
AAP/Julian Smith
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced a 0.5% increase in the Medicare levy to help fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) - but Labor will not bring in legislation for the higher tax…
The broad economics of the scheme and the fine details of its implementation remain unclear.
Image from shutterstock.com
While the Labor party’s misguided leadership coup hogged the limelight last Thursday, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Bill passed through parliament. The government also announced the name…
Associate Professor, Rehabilitation, Ageing and Independent Living Research Centre and Occupational Therapy Department, School of Primary and Allied Healthcare, Monash University
Professor of Social Inclusion - UTS Business School - Centres for Business and Social innovation, and Business Intelligence and Data Analytics, University of Technology Sydney