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The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability will hand its final report and recommendations to the Australian governor general today.
As ABC Four Corners highlighted on Monday night, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has been thrown to the wolves by successive governments who wanted it to fail.
High rates of violence and harm against people with disability have not improved over many decades, despite the lip service from the revolving door of Liberal disability ministers.
The disability royal commission has held 32 public hearings with evidence from 837 witnesses and received 7,944 submissions – 55% from people with disability and 29% from family members.
Many within the disability community hope the report will make recommendations that can make a positive difference to the lives of people with disability. Others are unsure how the royal commission could improve people’s safety and wellbeing, considering the scale of exploitation now puts conservatives in a position to argue that the entire NDIS should be scrapped and disabled people should have to rely on unpaid family members to provide care.
While the right-wing Governments who oversaw the early stages of the scheme are now making the case that disabled people and their families are con-artists who deserve nothing, it seems that some of the nation’s loudest inner-city lefties also have their own grievances with the NDIS.
And funnily enough, neither of their grievances relate to the quality of life of disabled people.
“The NDIS is a disgrace” says Brunswick-based Naarm Settler, Elodie Carbonne-Newtrell (36, Naarm), who has been at war with the tax-payer funded social service since the pandemic ended and she realised that telling people to stay home on social media didn’t really count as a personality and sought a diagnosis that made people tip toe around her like they did during her brief stint as a non-binary.
“It has such an archaic view of disability”
The scheme entitles people with a “permanent and significant” disability (under the age of 65) to full funding for any “reasonable and necessary” support needs related to their disability (subject to certain restrictions).
However, as Elodie points out, her newfound neurodivergent ailment is not included.
“How can ADHD not be included on the NDIS?”
“I often forget where I left my keys, and turn up late to work. I also forget to text friends on their birthdays”
“Just because i’m able-bodied passing, the government has ruled I’m not entitled to the same kind of support as people with other disabilities?”
