Red Letter day for WA and the NDIS on three counts.

It was a red letter day for WA and the NDIS  on three counts yesterday. The first was when 20 WA MPs from across the political spectrum signed up to a new group called the WA Parliamentary Friends of Disability Reform. At an event hosted by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Grant Woodhams and the President of the Legislative Council Barry House the multi partisan group committed themselves to progressing disability reform, including the NDIS, in consultation with people who live and work with disability.

 

The MPs, including Disability Services Minister Helen Morton, Leader of the Opposition Mark McGowan, Shadow Disability Services Minister Sue Ellery, Govt Whip Tony Simpson and Greens Disability Spokesperson Alison Xamon met with 40 people with disabilities and families/carers and those who work in the sector. They listened to EAC champions Barry Mackinnon, Peter Darch, Julie Guilfoile and Professor Barby Singer. Barry Mackinnon, a former leader of the WA Liberals, is also a parent of a son with disabilities and the chair of the WA EAC committee.  He spoke of the value and necessity of having all MPS put aside party politics to work together through the long haul of the NDIS and of using the group to hear directly from people who live and work with disability so that their experience & ideas could inform decision making.  Peter Darch related how his personal story of becoming quadraplegic in an accident for which he was non compensable highlighted the need for an NIIS , and about his ongoing fight to get enough support to stay at work. Julie Guilfoile spoke of the lack of choice and control in not being able to get enough funding and support to have their son Eamon live with their family  and Prof Barby Singer of UWA spoke of her years as a physiotherapist treating patients who had had catastrophic injuries, and how the differences between those who were compensable and those who werent mandated a better no fault scheme.

On the same day the Minister for Disability Services, Helen Morton, announced WA’s intention to host an NDIS launch site which it had communicated to Disability Reform Minister Jenny Macklin as a first step. She also announced plans for a dedicated NDIS reference group in WA to provide specific advice on the design and implementation of the scheme .  Read her press release here http://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/Results.aspx?ItemId=150339