Shorten hears NDIS concerns at Grovedale forum

SHADOW Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Bill Shorten stopped in Grovedale last week as part of his national NDIS listening tour.

Mr Shorten and Corangamite federal member Libby Coker held a closed-door forum at the Grovedale Community Hub on October 10, and took questions from the media alongside several NDIS operators and clients afterwards.

Last week’s event was Mr Shorten’s 17^th disability forum in recent months.

“People want the NDIS to work, but there’s a high level of frustration,” he said.

“I thought today some of the points around respite really emerged very strongly – I found myself thinking quite a lot about how an NDIS package treats the importance of carers having some time.”

He said some of the stories told by people in the forum reflected the lack of service to some people using the NDIS.

“This is not a favour the government is doing for people. It’s a human right, it’s an entitlement, and you shouldn’t have to wait seven weeks or 14 weeks for receipts, or even longer.”

Mr Shorten said Labor wanted the NDIS staffing cap to be lifted, more people with disability employed in the upper echelons of the organisation, more flexible packages, and more service accountability.

He believed he would be able to present the findings of his tour by mid-November.

“Most people know intuitively what needs to be done, most people have got a piece of the jigsaw puzzle – but in order to give people without power a greater voice, you’ve got to do what I’m doing, which is talk to various groups.

“I think most people know what needs to be done, it’s about creating the political will to get it done.”