| Summary: | Any changes to how the NDIS is implemented and administered should be consistent with the principles of administrative justice, enhance the rights of people with disability and be consistent with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD). Our research and engagement with a broad array of NDIS stakeholders suggests that the NDIS could be improved by: ➢ Ensuring adherence to human rights and a social model of disability is maintained in the design and implementation of the NDIS, especially in all decision-making of funded supports. ➢ Providing further clarification of the operation of Section 34 of the National Disability Insurance Act 2013 (Cth) (‘NDIS’ Act) particularly in the context of Sections 3 and 4. ➢ Clarify legislative language regarding the role and relevance of general scheme financial sustainability in the determination of individual support decisions pursuant to Section 34. This may also include a definition in the NDIS Act of financial sustainability which refers to both the financial costs and the financial benefits of providing supports. ➢ Ensuring disability specific knowledge of all NDIA staff through enhanced training initiatives Increasing resources to support and enable the Participant Service Guarantee especially in relation to the empowerment and connectedness of participants. ➢ Redesigning the decision-making process, from planning to review and appeal, to meet the objectives of being a rights-based, individualised, and collaborative process. ➢ Developing clear and accessible policies, procedures and information with particular attention to accessibility for First Nations peoples, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) populations, people with intellectual disabilities or those who are neurodiverse. ➢ Providing reasons for Section 34 decisions (both original and on internal review) that clearly explain the evidence behind decisions, not only the technical legal grounds. ➢ Creating a public registry of NDIA settlement outcomes reached at the Administrative Appeals ...
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