Transcript:

Hi everyone.

It’s taken some time for me to get to a point where I felt able to record this video. In response to Minister Butler’s announcements at the National Press Club on the 22nd of April. That’s partly because I’ve been busy alongside my very talented colleagues across disability representative organisations and across the broader community, doing media and generally attempting to analyse what the announcements mean for people with disability.

But I also pride myself on being honest. And so in that spirit, I also need to say that I’ve struggled because while I’ve been advocating for a very long time, I’ve never felt more strongly that my life and my life choices and the lives and life choices of disabled friends, family and colleagues have been under such scrutiny from the public, from the media, and even from people close to us.

Nevertheless, one of the many great lessons I’ve learned from experienced advocates who I’ve had the very good fortune to call friends over many years, is that advocacy is far more effective when it focuses on what you stand for, rather than what you stand against. So here’s what DANA stands for when it comes to NDIS reform. Firstly, we stand for people with disability at the centre of reform.

That’s not just about doing what’s right. That’s actually a strategic imperative. Everything flows from it. These reforms will only be successful if decisions about our lives are made with us, not for us, and not by non-disabled people who often have little or no experience of what it’s actually like to live with disability every day. Lived experience must be recognised, it must be resourced, and above all, it must be respected.

We stand for safety, dignity and human rights. No one should be moved off the NDIS before safe, appropriate, respectful and dignified alternatives are in place. Reforms must never put people at risk, not in theory and not in practice. The system must uphold the human rights of disabled people outlined through the Disability Royal Commission. We stand for a strong and sustainable NDIS done properly.

Sustainability matters, but it can’t come at the cost of people’s wellbeing. There are real opportunities to improve the scheme without cutting essential supports. There’s an opportunity to tackle provider fraud, there are opportunities to tackle poor practice, and there are opportunities to tackle the inefficiencies within the scheme itself, of which there are many. And that’s an essential ingredient in the solution, and it should proceed any reduction to supports for participants.

We stand for equity and inclusion. The system must work for people across all backgrounds, including First Nations people, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and people with complex needs, particularly people with intellectual disability who are so often absent from the reform conversation. Reform must actively address inequities, not unintentionally deepen them. We also stand for community connection and participation.

Social and community participation is not a nice-to-have, it’s a fundamental human right. It’s fundamental to inclusion and it’s fundamental to mental health. I wrote an opinion piece about this last week, and I did that because we stand for a society where people with disability can lead full, connected and empowered lives without negotiation, without fear and without shame.

We stand for respectful, constructive reform. We’re not against reform, but we are for good reform. It must be transparent, evidence based and sequenced carefully because rushed or unclear changes create fear, confusion and can lead to real harm. And that’s what’s happening in our community right now. And if you don’t believe me, just go and have a look at some of the social media groups focussed on the NDIS and see how people are feeling.

So this is what DANA stands for, and we’ll bring that lens to every conversation, to every reform and to every decision that we make. We’re here to work collaboratively with government, but we’ll always stand with people with disability first and foremost. And before I go, I also just want to give out a shout out to our support workers.

They got a pretty bad rap in the minister’s announcement. And certainly there are bad actors in in this sector as there are in every sector. But for the most part, our support workers are absolutely fantastic people who sometimes do not get the recognition and respect that they deserve. So I want to lend my support, respect and recognition to all those people who are support workers, who are advocates, and who are allies in our community today as well.

Thank you, and I’ll talk to you again next week.