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Hi there. Cherry Baylosis here, the Chief of Policy Advocacy and Programs at the Disability Advocacy Network Australia. I wanted to provide you with an update on some of the consultations that our policy and advocacy team are currently working on across. The disability sector is facing a time of rapid consultations around the NDIS reforms. Alongside this, we also have other consultations occurring, which we, involved in. So I’ll run you through them.

A submission that was lodged on the of 11th September was they supported independent living submission. This consultation looked at the planned commissioning of part of the supported independent living market. DANA called for a guarantee of participant choice and control over where and how people live their lives, backed by robust, disability led quality and safeguard measures.

The following two submissions are upcoming and will be submitted on the 2nd of October. The first one is on NDIS access changes. So this one is about a proposed shift towards assessing how a person’s disability affects their everyday life, rather than relying on diagnosis alone. Feedback will inform the newly established technical advisory groups advice to government on decision making. And we’re engaging our members, that is, independent disability advocacy organisations because this has real implications for how people enter and stay on the scheme.

The second submission, which closes on the 2nd of October, is being run by the Department of Infrastructure, who has developed policy options to address air travel barriers for people with disability. Our staff are coordinating a response alongside a group of people who lived with experiences of those barriers.

Two other submissions, one is due on the 14th of October, is looking at NDIS framework planning and NDIS supports. This digs into how support needs are assessed, how reasonable and necessary budgets are calculated and how participants use their plans and how plans can be changed. DANA staff are currently leading the response and consulting with our members.

The next one is a disability safeguards consultation, which closes on the 30th of October 2026, which we are just starting to initiate. This one will cover the Disability Support Quality and Safeguard framework and the Disability Support Ecosystem Safeguard Strategy. Our policy team will lead this engagement and will speak with our members to have their say.

If you’d like to hear more information, please look at our website at dana.org.au. Thank you.