16 News

A report titled Plan Flexibility and Budget Planning, released today and intended to dispel concerns, confirms many of the community’s worst fears about the Morrison government’s proposed changes to the NDIS.
Australian Greens Disability Rights and Services spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John said that, contrary to the stated aims of the proposed changes, disabled people would have significantly less choice and control under the new funding model.
“This report is just pages and pages and pages of disrespectful, paternalistic and deceitful spin,” Steele-John said.
“The Morrison government and the NDIA leadership have the audacity to promote these changes as being about giving us “…more choice and control over our lives … with the plans and budgets to pursue our goals” when these fundamental principles that underpin our NDIS are actually being undermined and stripped away.
“The NDIS is supposed to be about, more than anything else, enabling disabled people to have individualised plans that meet our own individual needs and help us to achieve our own individual goals.
“But, under this proposal participants will be matched to one of 400 different ‘personas’ that will determine a set amount of funding – a feature of the old pre-NDIS support system that disabled people campaigned so hard to abolish!
“We, as a community, fought so hard to get out of this box and have our rights recognised; we will not be going back in it.
“The report also appears to suggest that goal-setting will be decoupled from funding and fails to mention the different ways in which people currently manage their plans, further watering down the core values of our NDIS.
“Putting us in boxes like this, based primarily off of a single independent assessment with a complete stranger, completely dismantles the core principle and values of our NDIS that made it such a revolutionary and world-first reform.
“Finally, the report notes that prior to finaling the new model and introducing the legislation to Parliament in will be subject to reviews however it does not mention that we, as disabled people and NDIS participants, will be a part of that review. Where is the co-design?
“There is a saying in the disability community: ‘nothing about us, without us’. If the Morrison government is not willing to engage us in a process of co-design then we will not accept these changes to our NDIS.”

Australians who have had their hours of work and income significantly affected due to state lockdowns, will be eligible for a temporary COVID Disaster Payment.
The rapid support will be paid weekly to those workers who reside or work in a Commonwealth declared hotspot and are therefore unable to attend work and earn an income as a result of state imposed health restrictions, which last for greater than one week.
Eligible recipients will receive up to $500 per week for losing 20 hours or more of work, and $325 per week for losing under 20 hours. They must not have liquid assets of more than $10,000.
The payment will be made in respect of the second and any subsequent weeks of restrictions.
This support will be available for Australian citizens and permanent residents and eligible working visa holders. Individuals who are already receiving income support payments, business support payments, or the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment will not be eligible for this new payment. To qualify, people will need to have exhausted any leave entitlements (other than annual leave) or other special pandemic leave.
The payment will complement existing payments including the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment.
By making these payments available, the Australian Government will ensure that Victorian workers get the financial support they need to stay at home during this outbreak.
Access to Services Australia Disaster Assistance will be open to the public from Tuesday at www.servicesaustralia.gov.au or over the phone on 180 22 66.

The Morrison Government will contribute an additional $50 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (COVAX AMC) to ensure more people in our region and across the world have access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines.
This additional contribution will help COVAX deliver on its objective of vaccinating 30% of populations of AMC countries, from an original goal to reach 20% of their populations.
Australia has now committed a total of $130 million to COVAX AMC.
Australia’s support for COVAX complements our $623 million Regional Vaccine Access and Health Security Initiative – which is assisting our Pacific and Southeast Asian neighbours to access and administer safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines.
This includes $100 million for our Quad partnership with Japan, the US and India to deliver a billion doses to Southeast Asia by the end of 2022.
Our neighbours in the Pacific and Southeast Asia have now received more than 13 million doses from COVAX, with more deliveries planned.
These vaccines are being prioritised for high-risk individuals, health workers, frontline personnel and vulnerable groups.
Australia’s contribution will assist the COVAX AMC to deliver more than 1.8 billion doses worldwide, reaching at least 114 million people in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

More than $400,000 has been invested by the Federal Government to continue support for polio survivors who have life-long impacts from the disease.
Tens of thousands of Australians survived the infection, and now endure the debilitating neurological condition, Late Effects of Polio (LEoP)/Post-Polio Syndrome (PPS).
Regional Health Minister and co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Polio Survivors, Mark Coulton said Australia had been declared free from new polio infections since 2000.
“Most polio survivors are now aged over 50, and LEOP or PPS can have significant and debilitating impacts on their lives,” Minister Coulton said.
“Australians are fortunate that the successful polio vaccine was incorporated into our Australian National Immunisation Program in 1975. Within 25 years we had eradicated the deadly and disabling disease from our shores.
“We want to ensure the Australian survivors are supported to live fulfilling and healthy lives, so we have provided more than $400,000 to continue Polio Australia’s Community Information Program.”
Minister Coulton said the program helps polio survivors to identify and better understand their condition, and the available strategies to manage that condition.
Gillian Thomas, national president of Polio Australia and a survivor of polio herself, said after a successful trial of community programs on a smaller scale, Polio Australia is thrilled to have the opportunity to increase its reach to the polio community across the country.
“Many people who had polio are unaware that symptoms they are now experiencing relate directly to that childhood infection. And they don’t know who to see or what they can do to manage their own condition,” Ms Thomas said.
“Our Community Information Sessions, printable resources and online engagement can help to bridge that gap.”
PPS is a diagnosed neurological condition which can affect people who had paralytic polio in their younger years. The main symptom is muscle weakness that develops and gradually worsens.
People with LEOP/PPS can also experience general fatigue, muscle and joint pain, weakness and muscle atrophy, spasms or twitching, breathing and sleep problems, difficulties with swallowing and speaking, and cold intolerance.
Minister Coulton said as the survivors of polio age, health services must be ready and aware of the need to offer increased care for this group.
“Luck had a lot to do with many people surviving paralytic polio in years past. Now, as these survivors age, and for many their health deteriorates, they can depend more on skilful and knowledgeable health professionals to look after their care and health – and on their own self-management strategies – and less on luck,” he said.

The Australian Government is investing $60 million to extend support for COVID‑19 response measures for Australia’s impacted aged care facilities until 30 June 2022.
The extension means a second tranche of COVID-19 Aged Care Support Program grants will be available from this week to support providers with costs incurred from 28 May 2021 to 31 March 2022.
Surge workforce arrangements will also remain in place to meet future demand in the event of further outbreaks.
In a response to the current situation in Victoria and the emerging concern in New South Wales, significant efforts are being made to protect senior Australians in aged care, including more resources being made available should they be needed.
The Morrison Government is ensuring providers affected by an outbreak can access surge workforce staff and receive financial support for eligible expenses.
The program supports costs including additional or replacement staff, personal protective equipment (PPE), cleaning and infection control, waste management, and travel and accommodation.
The COVID-19 Aged Care Support Program started on 27 March 2020 and has, to date, provided $61.2 million in grant funding, reimbursing providers for certain expenses incurred from managing care recipients and staff needing to isolate due to suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection.
The established surge workforce program and associated arrangements are keeping people in aged care safe, ensuring their continuity of care, while managing potential infection risk at times of community transmission of COVID-19.
To date, the department has assisted aged care providers dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak to fill more than 39,000 nursing, personal care and ancillary shifts and more than 750 clinical first responder deployments.

An Albanese Labor Government will provide young Australians with strong and formalised engagement in government and policy making.
Under the Morrison Government, young people have been denied the opportunity to be part of forming the policies and making the decisions that impact their lives and futures.
As a result, younger people now face a future of high underemployment, depleted retirement savings, significant barriers to education and training, and a rent and housing affordability crisis.
Since 2013 when the Abbott Government abolished the Youth Advisory Council and the Office for Youth, both introduced by the previous Labor Government, there has been no framework for direct engagement between young Australians and the Federal Government.
Unlike the government, Labor is already consulting with and listening to young people, in particular through our online national youth survey.
More than 50 per cent of the young people who completed Labor’s survey said the biggest barrier to being part of decision making in politics was feeling they won’t be taken seriously or listened to at all.
By failing to engage with young people on the issues and policies designed to help them, the government’s programs specifically for young people have continually and spectacularly failed – including JobMaker, the Youth PaTH program, and the Youth Taskforce.
It is clear there is a two-way benefit to involving young Australians in policy making – young people need and deserve a say on the issues that impact them, and government needs the input of young people to develop successful youth policies.
That is why an Albanese Labor Government will introduce a new youth engagement model, to provide a voice and structure for younger Australians to directly engage with government and contribute to policy development.
If elected, an Albanese Labor Government will:-

• Establish a framework to directly and formally engage with young Australians on an ongoing basis.
• Establish an Office for Youth so that, rather than youth engagement being an afterthought or duplicating functions across departments, there is a dedicated unit within government to feed in the contribution from young people and advocates, improve and harmonise policy across government, and ensure government is communicating effectively with young people.
• Commit to a Minister for Youth to improve and facilitate a holistic response across portfolios on issues affecting young Australians.

The new framework will involve a number of strategies to provide a channel for direct communication between young Australians and the Federal Government.
The framework will be driven by a steering committee of up to 15 young people, under the direction of the Minister for Youth and Office for Youth.
However engagement will go beyond the committee, by incorporating local forums, workshops, and town halls for young Australians to directly engage in debate and offer their perspectives and ideas.
The new model will also aim to conduct annual youth summits to encourage young Australians across the country to participate in debating and shaping government policy.
Younger Australians have suffered a disproportionate impact from COVID-19 on their employment prospects, financial security, and social wellbeing.
Yet the Coalition Government continues to ignore the voices of young Australians and leave them out of the decisions that disproportionately affect their future.
Labor is committed to genuine, ongoing and two-way engagement with young Australians, and ensuring they have a voice in an Albanese Labor Government.