Media release on changes to NDIS Board: Access Denied
05/09/2015
September 4, 2015
Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent – Media release
Access denied
Dignity for Disability has joined the growing chorus of people with lived experience of disability condemning the content of today’s advertisement calling for National Disability Insurance Agency Board members.
“It’s an absolute outrage that the Government are looking to appoint an eight person NDIA Board with no consideration for appointing members with a lived experience of disability personally, or understanding as a family carer,” says Kelly Vincent.
“This is the most important Board in Australia to the disability community, so excluding them is plain wrong.
“The mantra ‘nothing about, without us’ is not just a saying. The disability community are fed up with being told what to do by people and systems that have no real life experience understanding of what it is like trying to establish a full and meaningful life of one’s choosing given the ableist attitudes we face every single day.
“Not a moment passes where a person with disability somewhere in Australia find themselves being abused, excluded or locked out of the community.
“Whether it’s waiting for support to shower or go to the toilet, or being denied the basic human rights the rest of the community enjoy, this is a continual daily experience for people with disability.
“People with disabilities also find themselves denied access to jobs, education, transport, public buildings and health facilities.
“This is surely in breach of the intent of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013, and I call on Minister Mitch Fifield to recall the advertisement now, and replace it with a more palatable option.
“He should also give a rock solid guarantee that the full roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme will occur on time and as scheduled, and reassure us all that rumoured delays in the Scheme are without justification,” said Ms Vincent.
