04/03/2024
Bill Shorten Bill, whilst I agree that the NDIS needed shaking up, you swanning in, making recommendations, performing a spectacular mic drop and swanning back out again, combined with the most ridiculous 'upgrade' of a system- PACE - my new acronym POINTLESS ABYSMAL CONVOLUTED EFFRONTERY- has increased the waiting time for any NDIS assistance to the point of national disgrace. WE ARE IN CRISIS! These past weeks we have been fighting for the funding for a tiny palliative child with complex issues desperately needing specific items, a grandad amputee who has been fighting to get a simple scooter to get around on, putting our own staff out to ensure Participants being left vulnerable and at risk because their funding ran out, and their providers refusing to assist without payment from NDIS, any Reviews or Change of Circumstance to be even looked at. The 21 day turnaround has turned into 6 months and counting!!! The list is endless. The NDIS is in crisis. To top it all off, is the crippling uncertainty for the future of any Support Coordinator, Plan Manager or other provider who have grown and invested in their own businesses (and I'm talking about the providers doing the RIGHT thing here) and the future viability of these businesses are now in question. Already I have seen a mass exodus of people who once again, after the damage visited on us by CONVID, the fallout from people unnecessarily losing their jobs and livelihoods, are scared sh*tless it's all going to happen again. The knowledge you are losing from the good Support Coordinators, good Plan Managers and good Providers that far exceed the NDIS knowledge base is irreplaceable. As fast as the NDIS can hire new people to scramble and pick up the long ringing phones to answer questions that they don't know the answers to, as they don't have the professional or lived experience, this is only heightening the issues. Why didn't you ASK the people on the ground, not people sitting in Lalaland who have no clue what goes on in the real world with our Participants, to whom you've just sold out their Choice and Control. I challenge you to sit down with real people - real Participants, real Support Coordinators, real Plan Managers, real Providers and find out where the challenges are, where it all went wrong and why. We know. We are lucky to have the NDIS in this country, but you've just dealt a blow it may never recover from and neither will the Participants you declare you are representing. You promised to HELP! This ain't helping Bill. NOT HAPPY JAN.
