Push to expand sex work funding for NDIS as advocate slams Tinder as ‘toxic’

A disability advocate has lashed dating app Tinder as ‘toxic’ and pushed for sex work to be more widely funded for NDIS users for one heartbreaking reason.

Disability Australia President Nicole Lee plead the case for clearer guidelines around funded sex work for people with disabilities. Picture: Martin Ollman/NCA NewsWire.

A disability advocate has recalled her “toxic” and “volatile” experience using Tinder, leading calls to make funded sex work more widely available for people using the NDIS.

President of People With Disabilities Nicole Lee said many women with disabilities in Australia choose not to date due to fear of being exposed to high rates of sexual violence.

She told an inquiry into the nation’s disability support agency that a sexual expression framework was urgently needed to enable people on the NDIS to make a case for government-funded sexual support services.

“Even though I could date on Tinder, it was toxic, and it was violent, and it was volatile, and if I hadn’t met my partner I would be looking to have access [to sex support] because it was not safe to continue to date men in the community,” Ms Lee said.

Millions of people are impacted by negative and “toxic” stigmas surrounding sex and disability, Ms Lee told a public hearing in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman/NCA NewsWire.

“For lots of us, we’ve been denied access to that and exposed to such levels of violence that we just avoid sexual intimacy ... and we shouldn’t have to do that to live an everyday life.”

Rates of sexual violence against women with disabilities in Australia are alarming. Women with disabilities are nearly twice as likely to be sexually assaulted than women in the general population, with about 29 per cent experiencing sexual assault in their lifetime, according to a recent royal commission.

Sex worker and president of Sydney-based charity Touching Base Paul Isbister said the statistics were a “shameful fact” and that in his experience sex work played an important role in a person’s recovery from abuse.

“I know from working with people who have been survivors of awful sexual abuse and even sexual torture, that providing respectful environments where they are boundaries that are held to be sacrosanct ... it's a remarkable journey to take with people and it’s amazing to see the results,” he said.

Government Services Minister Bill Shorten is set to repeal the Disability Services Act and replace it with a new set of standards. Picture: Alison Wynd

Mr Isbister the NDIS was “falling over itself” and “getting nothing done” in providing people information on what sexuality supports they could

“I think there are people who would have genuine needs who are not even seeking to have them met because they have been told no,” he said.

“It would be incredibly helpful for people [to have guidelines], not only to provide guidance for all of us who are working in the field, but particularly for those people who are left out in the cold.”

Major disability groups have long argued for a ‘sexuality framework’ under the NDIS to cover a to cover a broad range of needs such as adaptive sex toys, services from sex workers, and sex therapists

Currently, a person on the NDIS can apply for funding for a family planner or sex therapist if it is directly related to their disability and deemed ‘reasonable and necessary’ under their plan.

In 2019, an Australian woman living with multiple sclerosis won a three-year legal battle against the federal government after being refused public funds for specialised sex services.

This came after a the federal court ruled that the NDIS Act “does not expressly exclude such activities (sex work) from being funded supports.”