Fears NDIS blind to remote reality

THE agency responsible for the NDIS has been criticised for dragging the chain on involving Aboriginal Australians in the rollout.

THE agency responsible for the National Disability Insurance Scheme has been criticised for dragging the chain on involving Aboriginal Australians in the rollout of the $22 billion social reform after throwing the sector into confusion at the weekend.

A post on the NDIS website, which appeared to go live on Friday, was taken by disability groups as confirmation the agency had finished its negotiations with the First Peoples Disability Network and announced a multi-million package for indigenous Australia.

“The First People’s Disability Network will be working with urban, regional and remote communities to raise awareness of ­National Disability Insurance Scheme and assist indigenous people with disability, and their families and carers, to understand and use individual packages effectively,” the website says.

Instead, an agency spokeswoman said the message related to a small grant “some months ago” and could not confirm when the post went live.

FPDN chief Damian Griffis has spent months negotiating with the NDIS agency — the NDIA — for funding to deliver Aboriginal local area co-ordinators and a secretariat without hearing anything concrete from the scheme’s bureaucrats.

“We still haven’t signed anything and I’m very concerned indig­enous people are at risk of being left behind in this scheme just as they have been with other major social reforms and in the health system,” he said.

“We believe the number of ­indigenous people eligible for the NDIS has been significantly under­estimated, particularly in the Northern Territory trial site in the Barkly. That’s a big problem.”

The NT trial began on July 1 and although most of the participants will be indigenous the trial includes just 104 people.

“About 50 per cent of Aboriginal people have disability, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. That is an extraordinary figure,” Mr Griffis said.

“The percentage of those who are severely and profoundly disabled is not really known.

“We estimate between 28,000 and 36,000 Aboriginal people across Australia could potentially qualify for the NDIS.”

The Australian spoke to a key member of the disability sector in the Northern Territory who had “major concerns” about the way the NDIS was being geared for Aborigines.

“They don’t have a single indig­enous employee on staff to work with Aboriginal people in the Barkly region, where many of them still speak their traditional language,” the source said.

“They’ve not thought at all about the preponderance of ­female workers who are meant to engage sensitively with Aboriginal men. There are cultural barriers here that don’t exist in the general population.”

Mr Griffis said his plan, if accepted by the agency, would cost $2 million to establish a secretariat and $4m to fund up to 20 local co-ordinators across Australia to work with indigenous families to help them access support.

“The NSW government is spending more than that on just the state support for indigenous people, so this is a very modest ­request,” he said.