Bill Shorten takes lead on easing restraints on guide dogs

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten has promised to make it easier for people with vision impairments to get seeing eye dogs.

Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese meet guide dog Sissy. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten has promised to make it easier for people with vision impairments to get seeing eye dogs by cutting red tape and making changes to how the animals are funded.

The issue will be discussed at a meeting of disability ministers on Friday, which will also address concerns about “bed block” in hospitals. It follows revelations last month that more than 1400 ­National Disability Insurance Scheme participants were taking up beds in hospitals and waiting an average of 160 days to be discharged.

“Australian hospitals are straining under the fact there’s bed block,” Mr Shorten said. “One of the contributions to bed block in Australian hospitals is that there are people eligible for NDIS packages but the process is taking too long. We are working with the states to speed up processing eligible disabled people out of hospital beds into more appropriate ­accommodation.”

Mr Shorten said the ministers would also discuss “blitzing the court lists” of disabled people.

“When we got elected, 4500 people with disabilities had to take the government to court to sort out these packages,” he said. “We’re continuing our plans to ­reduce that terrible legacy caseload to see if we can’t resolve matters in the interest of all.”

The ministers will receive a briefing from Vision Australia government relations manager Chris Edwards, who has a vision impairment and uses a seeing eye dog.

Mr Edwards told The Australian Vision Australia had seen a spike in people being rejected for seeing eye dogs and four people had taken their disputes to the ­Administrative Appeals Tribunal in the past 12 months. Vision Australia provides about 35 dogs a year.

A guide dog costs about $50,000 to bring up and train. But it costs a further $20,000 for an intensive course that will teach the recipient how the dog can help them in their day-to-day life.

The NDIS allocates the funding with an eight-year warranty on the dog. Should the animal get sick or die before then, the NDIS will not fund another dog until that time is up.

Mr Shorten indicated that time period needed to be reduced to six years and that he would discuss the change with his state and territory counterparts.