Revealed: 29 reports of sexual assault in NDIS

A new disability watchdog that covers just two states has ­received 29 reports of sexual ­assault against NDIS participants.

The reports of abuse are the first hint of the scale of violence and neglect in the disability sector,

A new disability watchdog that covers just two states has ­received 29 reports of sexual ­assault against participants of the $22 billion National Dis­ability Insurance Scheme in three months, a figure advocates say is the “tip of the iceberg”.

The reports of abuse are the first hint of the scale of violence and neglect in the disability sector, with a new commission lifting the lid on a problem that has previously been handled only by haphazard state systems.

On July 1, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission began overseeing the work of service providers in NSW and South Australia, responsible for about 115,000 NDIS participants. In the three months to September, it received 184 reports of abuse or neglect, 68 of which were referred to police, ­almost half of them regarding sexual assault.

By comparison, a national hotline for disability abuse ­reporting received 404 calls in the 12 months to June 2013 and 346 calls the following year.

The commission will eventually replace state-based oversight of disability service providers. The rest of Australia’s jurisdictions will transfer ­respon­sibility from July, with the exception of Western Australia, which will do so from July next year.

Even then, the commission will regulate only official providers under the NDIS. Under the scheme, if a person chooses to manage their own funding rather than have it outsourced to the agency or a third-party, they can hire any service provider regardless of whether they are officially registered with the scheme.

The NDIS commission has also released data that shows in the same three months it ­received 62 reports of expected and unexpected deaths, 91 ­reports of injuries, 34 complaints against individual staff or service providers and 75 cases of unauthorised restrictive practices.

A further 17 complaints relating to allegations of fraud were also received.

The commission has told the Senate in answers to estimates questions that so far “no ­individuals have been found to hav­e contravened the NDIS code of conduct, no infringement ­notices have been issued (and) no providers have been deregistered”.

Disability advocate Samantha Connor said the commission would cover only a small percentage of abuse reporting. “It’s 10 per cent of the disability population, in two states — and covers only the disability service sector,” she said.

“It excludes family abuse and neglect or abuse by people ­outside the service system, teachers or clinicians.

“Thirty reports is the tip of the iceberg. Increasing the regulatory burden on providers will not work to fix this, it will just increase the risk of market failure.”

Disability advocates say they are not surprised by the data because a series of reports and inquiries into the sector has revealed the prevalence of assault, neglect and violence.

Children with disability are 3.4 times more likely to experience abuse and violence than their peers; women with disability experience domestic violence 37.3 per cent more often than other women; and women with intellectual disabilities are somewhere between 50 and 90 per cent more likely to be raped or otherwise sexually abused.

Scott Morrison has seized on a rise in the number of aged-care ­facilities failing to meet standards and announcing a royal commission, but the Prime Minister rejected calls for the inquiry to be broadened to the disability sector or held separately. Aged-care royal commission hearings begin in Adelaide this month.

Greens senator Jordon Steele-John said the new data was “awful and horrific” but the worst part was that “it is not surprising to anyone in this space”.

“There is absolutely a profound crisis in this country when it comes to disabled people and violence, particularly violence of a sexual nature,” Senator Steele-John said.

“We are going into another year without a royal commission into this issue. Aged care is important but there is a huge disparity between how people have reacted to the revelations there and how ­people reacted to exposes about abuse of disabled people.”

He said people could identify with their grandparents going into care or imagine becoming old themselves, but disabled people were seen as other than human.

Senator Steele-John used parliamentary privilege last year to name disabled people who had died or been injured while in care.

In one case, Amanda Gilbert, 47, had an acquired brain injury after a suicide attempt and was placed in Graylands Hospital ­psychiatric care ward in Western Australia.

“She was raped and assaulted 111 times and died as a result of complications used in the medication to sedate her,” he told parliament in September.

Senator Steele-John and Ms Connor believe a royal commission is the only answer to problems in the sector, especially since a 2015 Senate inquiry exposed issues but led nowhere.