By Lauren (last name withheld)
I am an NDIS participant and neurodivergent, but thanks to an ongoing beat up by Australia’s mainstream media, I hardly touch my approved NDIS funding. This may well please the Australian Financial Review if its latest article demonising Australians living with disability is anything to go by.
Titled ‘NDIS spends $12b on support for walks, movies, haircuts’, it was clear from the outset that this article wasn’t going to be a particularly nuanced or sensitive take on the need to balance the valid and urgent needs of those with a disability and the long-term financial viability of funding those needs.
The opening paragraph of the AFR article bemoans that:
"The National Disability Insurance Scheme spent $11.6 billion on social and community support for participants last year, including cafe visits and assistance with dog walks, driving nearly a quarter of the scheme’s ballooning cost as Labor attempts to rein in a big budget deficit."
The insinuation from the headline and opening paragraph is that supporting people with a disability for seemingly frivolous activities, such as dog walks, is a burden on the taxpayer.
As someone who was diagnosed with autism and ADHD and who has also worked in the disability sector for twenty years (including the pre-NDIS days) I can tell you that support for access to social and community participation has always been provided to those who require it.
