Is Abbott living in a perpetual political phantasy land unable any longer to distinguish truth from lies?

This was Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott altering political history on a whim on 28 March 2015:

Mitch Fifield, the architect of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, who will deliver a genuinely insurance-based scheme which will benefit a half a million Australians with disabilities and everyone who cares for them and which will have its head office in Geelong.

Perhaps someone should remind Abbott that the Australian Parliamentary Library clearly identifies who set the National Disability Insurance Scheme in motion and laid out its basic structure:

On 30 April 2012, the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, announced that the Government would fund its ‘share’ of the cost of the first stage of the NDIS in the 2012–13 Budget.[10] The Government’s NDIS media release accompanying the Budget states that its share includes ‘the total administration and running costs for the first stage of an NDIS’.[11] In addition the media release says that ‘states and territories that host the initial locations will also be required to contribute to the cost of personal care and support for people with disability’. At this stage, it is not clear what the Government has in mind as ‘locations’ for the first stage of the NDIS but the Commission’s proposal was for ‘regions that each contained a modest number of people who were likely to be eligible for the scheme (say, around 10 000 per region)’.[12] Commencement of the NDIS in 2013 is one year ahead of the timetable proposed by the Commission.

The $1.0 billion to be provided by the Australian Government includes:

* $342.5 million over three years from July next year for individually funded packages for people with significant and permanent disability

* $154.8 million over three years from July next year to employ Local Area Coordinators to provide an individualised approach to delivering care and support to people with a disability

* $58.6 million over three years from July next year to assess the needs of people with a disability in the launch locations

* $122.6 million over four years to start preparing the disability sector for the new way of delivering disability services

* $240.3 million over four years to build and operate an NDIS information technology system and

* $53.0 million over four years to establish a new National Disability Transition Agency to coordinate implementation and manage the delivery of care and support to people with a disability and their carers in the initial launch locations from 2013–14.[13]

During the final days of the Gillard Labor Government ABC News reported on 3 June 2013:

...the regional Victorian city has been chosen as the headquarters of the new DisabilityCare agency.

All states and territories - except Western Australia - have signed up to be part of the scheme, formerly known as the NDIS.

Once DisabilityCare is fully rolled out, the national headquarters in Geelong will employ 300 people, in addition to 150 people in the regional office......

The Barwon region of south-west Victoria, which includes Geelong, was chosen last year as one of the sites where DisabilityCare would be trialled. The trial will start on July 1 and involve 5,000 people.

Every Australian Counts launches the DIY Disability Housing Plan

Media release 20 March 2015:

DIY Disability Housing Plan

“While the National Disability Insurance Scheme has been talking about making a plan to start building accessible housing for people with disability, TV’s ‘The Block’ has built 18 units”.

The NDIS at full scheme will have a budget of up to $700 million a year to invest in accessible housing for people with disability. This week we learned that after two years of discussion the housing options paper prepared by the National Disability Insurance Agency has been binned! Instead they are going to discuss the issue again at the next national meeting of disability ministers in April.

John Della Bosca continued “By 2020, there will be 122,000 people with disability eligible for the NDIS without accessible housing. This problem is not going away. It’s time the Ministers took disability housing out of the too hard basket”.

It is taking too long for the governments to come up with a plan and so we are making our own. Today the Every Australian Counts launched the DIY Disability Housing Plan. While our politicians are talking about making a plan, people with disability and their families are going to write a plan ourselves.

John Della Bosca concluded: “We are calling on our 160,000 supporters to send in ideas on how the NDIA should invest $700 million each year to provide accessible housing to people with disability. What they have taken two years to do, we will do in one month.

Contributions to the paper are being made at http://www.everyaustraliancounts.com.au/take-action/

Disability Support Pension: Graham Richardson doesn't bother to check his 'facts'

This was 'political commentator' Graham Richardson in The Australian on 27 February 2015:

Surely, though, there must be savings to be made in disability pensions. The number of recipients is growing at a phenomenal rate…. 

This was Professor Peter Whiteford, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, on the same day:

Data sourced from DSS Payment Demographic Data & Characteristics of Disability Support Pension Recipients: @WhitefordPeter

It would appear that truth has little value over at News Corp's principal Australian masthead.

Greatest area of need for people with disability left unmet by Abbott Government according to the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations

Media Release 6 Jan 2015:

‘Greatest area of need for people with disability left unmet by Government’ said Matthew Wright, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO) and spokesperson for the disability peaks.

Responding to claims in The Australian newspaper by Minister for Social Services, Scott Morrison that the new peaks funding ‘supports the area of greatest need’, Matthew Wright said “The department has cut or not provided funding to the highest population groups of people with disability in Australia’.

Both the NDIS quarterly report and Disability Support Pension (DSP) statistics show consistently that intellectual disability, autism (also the fastest growing disability), mental illness and physical disability are the four most prevalent types of disability.

‘All of these groups including the National Council on Intellectual Disability, Autism Aspergers Advocacy Australia (A4), and Physical Disability Australia have not been funded as part of this process’.

Bob Buckley, Convenor of A4 said “No other disability organisation at the national level has any effective track record of representation or advocacy across the full spectrum of people living with autism.  People with some of the worst disability outcomes are again left without funded support.”

Support to over 200,000 Australians with a disability will be ceased as part of the process, and any protection from adverse action for the most vulnerable Australians will be lost’.

“Intellectual disability is consistently one of the top three primary conditions in DSP and NDIS data” said Mark Pattison, CEO of National Council on Intellectual Disability.

We are still urgently seeking a meeting with Minister Scott Morrison, said Matthew Wright. 

The disability peaks support the push for a Senate Inquiry into the process that has led to people with disability being left without essential support.

Please direct all media enquiries to Mr Matthew Wright on 0428 608 861. 

Some newspapers never learn.......

On 12 December 2014 the Australian Press Council released its findings in Adjudication 1627: Complainant/The Daily Telegraph:

The Council considers that the headline and other material on the front page collectively imply that a high proportion of DSP recipients are “slackers” and should not be receiving DSP. This implication is due partly to the fact that the comparison in the words prominently super-imposed on the two photographs, and in the article on the front page, was between the full number of war-wounded people and the full number of DSP recipients. The implication is also contributed to by the stark contrast between the apparently able-bodied people in the queue and the severely wounded soldier. The impact of the front page presentation was not adequately dispelled by any of the material that appeared on subsequent pages, and evidence provided did not justify the implication. Accordingly, the Council has concluded that the headline, headings and text on the front page breached the Standards of Practice requiring reasonable steps to ensure accuracy and fairness.

The Council also considers the implication that a high proportion of DSP recipients are “slackers” and should not be receiving DSP was offensive to an extent not justified by the public interest. Accordingly, the material also breached the Standards of Practice on that ground.

The very same day, in print and online The Daily Telegraph was at it again, this time using the term “rorters” and “lowlife rorters”:

Time to weed out the disability rorters: Crackdown on $16 billion welfare scheme

RORTERS who try to falsely claim millions of dollars in ­Disability Support Pensions will be flushed out of the ­system under a ­crackdown on the $16 billion welfare scheme.

From January 1, all new DSP ­applicants will be sent to ­Commonwealth-appointed doctors before they can be ­approved as part of a sweeping overhaul that will stamp out the “doctor shopping” rort.

The federal government will today announce that regular doctors will no longer be allowed to approve new DSP applications in the new year….

The Daily Telegraph failed to point out that a DSP applicant’s treating GP does not have the final say on whether or not a person is granted what its journalist described as "handouts".

It also avoided the subject of the need for applicants to provide corroborating evidence of their diagnosed conditions/symptoms from medical specialists and, supply reports from allied health professionals along with the results of diagnostics tests and any physical tests or assessments.

The newspaper also neglected to mention that the departmental Impairment Tables which have applied to all new applicants for DSP and any existing DSP recipients selected for medical review since 1 January 2012 are function-based not diagnosis based ie. The presence of a diagnosed condition does not necessarily mean that there will be an impairment to which an impairment rating may be assigned.

UPDATE

mUmBRELLA 15 December 2014:

The Australian Press Council has confirmed to Mumbrella the edition has attracted “at least one complaint” by 4pm, but did not specify how many, or the nature of them.

* Images from Your Democracy and mUmBRELLA   
                                                      

Not happy, Mr. Shorten!

In 2003 The Howard Government introduced the Business Services Wage Assessment Tool (BSWAT) which determines the level of wages paid to people with disabilities who are employed in Commonwealth-funded Australian Disability Enterprises [ADEs].

On 21 December 2012 the Full Federal Court found that the test of competency in the BSWAT discriminated against people with an intellectual disability.

In September 2013 the Dept. of Social Security sought an exemption from the Australian Human Rights Commission to continue to use the BSWAT. A limited  exemption for a twelve month period was granted, subject to provisions.

According to the Commission an estimated 10,000 individuals with an intellectual disability have their wages assessed under the BSWAT scheme.

In January 2014 ABC News reported that the Abbott Government announced that it would make a one-off payment to intellectually disabled workers who had been unfairly paid - but only if they were not involved in the discrimination class action which was scheduled for a first directions hearing in February.

On 10 May 2014 the Abbott Government was refused leave to appeal the Federal Court judgment.

On 17 June 2014 the Abbott Government’s Business Services Wage Assessment Tool Payment Scheme (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2014 was passed in the House of Representatives with the support of the Opposition. This bill offers for a limited period to enter into individual agreements to pay half of the lost wages owed to any affected ADE worker with an intellectual disability.

Lawyers running a class action on behalf of supported employees with intellectual disabilities have described this legislation as "an outrageous abuse of power".

Given that ADEs pay workers with an intellectual disability as little as $0.33 per hour and given that it appears the government bill locks out any of 10,000 workers taking part in the class action from receiving the half of lost wages ‘offer’ and, will see the future wages of those workers (who receive compensation for past wage discrimination if the class action is successful) cut by about half, I am amazed that Federal Labor would endorse this legislation.

Prime Minister Abbott decides to second guess the court and medical profession

  

The Telegraph on 4 October 2013 reported that Prime Minister Tony Abbott has decided to second guess the court and the medical profession with regard to an itinerant Australian citizen with a serious psychiatric disability:

Mr Abbott yesterday said government had to keep working with people to determine if they had some capacity to return to work.

He said he would seek advice on the case of Leon Ahern who won a case in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to keep receiving the pension indefinitely while on spiritual retreat in India.

Details of Mr Ahern's case were revealed by News Corp Australia this week.

The tribunal decided India "was home" to Mr Ahern who said attending spiritual teachings of Brahma Kumaris had allowed him to manage his schizophrenia.

He was permitted to claim the DSP indefinitely while living in India instead of being subject to a 13 week limit on claiming pensions while overseas.

"The question here is, is this guy legitimately entitled to a pension and he has got to be seriously incapacitated and that's the issue I think ought to be looked at here," Mr Abbott said....