Following last year’s first ever Physical Disability Awareness Day, the interest, excitement and community that has grown from our inaugural online DisabiliTEA has been phenomenal – with individuals and organisations both in Australia and internationally getting on board to grow this important event.
For the first time this event will be run globally and, mindful of the many timezones that are potentially involved, this event will involve a number of virtual and face to face catch-ups.
We’d love to have you join us!
The online Australian DisabiliTEA will be run via Zoom, uniting all corners of Australia with the disability and wider communities meeting to share stories and to have a cuppa together.
Run at the following times, this event is scheduled to allow for maximum involvement across the nation.
2pm NSW/VIC/ACT/TAS
1:30pm SA
1pm QLD
12:30pm NT
11am WA
To be involved in this fun event you must register by going to:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcqdeivpzktE9cIxAOgWw0oQZO9bQkSNhTP
Once you have registered, you will be emailed further details.
So grab your best china or most loved mug, a cookie or slice of cake, brew up your beverage of choice and join us at our virtual DisabiliTEA.
A number of face to face events have also been scheduled, including Stroll & Rolls around local parks, morning and afternoon teas and a book launch. Everyone is welcome.
Those who register and attend an Australian Physical Disability Awareness Day event (including the online DisabiliTEA) go in to a draw to win a $50 gift voucher (one voucher per location).
If you are attending one of our Roll & Stroll events, and as the weather may be hot, we recommend that you bring water, a hat, sunscreen and snacks if required.
To go in to the draw to win a $50 gift card (one per each Australian planned event), please indicate which event you will be attending by registering at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7FJ36MV. If you register and are then present on the day, you could win a prize.
Melbourne
Bicentennial Park, Scotch Parade, Chelsea VIC 3196
From 12pm. Meeting at the BBQ area near the Children’s Playground and Toilets. Look for the PDA Banner.
The event will include a Stroll & Roll around the park. If you prefer, you can hang out for a chat, a bite to eat (BYO) or just explore the park facilities (including accessible Frisbee golf). At 2pm the Physical Disability Awareness Day’s online DisabiliTEA will take place and allow a link up with other Australian States/Territories at their events where we can share stories and laughs at this virtual afternoon tea.
Park is wheelchair friendly with facilities including:
Hobart
Montrose Foreshore Community Park
825 Brooker Hwy, Montrose TAS 7010
Look for the PDA Banner.
From 1pm and concluding at 3pm
Stroll & Roll event along the foreshore. However, if walking or rolling isn’t your thing, come along with a picnic, make new friends, enjoy the company of others who share your journey.
Ipswich, QLD
Ellie Jane Support Services
4a/126 Brisbane St, Ipswich QLD 4305
From 1pm and concluding at 3pm
DisabiliTea – followed by fun activities, prizes and a book launch.
Register at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7FJ36MV
Perth
King’s Park and Botanical Gardens
Fraser Ave, Perth WA 6005
Stroll & Roll event – loop around lake
Look for the PDA Banner.
10:30am start time at Vietnam War Memorial (on May Drive). Ending at Zamia Café.
Wheelchair access available in most buildings, restaurants, cafes, BBQ areas and parts of Kings Park’s bushland. Picnic tables located within BBQ and parkland precincts are accessible for visitors in wheelchairs and often include a concrete extension for wheelchair seating.
Accessible height drinking fountains
Accessible bathrooms
Accessible parking
Register at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7FJ36MV
https://www.bgpa.wa.gov.au/visiting-disability
Where possible, we want Physical Disability Awareness Day to be inclusive of everyone wishing to be involved and to celebrate the physical disability community.
So, wherever you are, why not join us to celebrate the second Physical Disability Awareness Day?
If you would like to hear more, please don’t hesitate to email promotion@pda.org.au or visit
https://www.pda.org.au/physicaldisabilityawarenessday/
Earlier this year PDA promoted Open Inclusion’s exciting Simply Open Awards – an exciting competition where people with disabilities can share and showcase simple solutions and hacks they have created to overcome access or exclusion barriers.
In the lead up to this year’s International Day of People with Disability on December 3rd, the award announcement was live streamed on Friday night.
We are very excited and thrilled to announce that PDA’s very own Melanie Hawkes (PDA’s WA Associate Director) was revealed as the recipient of the Judges’ Wildcard for her stick hack, taking home £750 and the prestigious honour of being Australia’s first ever Simply Open Awards winner.
Big congrats to Melanie for her efforts. Congratulations too to the other Award winners.
You can watch the awards by going to:
Melanie features at around the 37:10 mark.
Additionally, PDA was recognised as the most successful charitable organisation in promoting the Simply Open Awards to their community, resulting in the most referred applicants sharing their hacks in the competition (watch from 35:02). We are humbled and grateful to the Simply Open Awards for being mentioned in this way and incredibly appreciative of our members, our supporters, our social media followers and Australia’s disability community who were inspired to enter this outstanding award and who mentioned PDA in their applications. Not only did this provide us with valuable recognition and a warm fuzzy feeling of community, but it also netted us a generous prize of £1,000 which will assist us in our organisation’s efforts. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
A big thank you to Josh Wintersgill, Christine Hemphill (Open Inclusion Founder) and everyone involved for bringing the Simply Open Awards to life, for fostering inclusion and for building a disability community united and supported on a global level.
We look forward to highlighting the Awards in 2024 and beyond.
“New appointment to NDIS Independent Advisory Council.
The Government has today announced the appointment and reappointment of members of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Independent Advisory Council (IAC).
Minister for the NDIS Bill Shorten said he was pleased to welcome disability advocate Mr Gavin Burner to the IAC. Mr Burner’s appointment is significant as it strengthens the IAC’s representation of people with intellectual disability.
“Mr Burner is a passionate advocate and inclusion adviser from South Australia, who previously served as a member of the IAC’s Intellectual Disability Reference Group,” Minister Shorten said.
“I would also like to congratulate current IAC members, Dr Leighton Jay, Dr Sharon Boyce, Mr Mark Tonga, Ms Patricia Malowney OAM and Ms Samantha Paior on their successful reappointments.” “
https://www.miragenews.com/new-appointment-to-ndis-independent-advisory-1135288/
With the International Day of People with Disability for 2023 having fallen over the weekend and providing an opportunity to celebrate and recognise the incredible achievements and efforts of the disability community locally, nationally and throughout the world, it is with great pleasure that we raise a glass to the incredible efforts of PDA’s Tim Harte.
Deservedly recognised at the Geelong Awards for Disability, Tim’s swag of contributions and involvement are significant and we are incredibly proud of his commitment and energy as a voice and an active participant in shaping the disability landscape.
To everyone else who is helping to make a difference, whether recognised with an award or not, congratulations on your efforts. We celebrate you and thank you for all that you do.
If you would like us to feature someone who deserves to be recognised and celebrated for their work in the disability space, please email us at promotion@pda.org.au and we’ll be more than happy to share their stories.
Dinesh Palipana has been awarded a General Sir John Monash Scholarships to undertake postgraduate study with an overseas university in 2024.
“Sir John Monash, one of Australia’s greatest civic and military leaders, believed education is not given for individual benefit, but for the higher duties of citizens who seek to advance society.
Dr Palipana will join the University of Edinburgh and Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh, which are among the oldest leading institutions globally providing medical education, to complete a Masters in Internal Medicine.”
With all the discussion and focus on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), it can be easy to overlook the fact that only a relatively small proportion of people living with disability are participants in the scheme.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that approximately 4.4 million people in Australia report living with a disability. The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) reports that 610,504 people are participants in the NDIS as at the end of June 2023. This represents only 13% of people living with disability in Australia.
So what supports are available for people with disability who are not scheme participants?
The answer will come as no surprise to many people with disability – relatively few. The Federal Minister for the NDIS, the Hon Bill Shorten MP, has even conceded this point, echoing the widespread view in the disability community that the NDIS is becoming ‘the only lifeboat in the ocean’.
It’s a big ocean
There are limited measures provided by the Commonwealth Government intended to address gaps in services for people not eligible to join the NDIS. The delivery of services for people with disability was largely the remit of state and territory governments prior to the introduction of the NDIS in 2013. It was envisaged that state and territory governments would continue to deliver services to people not eligible to join the NDIS after its introduction, however this is not what has happened in many cases.
States and territories still provide some funding, though many programs that were previously funded have transitioned into the NDIS, and what is left provides only limited support.
In the ACT for example, the main publicly funded support for people not on the NDIS include the following:
The program commenced on 1 October 2023, drawing several closing programs together, and has a modest annual budget of around $8 million dollars. I say modest as the program applies to all people, not just people with disability, and a large proportion of recipients are likely to be the elderly.
The ACT Government concedes that it is a ‘program of last resort’.
There is also some funding for advocacy services and things like concessions on utilities and transport vouchers.
Implications
For the majority of people living with disability, this means that they must fund their own supports – that, or rely on friends, family or volunteer services for assistance when required. Not an ideal situation for some of the most vulnerable people in the community who often struggle to find secure, stable employment.
It really shouldn’t be that surprising that we have seen a stampede of people seeking to join the NDIS – some even seeking access prospectively, just in case their condition deteriorates. It also explains the angst on the part of participants and the disability community any time the issue of scheme sustainability or eligibility is raised.
The NDIS was designed to operate on a 50:50 cost sharing arrangements between the Federal and state/territory governments, however due to the current capped nature of state and territory government contributions – the Federal Government is currently meeting around 70 per cent of the NDIS budget. By 2026-27, that figure is expected to reach 75 per cent.
At the end of June 2023, the value of plan budgets in the ACT was $702 million. Based on the original cost sharing arrangement, the ACT Government’s share of this would be $351 million. In 2022-23, the ACT is expected to contribute $189.9 million.
The progressive cost shifting to the Federal Government makes the spend on the part of the ACT Government (outside of its existing NDIS contribution) seem modest indeed.
Way forward
The National Disability Insurance Agency forecasts that the number of NDIS participants will reach $1 million within the next decade, and value of the program reach close to $100 billion annually.
There is a range of proposals being considered by the NDIS Independent Review to ensure funding for the NDIS is secured well into the future. Increasing the proportional increase in contributions by state and territory governments should be one of them.
Queenslanders with Disability Network is inviting those in the states/territories listed above to become Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (P-CEP) Peer Leaders.
P-CEP Peer Leaders are people with disability helping to raise awareness with other people with disability about P-CEP.
The P-CEP is a framework and toolkit for people with disability to prepare for their safety and wellbeing in emergencies.
Co-designed by people with disability to prepare for their safety and wellbeing in emergencies, it draws on the research that informed person-centred and strengths-based approaches to making an emergency plan tailored to individual support needs in emergencies.
The program introduces you to the P-CEP Workbook and helps you to take steps to get ready for emergencies. Peer Leaders want to learn together about what people can do for themselves and what they may need support for in emergency situations.
Workshops will be run between October 2023 – February 2024. Join the workshop series in October. It is important to come to all 4 workshops in the series. Each workshop will go for 1 – 1.5 hours.
People who join the P-CEP Learning Community will receive payment to contribute to their time and expenses in taking part in learning.
For more information please go to https://qdn.org.au/our-work/disability-inclusive-disaster-risk-reduction/pcep-peer-leadership-program/ , contact QDN on 1300 363 783 or email the team at didrr@qdn.org.au.
As the NDIS National Disability Insurance Scheme celebrates 10 years, a review by an independent commission is looking at ways to ensure that it works well for all participants.
Through the help of its participants, the Scheme’s problems and successes will be pulled together and potential solutions identified.
The Australian Federation Of Disability Organisations (AFDO) is made up of member organisations, including Physical Disability Australia, who together work to uphold and address issues impacting the lives of people with disability in Australia.
As part of the NDIS Review, AFDO is making a submission to the the independent commission on behalf of people with disability. To do this we need your feedback and ideas around improving the NDIS to ensure that the voices of its participants are at the heart of any reform.
If you’re an NDIS participant and would like to have an anonymous say in making this happen, we invite you to take part in a survey where you can share your experiences around accessing the Scheme and how you feel about your plan.
AFDO respects your privacy and all answers will be de-identified and private. Information supplied is protected by AFDO’s Privacy Policy (https://www.afdo.org.au/our-work/privacy-policy/).
The survey closes on Friday 14th July and can be accessed by going to:
Thanks for your time. Together we can play a role in making the NDIS the best it can be.
If you missed seeing the ABC TV’s piece on the 10th birthday of the NDIS, we encourage you to check it out.
It’s an interesting look at the life of the NDIS, with some wonderful insights from those involved in its management and those accessing the system – including PDA’s SA Associate Director, Krystal Matthews, who comes in at approximately 26:56 minutes.
“Nas Campanella looks at the successes and failures of the NDIS. We hear from those with lived experience of the scheme, plus Chair of the National Disabilities Insurance Agency Kurt Fearnley and NDIS Minister Bill Shorten.”
https://iview.abc.net.au/show/ndis-10-years/video/NS2338H001S00
Mark Pietsch is PDA’s NSW Director and yesterday he was interviewed on ABC Illawarra radio’s Breakfast Show hosted by Melinda James about the NDIS National Disability Insurance Scheme.
His segment is at 1:58:48.
Check it out. Mark has some great points and suggestions.
https://www.abc.net.au/illawarra/programs/breakfast/illawarra-breakfast/102270486
1800 732 674
