In brief

• Labor is committed to ensuring that no Australian with a disability is left behind – from getting the NDIS working properly for those that need it, to coordinating support for all 4.4 million Australians living with disability.  

• Disability will no longer be an afterthought, and policies will be informed by evidence and co-designed with the people they impact.  

• Labor will ensure that people with disability have equal opportunities to access the community and gain employment. Extra advocacy support will ensure they have a voice. 

Why do we need this?

The NDIS is Australia’s disability safety net – a great Labor idea like Medicare and Superannuation – that has been damaged by a decade of Liberal cuts, mismanagement and chaos.

At the same time, outcomes and opportunities for all 4.4 million Australians living with disability are lagging behind and even going backwards in important areas like employment and health due to a lack of accountability.

At every stage of the pandemic, the Morrison Government has disregarded the experience of Australians with a disability and left them and their families, carers, service providers and workers without the support they need.

The details

An Albanese Labor Government will:

• Stop the Morrison Government’s unfair cuts to individual NDIS plans with an Expert Review that will guarantee plans are not being unfairly reduced.
  
  
• Ensure a Better Future for the NDIS that puts people with disability at the center of the Scheme and includes families, carers, service providers and workers.
  
  
• Review NDIS design, operation and sustainability to ensure that the Scheme gets back on the right track.
  
  
• Build evidence with $15 million for a National Disability Research Partnership and consider continued support for a National Disability Data Asset to ensure future changes to the NDIS are based on proper evidence.
  
  
• Make the National Disability Strategy accountable by measuring its implementation, to ensure that real progress is made on important outcomes like employment and education. Labor will also develop a National Autism Strategy.
  
  
• Improve employment outcomes with a Disability Employment Centre for Excellence that will provide a clearinghouse for ideas and increase capacity among employment services.
  
  
• Never again leave people with disability at the back of the queue in relation to the pandemic or a future emergency response.
  
  
• Introduce central coordination of disability to ensure real action and recognition for all disabled Australians, not just those on the NDIS.
  
  
• Double existing support for individual and systemic advocacy with an additional $10 million over four years to address systemic abuse, neglect, and exploitation, and support to navigate services. Labor will match additional funding for NDIS Appeals providers to cope with numbers of AAT cases.
  
  
• Improve disability access in the community by ensuring there are enough ‘Changing Places’ – disability toilets for people with high support needs – available across the country. Labor will offer a third of the funding required to build a facility in each of the 400 LGAs currently without one.

Related policies:

• A Better Future for the NDIS
• National Autism Strategy