18 August 2023 - meeting 10 - communique

The Northern Territory Disability Advisory Committee (the Committee) met on 18 August 2023 at Parliament House in Darwin, with the Hon Ngaree Ah Kit MLA, Minister for Disabilities.

Priority areas

Members talked about priorities that are important for the Committee. These included:

• disability employment - helping more people with disability to find and keep a job
• support for people to get a job when they leave school
• support for employers to know how to hire and support people with disability
• people getting services no matter where they live in the Northern Territory
• services in remote places far away from cities and towns so people can stay living in their homes and not have to move to the city
• building unpaid supports so people have friends in their lives and not just paid workers
• housing for people with disability
• everyone getting information in the way they need such as Easy Read
• speaking up about international disability rights
• making the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) easier to access and use
• remote travel - for example, wheelchair lifts at airports so people can get on/off aeroplanes
• mental health services that are easier to get for people who need it.

Northern Territory Disability Strategy – action Plan update

Charlie Marengo, Office of Disability and Mick Fallon, National Disability Services Northern Territory talked about the Committee’s role to oversight the Northern Territory Disability Strategy Action Plan to make sure it is working in the right way.

Finding and keeping a Job

Ben Hankin, Inclusion Advisor and Liz Collier, Territory Manager from Inclusion Australia gave a presentation about work they are doing to support more people with intellectual disability getting jobs.

They talked about how important it is that everyone is paid properly for their work.

They made some recommendations for the Northern Territory Government to help more people with intellectual disability find and keep jobs. These recommendations are:

• make a wage subsidy so people with intellectual disability on supported wages are paid the minimum wage
• set targets for how many people with disability, including intellectual disability, are employed in a wide range of jobs
• include targets and measures in all disability strategies for employing people with an intellectual disability.

NDIS review – 'What we have heard' report

Janet Wright, Integrated disAbility Action talked about the independent review into the NDIS and the issues identified in the recently published 'What we have heard' report.

Janet said some of the ideas to make the NDIS better are:

• the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) adapt and change how it communicates so that everyone gets information in ways they can understand
• it needs to be easier to apply for the NDIS
• the NDIA to better explain the decisions they make
• there needs to be a safety net for people who are not meeting NDIS access
• strengthen and expand the Community Visitor Program to support access to NDIS group homes.

'Deep dive' project – NDIS in remote communities

The Minister for Disabilities thanked the previous members of the Committee and acknowledged the leadership of the previous chair, Chris Blackham-Davison. She welcomed the new members of the Committee.

The Minister talked about the 'Deep dive' project that the Northern Territory Government is doing to help people who live in remote communities get more services from the NDIS. She has recently been in Yuendumu to listen to people talk about how the NDIS is working there. Work is being progressed to look at different ways of choosing and paying for disability services that suit the community. The Minister stated that it is important the work in improve NDIS in remote communities needs to be community-led in support and collaboration with the NDIA, NDIS Quality and Safe Guards Commission and Northern Territory Government.

Mr Callum Hooley
Chair
Northern Territory Disability Advisory Committee