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Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda

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Speaker 1: Bungelung Caalcuttin woman from Gadighal Country. The Daily oz acknowledges

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Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the

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Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres

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Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the

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Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.

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Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily os. It's Friday,

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Speaker 2: the eighth of December. I'm Sam, I'm Billy. Yesterday, an

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Speaker 2: independent review about Australia's National Disability Insurance scheme made twenty

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Speaker 2: six recommendations for Australia's governments to better support Australians living

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Speaker 2: with a disability. We're going to explain exactly what you

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Speaker 2: need to know about these recommendations. But first, Billy, there

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Speaker 2: was some big news from Australia's media yesterday.

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Speaker 3: Yes Australian broadcaster Alan Jones has been accused of inappropriate

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Speaker 3: behavior with several young men in an instigation by The

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Speaker 3: Sydney Morning Herald. In her report, journalist Kate McClymont alleged

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Speaker 3: Jones used his position of power to prey on a

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Speaker 3: number of young men. Jones denies the allegations and his

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Speaker 3: legal team has confirmed they have taken the first step

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Speaker 3: in commencing defamation proceedings against The Sydney Morning Herald.

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Speaker 2: Fiji's Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prosad has called for a

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Speaker 2: no visa requirement to travel between Australia and the Pacific Islands.

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Speaker 2: In an address in Australia, Prasad said Australians and Pacific

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Speaker 2: Islanders should be able to freely move and work across

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Speaker 2: the vast blue Pacific. He suggested a visa free Pacific

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Speaker 2: as the next step, highlighting the benefits of economic integration

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Speaker 2: between the countries.

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Speaker 3: The International Air Transport Association has announced expected net profits

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Speaker 3: of twenty three point three billion US dollars for the

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Speaker 3: global airline industry this year. The association includes Australian airlines

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Speaker 3: like Quantus and Virgin The Director General of the Association

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Speaker 3: said that on average, airlines make eight dollars for each

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Speaker 3: customer that.

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Speaker 2: Travels and today's good news I like this one. Viewers

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Speaker 2: of Deal or No Deal in the UK have helped

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Speaker 2: raise thousands for a contestant who has mode A neuron disease.

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Speaker 2: Brad Whale went on the show to win enough money

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Speaker 2: to fulfill his bucket list, but he only walked away

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Speaker 2: with five pounds that's about ten Australian dollars. A fellow

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Speaker 2: contestant on the show set up a GoFundMe page, which

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Speaker 2: has now raised more than one hundred thousand pounds to

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Speaker 2: help Whale complete his bucket list. Okay, so Billy. Yesterday,

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Speaker 2: an independent review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and

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Speaker 2: we more commonly know it as the NDIS made twenty

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Speaker 2: six recommendations to create what it said would be a

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Speaker 2: more sustainable, functional and equitable support system for Australians with

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Speaker 2: a disability. The authors of the review said their recommendations

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Speaker 2: would renew the promise of the NDIS two people with disabilities.

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Speaker 2: Before we go to those twenty six recommendations, why don't

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Speaker 2: we go back a few steps and talk through what

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Speaker 2: exactly the NDIS actually is.

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Speaker 3: Yes, it seems like a really logical place to start,

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Speaker 3: So for those who don't know, the NDIS provides necessary

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Speaker 3: support and services for Australians who have a permanent and

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Speaker 3: significant disability. So it offers access to community service which

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Speaker 3: can be things like just going to the doctors, for example,

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Speaker 3: and it also provides assistance for necessary support such as

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Speaker 3: you know, if you need a car to be modified,

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Speaker 3: it can provide the financial assistance to do things such

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Speaker 3: as that. Now, it was launched in two thy and thirteen,

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Speaker 3: so it's about ten years old, but it was rolled

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Speaker 3: out incrementally and it was ultimately completed in twenty twenty.

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Speaker 3: Today there are now over six hundred and ten thousand

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Speaker 3: Australians who receive support from the NDIS. But for reference,

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Speaker 3: there are two point five million Australians with a disability

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Speaker 3: under the age of sixty five, and sixty five is

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Speaker 3: the cutoff age for NDIS support.

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Speaker 2: Okay, and so ten years into the program there's been

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Speaker 2: this big review. But before we go into what the

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Speaker 2: review found, was there anything that kind of triggered the

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Speaker 2: commissioning of the review in the first place.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. So in order for a review to be commissioned,

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Speaker 3: there needs to be a reason for that, and so

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Speaker 3: the government launched the review in twenty twenty two, and

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Speaker 3: that was because of widespread concerns about deteriorating support for

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Speaker 3: NDIS recipients. You work in the media, I'm sure, you've

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Speaker 3: heard a lot of complaints over the years. I feel

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Speaker 3: like I've been hearing about them for years now. One

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Speaker 3: of the key concerns was the ndis's functionality, So there

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Speaker 3: were a lot of allegations about the presence of unethical

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Speaker 3: providers who are allegedly overcharging recipients for ineffective or even

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Speaker 3: just unnecessary supports. And another big concern was just how

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Speaker 3: expensive the NDIS was becoming, and that was attributed to

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Speaker 3: a number of reasons, but one was the number of

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Speaker 3: participants needing the NDIS and that growing much faster than

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Speaker 3: was initially expected ten years ago.

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Speaker 2: So basically, if I was to kind of generally bundle

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Speaker 2: those two issues, it's wastage and its programs not being efficient,

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Speaker 2: and that's because of some bad actors, but also some

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Speaker 2: problems with the way that grants are given out, but

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Speaker 2: also then the rising costs of the program. And we

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Speaker 2: covered earlier this year the number of people with ADHD

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Speaker 2: on the NDIS, and I think that kind of story

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Speaker 2: symbolized to politicians the different ways in which the NDIS

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Speaker 2: is being used in twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 3: Definitely, And before you go on, I do just want

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Speaker 3: to point out Obviously we're focusing on the bad stuff.

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Speaker 3: There is obviously a lot of good that the NDIS.

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Speaker 2: Had done, really and that is the message that comes

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Speaker 2: from the government whenever those bad stories come out, is

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Speaker 2: that we're focusing on the bad actors. But there's people

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Speaker 2: who are using the NDIS funds.

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Speaker 3: For good totally, and they want to focus on the

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Speaker 3: bad because they want to fix it exactly.

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Speaker 2: So they did focus on the bad and they did

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Speaker 2: this review. What did the review find?

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Speaker 3: So overall, just as a general sentiment, the report found

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Speaker 3: that the current system was difficult to navigate and that

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Speaker 3: it didn't really encourage high quality services for people with disabilities.

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Speaker 3: So to solve this, it made twenty six recommendations overall,

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Speaker 3: and that came with one hundred and thirty eight supporting actions,

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Speaker 3: so ways that the government can action those recommendations, and

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Speaker 3: those are to be implemented over a.

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Speaker 2: Five year period.

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Speaker 3: So I'll put a link to the report in the

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Speaker 3: show notes if you do want to have a closer look.

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Speaker 3: But just as a top line overview of what it recommended,

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Speaker 3: the first recommendation was that the NDIS should not be

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Speaker 3: the sole source of disability support in Australia and should

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Speaker 3: more be part of a bigger system of connected disability services.

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Speaker 2: Do they offer like an idea of how that could

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Speaker 2: actually operate.

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Speaker 3: So it recommended investing in something it called foundational supports

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Speaker 3: and those would be available to all people with a

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Speaker 3: disability and it would exist outside of the ndis's individualized budgets.

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Speaker 3: So at the moment, the way the NDIS works is

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Speaker 3: that if you're a person with a disability, you can

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Speaker 3: go to the NDIS and ask for specific personal support.

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Speaker 3: But what this review recommended was that there should be

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Speaker 3: something overall outside of individualized support that all people across

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Speaker 3: Australia with a disability can access. Does that make sense?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so like blanket mainstream services exactly.

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Speaker 3: That everyone can access. And so it said that by

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Speaker 3: setting up these kind of foundational supports, the government can

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Speaker 3: reduce the inequity, which was a word that kept coming

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Speaker 3: up between people in the NDIS and those who are

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Speaker 3: not in the NDIS.

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Speaker 2: So basically the report recommended that the NDIS not be

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Speaker 2: this sole source of disability support in Australia, but be

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Speaker 2: part of like a broader network of disability support systems

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Speaker 2: that everyone can access.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly spot on.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so what else did the report find?

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Speaker 3: Another recommendation was around how people who are on the

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Speaker 3: NDIS have their budgets managed. So just quickly, for people

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Speaker 3: on the NDIS, the government doesn't provide support payments directly,

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Speaker 3: so you don't just get a lump sum put into

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Speaker 3: your bank account. Instead of that, participants get a budget

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Speaker 3: which they can use to purchase support from registered providers. Now,

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Speaker 3: the NDAs hasn't suggested changing that basic structure, but it

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Speaker 3: has said that there needs to be a greater flexibility

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Speaker 3: in how participants of the NDIS can spend their budget

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Speaker 3: with minimal exceptions, and it also said that the government

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Speaker 3: should adopt a quote trust based approach to overseeing how

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Speaker 3: budgets are spent.

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Speaker 2: So we've pretty much talked about ways that people inside

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Speaker 2: the NDIS can have the program modified to make it

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Speaker 2: more effective. Did the report recommend anything for those who

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Speaker 2: wish to apply to the NDIS.

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Speaker 3: Yes, this was another key recommendation, so it addressed how

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Speaker 3: people apply to access the NDAs and it said that

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Speaker 3: in this application process, the NDIS should prioritize those with

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Speaker 3: quote significant functional impairment and need over a medical diagnosis

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Speaker 3: which you might be asking why. So it said at

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Speaker 3: the moment, many participants are gaining automatic access to the

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Speaker 3: NDIS because they have a medical diagnosis, which has led

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Speaker 3: to a focus on the need of having a medical

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Speaker 3: diagnosis rather than the actual function and disability related support needs.

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Speaker 2: That's interesting.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And it said that this has led to inequity. Again,

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Speaker 3: like I said, that's a word that just kept coming

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Speaker 3: up in this report, and it said it created this

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Speaker 3: inequity because it favored only those with means to obtain

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Speaker 3: a diagnosis.

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Speaker 2: Right, so basically favoring people who had access to doctors

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Speaker 2: and assessments that could get them the paperwork that they

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Speaker 2: need to access the program.

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Speaker 3: Yes, exactly.

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Speaker 2: How has the government come out yesterday to respond to

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Speaker 2: all of this?

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Speaker 3: So, like we said, the report only came out yesterday,

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Speaker 3: and my understanding is that the government didn't have the

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Speaker 3: report before it was released to the public, so they

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Speaker 3: haven't detailed yet whether or not they will accept each

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Speaker 3: recommend or not. But Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi has said

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Speaker 3: that a full government response will be released next year,

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Speaker 3: which will follow further consultation with the disability community over

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Speaker 3: the coming months. In how the government should respond to this,

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Speaker 3: but in terms of initial comments about it, NDIS Minister

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Speaker 3: Bill Shorten said, quote this is a significant moment in

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Speaker 3: Australian history, particularly for people with disability and their families

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Speaker 3: and the disability sector. Our nation will reap the rewards

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Speaker 3: of the review's work. But he also added it is

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Speaker 3: important that Australians understand changes are not going to happen overnight.

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Speaker 2: Have you heard anything from the opposition.

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Speaker 3: Yes, so we have a statement from the Shadow Minister

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Speaker 3: for NDIS, Michael Suka, and he said quote Unsurprisingly, the

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Speaker 3: independent review has left many questions unanswered and stones unturned.

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Speaker 3: The Government will now have to outline which changes they

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Speaker 3: support and how they plan to transform these recommendations into

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Speaker 3: tangible action. He also said, it seems clear that the

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Speaker 3: government will seek to deny access to the NDIS for

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Speaker 3: children with autism and developmental delay.

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Speaker 2: And we know that the NDAs is this joint program

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Speaker 2: between the Commonwealth and the States and territories. And on

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Speaker 2: Wednesday at the National Cabinet meeting and the National Cabinet

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Speaker 2: is that meeting between the Prime Minister and the leaders

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Speaker 2: of the States and Territories, they all agreed to work

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Speaker 2: together on new laws to improve the NDAs, so I

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Speaker 2: think we will see some of these recommendations play out

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Speaker 2: in the structure of those new laws, and hopefully see

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Speaker 2: some changes to the programs where those inequities have been identified.

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Speaker 2: We'll be back in New Years on Monday morning. It's

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Speaker 2: going to be hot for a lot of the country

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Speaker 2: this weekend, so please look after yourself, drink a lot

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Speaker 2: of water, and share this podcast with a friend for

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Speaker 2: a bit of weekend listening. Until then, at a wonderful weekend,