Bill Shorten faces a big test in Maribyrnong in the next election.
He will be challenged by a young woman with complex disabilities on a Fix NDIS platform for Democracy First. This will be the most watched seat in Australia.
#Millions of people are deeply disappointed with the way #NDIS has been botched as an important social reform. It was intended to personalise supports for people with disabilities through #individualbudgets to purchase supports to suit each individual. In fact, service providers #seized the money, #aggregated it to meet their organisational priorities, and perpetuated the old #providercentric paternalistic disability industry.
It became a #gravytrain for everyone except vulnerable people with disabilities.
NDIS confirmed for the nation that #careerpoliticians are not very good at social reform or government. #BillShorten went from Scotch College to Melbourne University to a union official position in the #AustralianWorkersUnion. Of course, he has never worked in an occupation covered by that union (storeman, packer, driver). He became #NationalSecretary of that union in 2001 aged 34 never having held a real job.
In 2007 Bill Shorten became a Labor politician for #Maribyrong in Victoria. Then he became #Minister for NDIS. He’d never thought about disability before. And he has still never held a real job.
NDIS sums up the failure in #leadership and #publicgovernance that we have witnessed in every area of policy in the last 20 years. Good ideas become debacles because career politicians with no experience of the real world find themselves managing billions of dollars of taxpayers money.
And they fail. ___ Our #DemocracyFirst candidate in Maribyrong aims to have 1,000 volunteers on the ground. She will represent every #user of services who has ever been humiliated by #bureaucrats and intimidated by #lawyers in disability, mental health, veterans affairs, aged care and welfare.
She says: “#Hi all you may not know who I am, but I’m the person who has complex disability but still goes in to fight for your loved one when they are faced with the #AAT or #Centrelink or the many other areas they might need support.”
“I’ve won multiple #cases and access requests. I specialise in cases that are #rejected and I don’t ask the person I’m advocating for for any funds unless they are able to afford it.”
Yes, there are people like this in the world!
We can easily #mobilise 1,000 people from across Melbourne to support our #FixNDIS candidate in Maribyrnong.
We want another 1,000 outside Melbourne to donate to support her win the seat The process is important. #Disability and #mentalhealth people and their families and carers have been taken for a ride by politicians, bureacrats and providers for a long time.
There are millions of us. And now we have a #politicalvoice.
Like most Commonwealth Government ideas – great in principle but often poorly executed, with systemic gaps, inefficient bureaucratic oversight, waste, and financial exploitation by interested parties. Thinking of “Cash for Clunkers”, “building the Education revolution”, the “Pink Batts” schemes.
This is an incredibly powerful and timely message. The call for genuine representation and accountability in the NDIS is essential for creating a system that truly supports individuals with disabilities.
Highlighting the failures of the current system and the need for leaders with real-world experience and empathy is crucial. It’s inspiring to see a candidate with lived experience and a passion for advocacy stepping up to challenge the status quo.
Mobilizing support for this cause is not just about winning a seat; it’s about giving a voice to the vulnerable and ensuring that social reforms like the NDIS serve their intended purpose. Let’s rally behind this movement and drive the change we need!
I work in the disability sector in Bendigo for what I can only describe as a most honest and ethical provider with checks and balances in place to ensure the best possible outcome for the participants – an organisation that prides itself in having delivered the best service and support possible in its 40 years of operation. You imply that providers are only in the disability sector for the money, and that they seize and aggregate this money to meet their own organisational priorities. I dispute your allegations and suggest that while there may well be providers who do not do the right thing by those who have disabilities, there are many who strive to provide the best ongoing support and care for their participants.
Additionally there is an army of staff both administrative and front line who work tirelessly for little financial reward to support their participants. These are most often people with ethics and integrity who would not work for a provider who ripped off their participants. There are most definitely problems with the NDIS but placing blame on providers as a common fault is wrong and quite frankly insulting to those providers and their staff who try so very hard to help people with disabilities to achieve their goals.
Sadly Shorten seems to accidentally help nefarious interests make money rather than the electorate get the benefits he promises.
He seems to have created a taxpayer pond of cash that many of the same crooks who rorted the RTO sector have made millions from. I guess it must just be a sad coincidence.
He’s possibly powerful enough to also prevent any agency from investigating what happened to Ansett and the money that was made afterwards by a handful of mates, which his actions and support enabled.
Probably nothing more than sad coincidences that possibly “can’t be recalled”.