Concern over NDIS accessibility for migrants

(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)

Australia's peak ethnic representative body has called on the federal government to make sure the National Disability Insurance Scheme adequately represents the nation's ethnic make-up.

The Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia has made a submission to the Government's inquiry into the NDIS bill raising concerns about the potential lack of ethnic diversity in the sites chosen to launch the Scheme.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme is being debated in federal parliament ahead of its expected implentation in July.

The legislation will establish the NDIS Launch Transition Agency which will first operate on a pilot basis in five areas in south-east Australia.

They are the states of South Australia and Tasmania, the Barwon region around Geelong and New South Wales' Hunter region, and the Australian Capital Territory.

The Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia believes that selection shows there has not been enough consultation with, nor consideration of the needs of culturally and linguistically different communities.

The Federation's Pino Migliorino, says he's not calling for the pilot areas to be changed, but extended to take in a wider range of ethnic communities.

Mr Migliorino says unless the program can be tested across communities that reflect Australia's multicultural aspect, the government won't know if the scheme will work for ethnic communities.

"We're suggesting that if they are pilot sites then it's imperative that the pilot sites provide the opportunity to see how this would work in different contexts, different environments. Now, in terms of our analysis of those sites, we're quite concerned that there are many other areas in Australia where a larger proportion of people from non-English speaking backgrounds would actually be found. And therefore being able to modify the pilot sites so you're actually able to reflect different jurisdictional or environmental characteristics is an extremely important part of any review or piloting process."

A Victorian state MP whose electorate falls within the Barwon NDIS launch site boundaries says there's no need for concern about the ethnic diversity of that area, at least.

Member for South Barwon Andrew Katos, whose parents came from Greece, says one in five people in Victoria's second city Geelong have a non-English speaking background.

"Geelong has some very well established etnic cultures here, diverse cultures. There's large Greek, Itialian, Spanish, Croatian, Dutch communities, so that first wave of migration. Then there's in the 70s when a large south-east Asian influx came, particularly after the Vietnam war, so there was a lot of people who settled in Geelong. And at the moment we've got the Burmese, there's the Congolese and also the Sudanese who are settling, the present refugees, if you like."

But FECCA's Pino Migliorino is concerned that the states of Western Australia and Queensland, with their significant indigenous and migrant communities, are not part of the initial NDIS trial.

"If indeed that they accept our argument that they will be missing out on very important information then we'll be very keen to ensure that their consultative processes are also able to access that information and that input. I think the reality is -- and also what we put up in our submission -- is we feel that the consultative process has been devoid of enough attention to cultural and linguistic diversity and enough outreach into those communities to make sure that those voices and those experiences and those needs and wants are understood."

Ethnic disability advocates say there are real reasons to take the needs of their constituents into account.

The chief executive of the National Ethnic Disabilities Alliance, Dwayne Cranfield, says the NDIS will need to make sure language differences and religious requirements are catered for.

"The issue for all people with disabilities is about choice and control over their life, and choice about who's going to give you your direct care. And I know that if I was a person that had a disability that required direct service are or direct support, person care, thinks like feeding or changing nappies or bathing or any of those feminine hygiene issues that women face on a regular basis -- if you've got people providing that kind of care to you I think you would want to have some choice over who was doing that for you."

Mr Cranfield says he is quite satisfied that the NDIS will take the particular needs of ethnic communities into account.

But he says even if governments can meet the funding requirements of the Scheme in the long term, there will be the highly important issue of finding appropriate and qualified personal care workers.

"It's hard enough to find staff already within these sectors of disability and mental health and all of those things to give people direct care and direct support. If we're talking about an increased capacity or an increased unmet need which is going to occur very, very soon after the launch has occurred and after the launch has run its course, I think we've got to really start thinking now about how we're going to engage people into employment. Because if we don't we'll have this huge unmet need and promises that we've made to people, and we've got to be able to fulfil them."

Victorian MP Andrew Katos agrees there are other more important issues that need addressing.

"This is all being nutted out and fleshed out by the Commonwealth government at the moment. I think this region is well served from a cultural and indigenous perspective. So that's where people should be directing their energies, it's more about the detail, the funding, the who's in, who's out, all the fine detail of the proposal which the Commonwealth is presently coming up with."