Promise check: Double existing support for individual and systemic advocacy for NDIS clients

Promise check: Double existing support for individual and systemic advocacy for NDIS clients

At the 2022 election, Labor promised to double existing support for individual and systemic advocacy for NDIS clients. Here's how that promise is tracking.

Someone looking at NDIS website (Image by ABC Canberra: Kim Lester)

In opposition, Labor made fixing the National Disability Insurance Scheme a central plank of its election pitch. One of the ways the party said it would achieve this was through additional support for individual and systemic advocacy for the scheme's clients.

This individual and systemic support is currently funded through the Disability Representative Organisations program.

The program provides "the capacity for all people, and their representative organisations, to have their views communicated to the Government, regardless of type of disability, gender, cultural background, age or membership," according to the Department of Social Services.

The funding enables participating organisations to:

  • Promote an understanding of the lives of people with disability
  • Promote and protect the rights and dignity of people with disability
  • Foster support for the participation of people with disability in all aspects of community life

At the time of the May 2022 election, the program was receiving $2.6 million a year.

During the election campaign, then opposition leader Anthony Albanese and then shadow minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill Shorten outlined Labor's plan for the scheme in a joint media release.

The release promised to "increase advocacy funding":

"Labor will double existing support for disability advocacy, investing an additional $10 million over four years …"

The party’s policy platform also contained a pledge to "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.

Assessing the promise

Promising to "increase advocacy funding", the release said Labor "will double existing support for disability advocacy, investing an additional $10 million over four years".

Although this may not represent a doubling in real terms, Labor has been clear about how much money it has pledged to spend.

This promise will be assessed on the amount spent on the DRO program in the 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years, noting that the four year funding pledge extends beyond the end of this electoral cycle.

Here's how the promise is tracking:

19 May 2023

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19 May 2023

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