Bulletin Spring 2018

This brave new world of the NDIS, however, has been a long
time in the making. In April 1995 the then Federal Minister for
Health in the Keating Government, Dr Carmen Lawrence (also
the first woman to become the Premier of Western Australia,
1990 to 1993), visits the Society to meet the Board and
discuss concerns it has about future Commonwealth funding.
In particular, the Board wants to discuss the imbalance in
the funding agreement with the Commonwealth, where the
Society is contributing seventy seven percent for the provision
of services to Members, by fundraising.
For years the Society had been largely excluded from applying
for Commonwealth funding because those organisations on
the inside argued that the Society was a so-called ‘single
disability’ organisation, the mud stuck, and the Society
cannot shake this concocted historical tag.
The Society counters such humbug by flying its multiple
sclerosis (MS) credentials like a battle flag, to become a very
successful independently-minded fundraiser. However, at
that particular time in 1995, because the next battle to have
Beterferon (treatment) made freely available is yet to be won,
funding to enable people with MS to live at home has become a
heart-rending, calamitous problem. There are cases of people
mortgaging their homes to raise the $100,000 necessary to
purchase this first disease modifying treatment ever offered.
Dr Lawrence informs the Society that the Home and
Community Care guidelines are under review, explaining that
the Commonwealth is planning to introduce legislation to
provide funding to the individual in need of home care and
allow that individual to choose their service provider. This will
include people with MS.
It is now history that the following year, the Keating-led Labor
government was defeated by the Howard Liberal National
Coalition Government. It would be another seventeen years
before the NDIS Bill was introduced into Parliament in
November 2012 and enacted the following year.
Today people with disabilities, MS and similar neurological
conditions at long last have the ability to access funding in
a more timely and equitable fashion. They also have the
amount adjusted to meet changed need and they can choose
their own provider, as the NDIS is rolled out throughout
Western Australia.
The big losers however, are people aged 65 years and over.
It is these people who have been shuffled off into a grossly
inadequate Aged Care System where thirty percent of the
package is immediately recouped by the provider, and the
hourly rate of service is exorbitant. If that person happens to
be high-care, then the care cost doubles. It is little short of a
disgrace that the disabled elderly should be even thought of
in such a manner.
MSWA is not currently an approved Aged Care Provider, but
once again it is left to us to pick up the broken pieces of an
ill-thought-out policy so as to keep people with MS who do
not qualify for the NDIS, living at home.
On behalf of the Editorial Committee I would like to thank
you for your forbearance as MSWA follows its five-year
plan and reassembles itself in readiness for the future.
“Change is everywhere … today it is fine; tomorrow we
know Summer is coming.”
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4 | MSWA BULLETIN SPRING 2018