Australia is indeed the lucky country - it  has more money than sense.

A BEAUTIFUL LIFE – BUT LET DOWN
BY THE NDIS
CHLOE GRIMSHAW

A distressed teenager who had his NDIS funding slashed sent a desperate text message to one of his supporters asking if Bill Shorten had responded to a letter about his case just four minutes before he died.

The final text message from Brisbane university student Jack Bailey to his occupational therapist, Izzi Harman, has left his grief-stricken family and
support team demanding change to the system.

Mr Bailey lived with late-stage duchenne muscular dystrophy, a degenerative muscle condition that meant he was confined to a wheelchair and reliant on 24-hour care.

In the months leading up to his death, the National Disability Insurance Agency, which governs NDIS funds, unexpectedly slashed his funding – meaning he could no longer have a 24-hour carer.

On August 11, the 19-year-old asked Ms Harman if she had received a response to their letter calling on National Disability Insurance Scheme
Minister Bill Shorten to reconsider his case.

“He sent me a text asking if we had a reply at 10.26am and his fatal cardiac
episode started at 10.30am,” Ms Harman said. “It was quite literally the last thing he ever did.”

Mr Bailey moved out of home and interstate, studied a double degree at university and worked as a lived-experience disability adviser.

He was an enthusiastic powerchair footballer and a much-loved member of the Queensland Powerchair Football Association.

Ms Harman said, however, the last months of his life were filled with anxiety and uncertainty after the NDIA unexpectedly took away his 24-
hour support workers.

On June 17, Mr Bailey was alone in his apartment when he suffered a life threatening cardiac incident, just managing to call himself an ambulance before blacking out.

“I was so angry, I wrote that this could happen in all my reports and he got super lucky with the first cardiac incident, it was pure luck he felt a bit sick and dizzy so he called an ambulance for help before he blacked out,” Ms Harman said. “Jack’s family then gave the NDIS an update about his situation, we told them what had happened and we just didn’t get much acknowledgment of that.”

According to Ms Harman, in the lead-up to Mr Bailey’s support plan expiring he spent hours on the phone with the National Disability
Insurance Agency trying to ensure he had adequate care in place.

“He was getting so stressed and even said to me at one point that he was getting anxious going to sleep every night because he wasn’t sure if he
would have someone there to get him out of bed in the morning,” Ms Harman said.

She said in a rush to put a plan in place, the NDIA made Mr Bailey’s support workers’ funding agency managed.

This left the teenager unable to pay his well-established and personalised
support team as he had previously done.

While some of Mr Bailey’s support workers continued to assist him for
free, the NDIA’s move meant he was alone for periods of time in his apartment.

Ms Harman claimed inefficient staffing, a lack of training and ineffective processes when it came to Mr Bailey’s planning review meant his high level needs were not taken seriously.

When he suffered a second, fatal cardiac incident in his unit on Sunday,
August 11, he still had not been granted around-the-clock care by the NDIA.

“Jack had a really beautiful full life before the NDIS let him down,” Ms Harman said.

In a statement, Mr Bailey’s parents said for years the NDIS enabled their son to live his “absolute best life”, but ultimately failed to provide the support he needed leading up to his death.

The NDIA did not respond by deadline. On Friday a request for a response was also sent to Mr Shorten’s office.

it's not rorting it if they're using it as its intended to be. it's obviously a completely retarded idea that was always going to waste a lot of money right from the start on frivolous and questionable stuff, but you should change the language by which you criticise it

philperth2010 wrote on Aug 26^th, 2024 at 9:36am:


So, why doesn't Albanese and the ALP cancel AUKUS?

Surely the previous government didn't sign Australia up for something that would cost hundreds of billions of dollars without some sort of 'escape clause'?

They couldn't have been that stupid, could they? Oh, wait... 

Of course, if there is an 'escape clause' no doubt it would cost Australia a lot of money to cancel the deal (the US would make sure of that) but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be anywhere near 368 billion dollars (which was the last figure I saw... it's probably closer to 400 billion by now).

And besides, what does Australia need these submarines for anyway? To protect us from invasion? Invasion by whom? The Chinese?

The Chinese won't need to even think about invading Australia soon  - with the rate our spineless pollies are selling off the country to them (and others) one bit at a time it won't be long before they own Australia outright.

Andrew Robb takes role with Chinese company that operates Darwin port

Former trade minister accepts position as consultant to the Landbridge Group, whose takeover of the port last year aroused controversy