Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks, Senator Gichuhi, for the question. I'm pleased to advise colleagues that during the June 2018 quarter the NDIS reached a major milestone: over 180,000 Australians with disability now receive life-changing support, with over 54,000 people receiving supports for the first time. Delivering this important reform to improve outcomes for Australians with significant and permanent disability will inevitably involve some challenges, but the important thing is to address issues quickly as they arise. The National Disability Insurance Agency is rolling out a range of improvements to enhance the experience of participants and also service providers. The schedule is being finalised with states and territories.

The improvements include a stronger focus on community, mainstream, informal and employment supports during pre-planning; face-to-face plan-implementation meetings; and improvements to participant and provider portals. It's worth noting that 188 people with disability and carers, 76 providers and 124 frontline staff have contributed to the pathway review through workshops and individual interviews. The agency held 37 workshops across the country, and more than 1,100 people attended these. The workshops focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the remote and very remote communities, complex support needs, psychosocial disability and early-childhood intervention. The feedback has directly influenced the NDIS pathway reforms. Additionally, the NDIA will hire 750 additional staff in 2018-19 and provide targeted training to 6,000 planners and frontline staff to further support the reform of the work.