Dr. Aideen Hartney:

Every Department is required to have a DCC and they would have met quarterly. The NDA would have attended those meetings along with members of the DSG. For the most part, they fell into abeyance when the strategy expired. There are a couple of Departments that have disability forums or groups and they have continued to meet. They are discussing more generally the disability dimension of the services the Department would offer. They are not necessarily tying that to actions that were committed under the NDIS, so there is a gap there. We welcome the fact that some Departments have dedicated groups to look at this area. It is a good step towards inclusion. However, they are not meeting and the steering group for the NDIS is not meeting. I am not an apologist for the Department at all in any way, but I think the officials perhaps felt that the groups and the personalities in the groups would be meeting very regularly anyway in order to develop the new UNCRPD implementation strategy as part of that process. There was a feeling that we would move to that track rather than continuing on the steering group meetings. We absolutely acknowledge that it leaves a gap.

With regard to a timeline, I hope the strategy will be ready by the end of this year and I think recent consultation events mean that more time will need to be taken. I think there is still an intention and a hope to have it as early as possible in 2024. We in the NDA feel there is a delicate balancing act. We no more than anyone else would very much like to see a strategy developed and published, and monitoring structures in place. However, if that strategy is seen as being developed in a tokenistic or tick-box way, it will not have the buy-in of anyone. It would not be starting from a good place and from a position of being as aligned with the convention as it could be. We feel that it is probably worth taking that little bit extra time to get it right from the start. The challenge is how to do that without losing further momentum.