2017: SUBMISSION: Senate Committee National Disability Strategy 2010-2020

On 1 November 2017, I appeared before the Community Affairs References Committee (Senate Committee) examining the “Delivery of outcomes under the National Disability Strategy 2010-2020 to build inclusive and accessible communities”.

I appeared in my capacity as a National Director of The Australian Information Industry Association, having been the Head of the Technology Authority for the NDIS, and as a person with family with disability.

PDF of the Hansard transcript of the hearing can be read here.

Synopsis of My Testimony

In the policy development and decision-making process…there is a challenge in how awareness is raised regarding high potential and high impact technology and service innovations.

This challenge is a potential barrier to further innovation cycles and the mainstreaming and timely application of these innovations more broadly. 

To give a perspective on technology innovation, jobs growth and accessibility, the impact of technology and innovation on inclusion and accessibility is well known. Humans have always sought to augment their own capacities. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability refers to augmentative and alternative communication, modes and formats of communication of their choice, and for people to receive information and ideas on an equal basis.

The Productivity Commission report on the NDIS in 2011 placed heavy emphasis on an ecosystem of technology innovation as essential to scaling and sustainability of the scheme. This is beyond the administrative operations of the NDIA. The PC's report referred to the anguish in searching for information as confusing. Technology innovation design and data analytics are also key themes of the Productivity Commission inquiry into introducing competition and informed user choice into human services—the Harper review, which noted the increasing demands on services from an ageing population as a driver for innovation in service delivery. Public and private expenditure on human services is significant. The PC estimates almost $300 billion in 2013-14 with demand projected to grow as people live longer, incomes grow and technology breakthroughs increase the range and number of services available to users.

The traditional and templated approaches to service delivery have not worked, and this point is heavily emphasised in the Harper review. Equally, the jobs of the future will be different, augmented by new technologies, and I believe this is of great importance to the scope of this committee and the AIIA.

The NDIS is the first social reform to be based on choice and control, and the various Productivity Commission reports point to others that will potentially follow. All are fundamentally dependent on the adoption of technology innovation and its diffusion throughout the service delivery ecosystem and the economy more broadly. The NDIS assistive technology strategy estimates that when the scheme is fully rolled out in 2019-20 NDIS funded supports for assistive technology will reach $1.06 billion per annum. But what if the market is much larger? If, as the Productivity Commission has estimated, the spending on human services is expected to reach $300 billion per annum, the AT market could potentially be around $4 billion per annum instead of the $1 billion per annum estimated. This market growth opportunity is of significant interest to the AIIA and its members. Spending of this size will accelerate innovation in the AT market in Australia, encouraging investment and the development of emerging solutions.

While history shows that technology has been and continues to be a significant driver of job creation, effort and thought are required to ensure that Australia reaps the benefits of its own innovations to build inclusive and accessible communities.

Equally importantly, Australia should not be shy of the magnificent opportunities and interest that have been sparked globally in the fields of co-design, natural language, artificial intelligence, empathetic systems and service innovation by the remarkable public policy of the NDIS and other user-choice models flagged by the Productivity Commission.