AFI has made a submission to the Australian Government’s consultation on reform of the National Disability Advocacy Program (NDAP). Our submission welcomes the intent to strengthen and modernise disability advocacy, but emphasises that reform must recognise advocacy as essential public infrastructure and ensure it remains disability-led, locally grounded and sustainably funded.
Independent advocacy is essential to preventing abuse, neglect and exploitation. It enables people with disability to assert their rights, challenge decisions and navigate increasingly complex service systems. However, advocacy cannot be reduced to individual casework alone. Individual matters consistently reveal systemic failures across housing, health, justice, education and the NDIS. AFI is calling for explicit protection and dedicated funding of systemic advocacy so that patterns of harm are addressed at their source rather than simply managed at crisis point.
Local Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) bring lived experience leadership, cultural legitimacy and community trust that cannot be replicated through administrative consolidation. Reform must not unintentionally weaken smaller disability-led organisations through consortia or centralised models that privilege scale over local knowledge and trust.
We also highlight the need for proactive outreach to people who cannot self-refer, including those in institutional settings, under guardianship or experiencing homelessness or coercion. If it proceeds, a national access function or helpline must operate on a “no wrong door” basis, provide warm referrals, and strengthen – not displace – local expertise.
Finally, AFI calls for sustainable indexed funding, trauma-informed workforce support, culturally safe practice embedded across the system, and monitoring frameworks that measure real impact.
With these safeguards in place, advocacy reform will deliver a stronger, safer and genuinely disability-led national system.
You can read the full submission below.