Better Start Equality

To the Honourable President and members of the Senate in Parliament assembled:

The petition of the undersigned shows:

Better Start for Children with Disability (Better Start) urgently requires reform. The Better Start policy excludes thousands of Australian children with developmental disabilities in need of early intervention services. These children have comparable early intervention needs and similar developmental disabilities as those with eligible conditions, and many are able to prove the beneficial impact of such treatment.

The inequalities of Better Start must be removed to allow all Australian children with developmental disabilities access to the support they need in the critical early years of development.

Your petitioners ask that the Senate:

Act urgently and effectively to amend the Better Start for Children with Disability policy so that:

• there is no longer inequality of access to effective treatment for Australian children with developmental disabilities;

• the current eligibility criteria is abolished and replaced with a needs-based model whereby eligibility is determined by the functional aspects of the child’s disability, the level of impairment and how the impairment affects the child;

• the policy considers recommendations contained in the current Draft Productivity Commission Report on Disability Care and Support.