Electioneering material is

being stuffed into the letterboxes almost faster than I can drag it out and bin it.

Yes, I bin it. I do not keep it. I look at it but only to see how the lies are mounting up. 

There are the lies about "what we have done" and "what they have not done" and the lies about "what we will do" and more. There are the "promises" that will not be kept.

The mother of the girl who asked me "don't they have to keep their promises?" saw me yesterday. She stopped to thank me - which was nice - but said she was worried. 

We are perhaps worried for different reasons but I could sympathise. The NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) is out of control. It is costing far too much. This woman's daughter does need help. She could perhaps do a simple job like feeding paper into a shredder but many such jobs no longer exist. She needs to be occupied because she is as capable of being bored as anyone else.  The NDIS is not coping with that sort of thing.

It is one of those things which needs to be looked at but to say so is seen as electoral suicide. How dare anyone think of taking away money from a person with a disability. The problem is that money is being provided to some people who do not need it to live with dignity from one day to the next.  Like it or not some people have been getting NDIS money for things that are not essential. 

The other issue is the costs that are being charged. Yesterday my BIL came and put in a grab rail at the front door. It will make using the step there much safer for me and a number of people I know. He used an old grab rail from the previous house that the incoming people said they did not want. The cost to me was nothing but I would happily have bought a grab rail. 

The same thing provided by the NDIS would have cost thousands. It would have had to be requested. Someone would have been sent to assess me. Someone else would have been sent to assess the wall and the placement.  A grab rail would have been bought through an NDIS supplier at a much greater cost than one from the national chain of hardware stores. Then someone else would have been sent to see where it needed to go and, finally, someone would be sent to install it. The whole process would take months and cost thousands. 

"Oh it is the way we have to work," we would have been told.

I bought a small ramp so I can get the trike onto the front porch where it is out of everyone's way and out of the weather as well. I did some research on line. I looked at what the NDIS suppliers were charging - and bought exactly the same item from the national chain of hardware stores for half the price. A friend has just bought herself a new walker. It is the one recommended by her doctor and physiotherapist. They suggested going through NDIS but her need was urgent and they can afford to do it.  It was done at a fraction of the cost of going through NDIS and she has it within three days. She admits she is fortunate that they could do this but it also means she has been able to go back to work immediately.  With NDIS she would have been working from home and being much less efficient. 

These are "little" things in the minds of many but money could be saved. It is taxpayer money and it should be spent wisely and responsibly - but it is not the sort of thing election material tells you about.