Inclusion in action in 2024

Achieve Australia is supporting efforts to create a truly inclusive Australia. In 2024, we increased our advocacy engagement with government as part of our passion for inclusion and our purpose to support people with disability to build extraordinary lives.  

Turning the NDIS Review into reality 

This year we focused on turning the ambition of the NDIS Review into action. We showed governments how they can put people with disability at the heart of a truly inclusive system and continued to build decision makers’ understanding of what social inclusion looks like in action. 

We saw the NDIS Review as the end of the beginning in our reform journey and looked for opportunities to elevate the voices of people with disabilities, bringing creativity and energy to this process. 

DSOA advocacy 

Achieve continues to advocate with like-minded organisations for changes to the Disability Support for Older Australians (DSOA) program. This program provides care and support for people who were receiving state-managed specialist disability services prior to the introduction of the NDIS but who were over 65 at the time of its roll out. 

We engaged regularly with decision makers as part of the Department of Health and Aged Care’s review of DSOA and 2024-25 Budget. 

We are continuing to push for urgent changes that would ensure DSOA provides an equitable social model of support. We want to see a model that enables people to choose the types of support they need, where they live and who they live with. To learn more, read our DSOA submission. 

Sharing our passion and purpose with decision makers 

Achieve continues to show decision makers how the NDIS works in practice, enabling people with disability to live extraordinary lives. 

We invited our federal MP Sally Sitou (Member for Reid) to visit our Newington enterprises which employ outstanding people with disabilities. This included our ‘pack and send’ operation Achievable Enterprises, and our retailer of pre-loved sewing and haberdashery The Sewing Basket.  

Sally met the people who make these operations such a success and saw how Achieve creates genuinely inclusive employment.  

These visits show the depth of passion and inclusion that Achieve’s services offer our employees, volunteers and customers. 

Social inclusion in action 

We have never waited for governments to act, and we are not waiting now. Our founders were a group of parents who wanted something far better for their children than the limited options available in 1952. They forged a path to inclusion across accommodation, education, and training that was truly innovative for that time.   

We are also passionate about showing how service providers can adopt new practices that promote inclusion. Our 2024 DSC NDIS Conference panel shared how people with disability (both staff and clients) are empowered to advocate for positive changes through our Quality Champions program. This puts the principle of ‘nothing about us without us’ into practice. 

In 2025, we will continue to invest in innovation and dismantling barriers to inclusion, as well as supporting the next phase of major NDIS reform. The programs and services we invest in show how we can fulfill the promise of the NDIS.