Latest news with #JulianHill
The Guardian
3 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Kathy has terminal cancer and cares for her son with a profound disability. At a crisis point, his NDIS funding ran out
Next to the bed Steven Rieger spends most his life in is a framed print that says: 'This is my happy place.' For him, it is – his small room on the eastern outskirts of Melbourne is covered in Collingwood paraphernalia and basked in warm light. Steven, 37, needs round-the-clock care. He lives with cerebral palsy, is nonverbal and suffers from seizures – natural light can trigger them so he spends almost all of his time in his room. His parents are both in their 70s – his father Rodger has had several strokes and is partly deaf. His mother, Kathy, who has cared for him most of his life, is dying – her breast cancer has metastasised, spreading to her bones and brain. In March, the family lost their national disability insurance scheme (NDIS) funding, and Steven's paid carers felt obliged to work for free – the family could not cope by themselves. They had been overspending on their plan, but the family say they were underfunded for their care needs. When the money ran out they panicked. Steven's sister Kylie started a GoFundMe and Kathy rang their local member of parliament, Julian Hill. They have now been put on a plan that provides 10 hours of care a day, but they need more. 'It was almost three weeks where there was no funding,' Kathy says. 'The carers that do look after Steven were nice enough to still come in here, but they weren't getting paid. They were doing their normal shifts but without pay.' Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Advocates say participants have become collateral damage as the NDIS goes through massive changes, with many plans expiring and reviews dragging on. They say crucial funding is not getting where it needs to go. In January, Kathy had started preparing everything for the annual review of Steven's plan. As she was getting sicker she knew they needed to be funded for 15 hours of care a day. 'It was very stressful for me,' she says. 'I was getting things organised … and hoping the funding wouldn't run out, but it did. 'We started calling NDIS a few weeks before this funding was going to run out, and they said it wouldn't run out. They said they would escalate [the case] every time.' The family say they now owe around $15,000 to carers for the three weeks of work. Twice a day, Steven is lifted into a chair and fed through a drip. El Gibbs, CEO of the Disability Advocates Network Australia, says the NDIS is delaying plan renewals for so long, people run out of personal funds. 'We had a meeting a few weeks ago, and all our members reported a 50% or more increase in their waiting list for help with AAT [administrative appeals tribunal] appeals, where people with disability and their families are fighting for the support that they need,' Gibbs says. Under the changes, NDIS plans are meant to automatically continue if the review has not taken place yet. Because the Riegers were asking to increase Steven's care hours, their plan ran out. The last quarterly reports show an increase in participants taking their review decision to the AAT, with the number of new cases as a proportion of active participants increasing from 0.66% in the March 2023 quarter to 1.05% in the March 2025 quarter. Gibbs says the delays mean people in crisis are falling through the cracks, as is the case for the Riegers – Steven's funding running out while Kathy is dying worsens the family's situation. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'Our disability support system has to be able to meet them where they are,' Gibbs says. 'If a family goes through a crisis, and informal supports aren't there any more then, of course, the NDIS needs to step in and do it quickly and make sure a terrible situation isn't made harder.' Gibbs says vulnerable families should not be accruing debt to get the right care and the massive reforms to the NDIS need to be more clearly communicated. 'At the moment, the changes are often rushed and harsh, and the communication about them isn't clear to people with disability, to families, to support coordinators,' she says. 'So it is really hard for everyone to understand what is happening and to have a clear pathway about what comes next.' A spokesperson for the National Disability Insurance Agency said its priority was 'ensuring every participant, like Steven, has access to the disability-related supports they require'. 'The agency continues to work with Steven and his parents regarding his future needs. 'When a participant's circumstances change a request for an early plan reassessment can be requested. The agency cannot make decisions to change a participant's plan without being provided appropriate evidence.' Jenny McAllister, the minister for the NDIS, was contacted for comment. An occupational therapist report to possibly increase Steven's care to 15 hours a day is set for three weeks' time, but Kathy is struggling. 'I physically can't care for Steven any more,' she says. 'With extremely high needs like Steven's, there shouldn't be a review in their plan. They're not going to get better. There's no change. 'They're not going to wake up one day and go, 'Oh, hi Mum, I'm all good. I'm going to work now.''
AU Financial Review
22-05-2025
- Politics
- AU Financial Review
Are overseas student caps back on the government's agenda?
The Albanese government's new assistant minister for international education Julian Hill has refused to rule out another attempt to cap foreign student enrolments, saying 'we are not going to back off managing the numbers'. 'If anyone thinks the government is just going to give up on managing international education, they've got rocks in their head,' Hill said.
Daily Mail
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
This photo shows a Labor MP happily hanging out with locals at the local tennis club... Here's where he REALLY was when he posted this image
A jet-setting Labor MP flew abroad on five occasions in just seven months on trips that cost the taxpayer thousands of dollars - but curiously posted photos on social media taken in his constituency while overseas. Julian Hill, the MP for Bruce in Melbourne 's south east, took five trips to nine countries between October 2023 and April last year, according to his Register of Interests and Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA) records. Mr Hill billed taxpayers $33,000 to visit Paris, Dublin, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen in September 2023. But he is yet to publicly disclose on his IPEA records how much he charged taxpayers to attend Inter-Parliamentary Union events in Angola in October 2023 and Switzerland in March 2024. While the costs for trips to Taiwan and Singapore were covered by their respective governments, it is Mr Hill's social media use while away that is most eyebrow raising. On 25th October 2023, while he was in Angola with Milton Dick MP, Senator Deborah O'Neill, Warren Entsch MP, and Senator Linda Reynolds, Mr Hill posted a photo of himself at Nossal High School in his electorate. Then, on 2nd November 2023, while he was in Singapore, Mr Hill posted a photo of himself at Doveton Tennis Club. On 25th March 2024, while he was in Switzerland, Mr Hill posted a photo of himself at a Holi celebration. And then, on April 9, while he was in Taiwan, Mr Hill posted a picture with staff at Mission Australia in Dandenong. A government spokesperson did not comment on Mr Hill's social media posts. 'All costings of Mr Hill's trip as a delegate of the Inter Parliamentary Union have been recorded appropriately in Parliamentarian expense reports, as has other members of the cross-parliamentary delegation,' the spokesperson said. Mr Hill took all these trips as a backbencher, before his appointment as Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs in July 2024. In June last year, he criticised Opposition Leader Peter Dutton for charging taxpayers $23,000 to fly from Canberra to Tamworth via private jet to attend a bush summit. 'Lucky Tamworth, they got $23,000 worth of Peter Dutton's anger and negativity,' he said. For the trip to Taipei, which was paid for by the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Hill declared various small gifts he had received. 'Teacup, glass, tea, coffee, sweets, key ring, pen and legislative yuan badge,' his statement of registrable interests notes. Meanwhile, his entire week-long trip to Singapore to participate in the S R Nathan Fellowship was covered by the republic's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is understood that Mr Hill attends sometimes upwards of 15 events in the community each week. The Labor frontbencher was the target of a homophobic campaign two weeks ago when a couple of offensive banners were hung from an overpass bridge in Dandenong. One said: 'LGBTQ+ means more to Julian Hill than you the people', while the other falsely stated: 'Julian Hill MP – more worried about his husband than his constituents'. Mr Hill is gay and in a relationship but he is not married. The banners triggered a police investigation and criticism from all sides of politics. Mr Hill told the Guardian that the culprits resort to 'these sorts of smears as they've got nothing positive to say'. 'I always have and always will stand up for everyone in the Bruce electorate, no matter their faith, ethnicity or who they are,' Mr Hill added.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Grim reality as election turns to chaos
Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese face an uphill battle on Saturday as they race to get their campaigns back on message ahead of their official campaign launches this weekend. The federal election campaign was thrown into disarray on Friday after bombshell news a 16-year-old boy had been charged over an alleged terror plot that reportedly targeted Mr Dutton. Both the Opposition Leader and the Prime Minister were peppered with questions about The Australian's report, forcing them to give up valuable time in front of the nation's media to address the issue. Mr Albanese added to the chaos by revealing he also was allegedly targeted in an offence he said remained before the courts, while Mr Dutton used the moment to show a more human side, telling reporters his first thoughts upon hearing the news were for the safety of his family. The story highlighted a major issue facing this year's federal election. Just days before the election was called, Australian Federal Police commissioner Reece Kershaw revealed threats against Australian politicians and dignitaries had nearly doubled in the past two years. Mr Kershaw said the threats and reports of harassment, nuisance and offensive communications had almost doubled from 555 in the 2021-22 financial year to 1009 in 2023-24. As of February 28 this year, there had been 712 reports, with the number of threats this year expected to surpass last year's figures. Giving an update on investigations to a Senate Estimates committee on March 27, Mr Kershaw said six men had been charged across five separate incidents for allegedly threatening parliamentarians in the six weeks prior. One man was also charged for allegedly threatening a political organisation, with the men aged between 29 to 64. The chaos did not stop there, with Victorian Police tasked on Friday with removing hateful and homophobic banners placed in the electorate of gay Labor MP Julian Hill. Officers were called to Hemmings Park bridge overpass, which runs over Princes Hwy, on Friday, before processing the scene and removing banners. Police were then advised of further incidents where banners had been displayed in various locations, including in Casey and Cardinia local government areas. One of the banners, which was hung in Mr Hill's home electorate of Bruce, which he holds by a margin of only 5.3 per cent, said: 'Julian Hill MP – more worried about his husband than his constituents.' The banner, which contained a rainbow flag, did not appear to include an official campaign endorsement and was also attached to public property. Another stated: 'LGBTQ+ means more to Julian Hill than you the people.' The banners were slammed as 'disgraceful' by both major parties, and investigations by Victoria Police are continuing. More to come
