Butler urges states to ‘get on’ with NDIS overhaul
Health Secretary Mark Butler has called on states to step up and deliver services for the one in five people set to be kicked off the NDIS as part of the biggest overhaul in the programme’s history.
The Labor frontrunner also sought to reassure disabled Australians, insisting that the development of new eligibility standards (based on degree of disability rather than diagnosis) would be done in consultation with the community.
The government is overhauling the country’s primary disability support network to drastically reduce growth and remove at least 160,000 people from the scheme by the end of the decade, the disability and NDIS minister announced on Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, Butler said he had a positive meeting with state and territory disability ministers following his National Press Club address to discuss how best to implement the changes.
Non-NDIS supports, which have dried up as the Commonwealth scheme expands, will need to be reintroduced by states and territories for people with less severe needs who will not be eligible for the scheme. The new eligibility test will come into force from 2028.
Butler said $10 billion has already been allocated for this purpose, including the Thriving Kids program for children ages eight and under.
“In 2023, [premiers] allocated the money. Prime Ministers re-signed the national cabinet agreement a few months ago and in return we are providing them with $25 billion in additional funding for their hospitals,” Butler told Sky News.
He said Thriving Kids is in development, but now programs for the rest of the population need to be developed.
“I am absolutely committed to continuing in this role, and ultimately I know my colleagues will do the same.”
Western Australian Premier Roger Cook said on Wednesday he wished he had received a confidential briefing before the changes were announced, while NSW Premier Chris Minns said the states would not be able to provide “similar” support.
“The states are working with the Commonwealth on reforming the whole NDIS system, taking on more of the essential supports and ensuring young people in particular can get the supports they need,” Cook told reporters.
“But it’s a Commonwealth program so we don’t want to pay for it.”
Butler said the changes would be developed in consultation with the community to provide relief to families distressed by the changes.
“Absolutely ‘nothing about us without us’ is the core philosophy of the NDIS,” Butler told ABC TV.
Brisbane mother Laura Lucas, whose child is on the NDIS, questioned whether the changes would improve the efficient management of public money.
He said annual re-evaluations to stay in the program were a waste.
“We have a lot of disabled people whose disabilities are permanent. There’s no need for constant reporting that costs thousands of dollars annually to prove their disability, to justify their funding. Like, if you can actually achieve this, you’ll save a lot of money to start with.”
Butler said Wednesday that unscheduled reassessments will cease immediately, but it remains unclear how often reassessments will be required under the new eligibility standards.
Allan Fels, president of Mind Australia and former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chief executive who has a daughter with schizophrenia in the NDIS, said on Thursday the changes struck the right balance to keep the program sustainable but warned mental illness should not be ignored in new eligibility standards.
“In the case of psychosocial disability or mental illness, generally the NDIS approach is predominantly geared towards physical and mental disability, so we hope the new assessment method will accurately assess mental health,” he told the ABC. RN Breakfast.
Opposition NDIS spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh said the Coalition was open to supporting reform while attacking Butler for failing to crack down hard enough on fraud in the scheme.
McIntosh said the opposition would support mandatory registration for all providers, not just some providers.
Meanwhile, one of the plan’s architects said the original NDIS was too optimistic, too rushed and needed to be reset.
Martin Laverty, who is also managing director of disability support provider Aruma, said the political agreement to set up the scheme in 2013 happened so quickly that there was no detailed consideration of who might qualify and what the scheme should fund.
“What we have now today is a reset,” he said RN Breakfast.
Laverty, who is also a director of the National Disability Insurance Agency, said people with the most significant and permanent disabilities, a group of around 550,000 according to government modelling, “will be able to receive an assurance that their eligibility for the scheme will continue into the future” as the scheme is reduced for less severe support needs.
However, he said in-depth consultation with the industry was needed to understand the details correctly, and pointed out the reluctance of states that have accepted Thriving Kids in principle but are not yet members, especially Queensland.
“This will be uncertain until we see the legislation that defines how the functional capacity assessment tool will work.”
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Brittany Busch is the federal politics correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
