Minister accuses states of exaggerating NDIS criticism
Criticism of changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme by states and territories has been exaggerated, says the minister overseeing the plan.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said on Sunday he was unlikely to walk away from the reforms despite disapproval from the disability sector and state and territory disability ministers.
Around 160,000 people will be removed from the NDIS and transferred to other government-run support programs as part of changes designed to reduce the cost of the $56 billion plan.
But in an application Senate investigation State and territory disability ministers reviewing the reforms said jurisdictions were not prepared and many NDIS participants would be left stranded.
Mr Butler said the judiciary’s criticism was exaggerated.
“There is some downtime in this process,” he told ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.
“This was an outstanding presentation, given the clear commitments Prime Ministers signed a few months ago and in return the Commonwealth will provide $25 billion in additional funding for hospitals.
“The community now expects all governments to get on with the job of delivering better hospital services and an NDIS that is secure for the long term.”
The government was criticized for the length of the three-day Senate inquiry; The industry was concerned that the changes were being rushed.
Labor has said it hopes the changes will be passed by the upper house before parliament meets for the winter recess on July 2.
Mr Butler said major adjustments to the NDIS overhaul were not expected following the investigation.
“The direction of travel, the need to make major changes that will secure this incredibly important social program for the future, I believe is the right direction of travel,” he said.
“I fully believe this is the right plan for the NDIS and the hundreds of thousands of people it supports.”
Disabled Australians could lose critical support, face social isolation and even die because of the changes, the inquiry was told.
Mr. Butler tried to allay concerns.
“(The NDIS) has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Australians for the better and I completely understand why they are desperately worried about committing to this reform,” he said.
“I’m extremely worried about doing this myself.
“I want to reassure them that this will be the biggest social program Australia has ever had outside of aged pensions.”
The Senate inquiry will deliver its final report on the changes on Tuesday.
Opposition leader Phillip Thompson, whose daughter is on the NDIS, said the government was focusing too much on the dollar amount saved.
“They really make you feel like your loved one is an inappropriate dollar figure in the government’s budget,” he told Sky News.
Australia’s Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national news channel and has been providing accurate, reliable and fast-paced news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We inform Australia.
