NDIS overhaul uncertainty ‘deeply unsettling’
Exactly how the government will restrict spending on the fast-growing National Disability Insurance Scheme continues to be debated, with the health minister admitting “significant reform” is needed.
What that reform will look like, and how the government will overhaul the way Australia funds disability services, could be outlined in Labour’s upcoming federal budget next month.
Health Secretary Mark Butler on Friday refused to rule out introducing means testing as pressure grows to rein in “out of control” spending.
But he acknowledged fundamental changes would be needed to rein in the cost, which is growing at more than 10 per cent a year, well above the government’s target of five to six per cent.
The plan is expected to cost more than $50 billion this fiscal year and is expected to cost more than $100 billion annually over the next decade.
Earlier this week some Labor MPs called for a wholesale redesign.
Tasmanian Labor Senator Helen Polley urged her colleagues to consider ways to test the scheme and suggested recipients who can afford it should be required to pay co-contributions.
A similar approach has been implemented for aged care providers.
Victorian Labor senator and former infectious diseases doctor Michelle Ananda-Rajah also expressed concern that money was being “wasted on unsustainable, poorly managed programs like the NDIS”.
Opposition NDIS spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh accused the government of being in disarray over the issue.
“My concern is that the NDIS is changing from something that has vulnerable people at its heart to something that looks really rotten at its core,” he said.
“There’s a lot of corruption going on in the system, and the people who are suffering, as well as Australian taxpayers, are really vulnerable people.”
Amid talk of reform, disability advocates say the disability community is struggling with uncertainty.
People With Disability Australia chief executive Megan Spindler-Smith wrote on social media platform
While advocates are open to making the scheme more financially sustainable, they say the overhaul should not come at the expense of critical services for vulnerable Australians.
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