How will the change of government change the NDIS?
We look into the new Prime Minister’s promises to improve disability services.
There are an estimated 4.4million Australians living with disability, so it was a strategic move for the Labor Party (ALP) to announce its plans for the NDIS as part of their election campaign. They launched a 6-point plan to provide better support for people with disability.
Following the ALP election win, with Anthony Albanese sworn in as Australia’s 31st Prime Minister on Monday, we decided to investigate what this means for future and current NDIS recipients, plus the care providers, professionals, and businesses that support disability services in this article.
But first, some background. The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was introduced into Federal Parliament in November 2012 by Labor Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. The intention of the NDIS was to entitle people with a permanent and significant disability (under the age of 65) to full funding for any reasonable and necessary support related to their disability.
A decade later, the NDIS has suffered from budget cuts, reports of delays in assessing and approving plans for individuals, plus criticisms of wasted spending. Appeals to the Administrative Tribunal have reportedly increased by 400% in recent times.
Bill Shorten, Labor’s Shadow Minister for the NDIS, had been very critical of the recent malaise of the NDIS, and he has been instrumental in the proposed plan to improve the service.
The Labor Government’s Six Point Plan.
Mr Albanese, together with Mr Shorten, released their plan on 19 April 2022. The six key measures include:
Labor will revitalise the National Disability Insurance Agency: Labor will lift the staffing cap at the NDIA, commit to urgently reducing insecure labour hire arrangements, increasing permanent staff at the agency and improving the culture. Labor will also review NDIS design, operation and sustainability.
Stop the waste: Labor will review the excessive use of external lawyers, crack down on criminal activity and fraud, and review the value for money of lucrative consultancy contracts.
Boost efficiency: Streamline the planning process for better initial plans. Fix the planning pathway and appeals to make NDIS decision-making more efficient, fair and investment focused.
Stop the unfair cuts: Labor will introduce an expert review that will guarantee plans will not be arbitrarily cut.
Fixing regional access: Labor will appoint a senior officer within the NDIA to tackle the concerning barriers to service delivery in regional areas of Australia.
Put people back into the NDIS: Labor commits to co-designing changes to the scheme with people with disability and the sector and we will boost the number of people with disability on the board of the NDIA.
Drilling into a little more detail on Point 1, the ALP identified a shortage of 83,000 workers in the sector. Recruitment of permanent qualified staff is clearly a priority. The proposed overhaul promises that the solutions will be evidence-based and are co-designed with people with disability, their families and carers, service providers, and workers.
On Point 2, there has reportedly been up to 10% per cent of the scheme being lost to fraudulent service providers. Closer scrutiny of NDIS Providers is certainly warranted. Reliance on external lawyers has also been expensive, with the agency spending $28 million in just six months on legal fees to fight people with disability appealing for support.
Point 3 supports faster decision making, and this will be one of the most welcome overhauls for people with disability. A more streamlined approvals process will relieve a lot of anxiety and worry for families and recipients of the NDIS.
Point 4 deals with the issue of recipients having their plans cut. The ALP has stated that more transparency around the plans will rebuild trust between the NDIS and the people who rely on it for support.
Improving services delivery in regional Australia is covered in Point 5, although there has been no detail provided yet on how this might be practically achieved.
Point 6 is a commitment to involve more people with disability to contribute to change management and planning, including at board level. This is a very welcome initiative. Having people with a lived experience of disability seems a vital step in tackling the issues and solutions for a better NDIS.
Glide welcomes any effort to make the NDIS process more streamlined for people with disability. As Australia’s leading manufacturer of manual and powered wheelchairs, Glide is committed to working closely with our customers and supports them through the entire NDIS process.
The Albanese Government is also pledging $1.5 billion to medical manufacturing.
Another election promise, announced on Tuesday 17 May 2022, was to support Australian specialist businesses with a dedicated Medical Manufacturing Fund.
The government funding, along with private investments, would be used to boost domestic manufacturing capacity. The fund’s board would also look at how government purchasing strategies can be used to encourage a local industry.
Glide supports this initiative. As an Australian born, owned and operated business, we have been manufacturing wheelchairs locally for 50 years. We compete with overseas brands continually and proudly win on our reputation for quality and value. However, we would welcome any opportunities for Australian manufacturers to be preferred suppliers to federal government.
In conclusion.
The NDIS was such an important initiative when introduced in 2012, but it needs ongoing government support from all sides of politics to continue providing the quality of life and independence it was designed to deliver.
The promised six point plan is well-considered, so we sincerely hope that the Albanese Government will bring these intentions to action.
