Exactly how the government will curb its spending for the rapidly growing National Disability Insurance Scheme remains up for debate as the health minister concedes “significant reform” is needed.
What this reform looks like and how the government will overhaul the way it funds Australia’s disability services could be outlined as soon as next month in Labor’s upcoming federal budget.
Health Minister Mark Butler refused on Friday to rule out introducing means testing as pressure grows to rein in the “out of control” spending.
But he did acknowledge fundamental changes would be needed to rein in its spiralling cost, which is growing at more than 10 per cent a year and well above the government’s target of between five and six per cent.
The scheme is expected to cost more than $50 billion this financial year and is projected to cost more than $100 billion annually within the next decade.
Earlier this week, some Labor MPs called for a wholesale redesign.
Tasmanian Labor senator Helen Polley urged colleagues to consider means testing the scheme, suggesting recipients who can afford it should be required to pay a co-contribution.
A similar approach has been introduced for aged care providers.
Victorian Labor senator and former infectious diseases physician Michelle Ananda-Rajah also raised concerns over money “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 the NDIS has gone from something that had vulnerable people at its heart … to something that seems to be getting really rotten at its core,” she said.
“And there is so much rorting going on within the system and the people that are suffering besides the Australian taxpayer are these really vulnerable people.”
Amid talk of reform, disability advocates say the disability community is struggling with the uncertainty.
“When reforms are framed around reducing growth rather than improving outcomes, it creates a sense that people themselves are the problem – and that’s deeply unsettling,” People With Disability Australia acting chief executive Megan Spindler-Smith wrote on social media platform X.
While remaining open to the scheme being made more financially sustainable, advocates say the overhaul shouldn’t come at the expense of critical services for vulnerable Australians.
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