By Karl Hoerr -
Nearly four months after legislation to commence reforms to the National Disability Insurance Scheme entered parliament, the federal government is yet to secure majority support for the bill.
So where do things sit now and what are the prospects of the legislation getting over the line?
Minister for the NDIS Bill Shorten has said the scheme cannot continue growing at the rate it is now, siting projected growth to more than 1 million participants and a cost of up $100 billion a year by 2032.
“We have to take steps to get it back on track,” he told parliament in March.
But the current bill, described as the first tranche of legislative amendments in response to last year’s review of the NDIS, has attracted criticism and stalled for now.
How did we get here?
Helen Dickinson is a Professor of Public Service Research at UNSW. She points to the way the bill was first brought into parliament as being one of the factors.
“It was quite a surprise to a lot of people in the sector when it landed at the end of March. There hadn’t been a usual exposure draft,” she says.
The government has promised to engage in a co-design and consultation process with the disability community, to update the NDIS rules.
“That’s one of the concerns that a few people have had with this, is it actually moves a lot of the decision power out of that primary legislation,” says Dickinson.
Among those resisting the bill has been Greens Spokesperson for Disability Rights and Services, Senator Jordon Steele-John.
“The NDIS has made such a meaningful impact in so many people’s lives and every day Labor’s flawed and damaging policy is not passed and is undergoing proper consultation saves millions of dollars in essential services for disabled people,” he said in June.
Co-design the key
Dickinson says the concessions made so far, have not had the effect desired by the government.
“[T]here’s been some amendments made, but I think largely, people think it hasn’t gone far enough in terms of committing to actually co-designing any policy that’s developed.”
But Dickinson predicts the bill will pass in the end.
“I think there’s a bit of politics being played with it in terms of the coalition. A number of the sorts of things that are set out within this legislation are things that they wanted to do with the scheme when they were in power,” she says.
Misuse of scheme
Dickinson says there is broad agreement about the need for change, but the question is where. She is concerned about the discourse developing around rorts and fraud in the scheme.
“It seems to just be suggesting that people are spending money on flippant or luxury kind of things, where that’s not the reality for most people,” she says.
The NDIS Provider and Worker Registration Taskforce was set up to advise the government on a new ‘risk-proportionate’ regulation model. The taskforce has reported to the minister, but the findings are yet to be publicly released.
The minister has said the changes set out in the proposed legislation will boost the compliance powers of the scheme’s regulator, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.
“The majority of providers are good, decent, hard-working people,” Shorten said in March.
“But we cannot ignore the people who are trying to harm the NDIS…”
