The funding of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has received mixed industry response following the release of the Federal Budget 2021/2022, with advocates expecting “inevitable” cost-cutting measures.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced the Federal Budget 2021/2022 this week, revealing an additional $13.2 billion for the NDIS over four years. The announcement came after the government provided a further $3.9 billion for the scheme in the previous budget.
NDIS Minister Linda Reynolds expected “hard discussions” revolving around the sustainability of the scheme's current funding model, with the budget forecasted to cost the Commonwealth over $30 billion by 2024/2025, The Examiner reported.
However, National Disability Services (NDS), the peak industry body for disability services organisations in Australia, stated that the industry should have expected the figure as it was forecasted in a 2017 Productivity Commission report.
Launceston-based disability consultant Jane Wardlaw stated that the scheme was not implemented in the way that it was designed.
“The scheme itself was meant to be a three-tiered system. Because, when all is said and done, the capacity-building component of the NDIS has not been invested into or built the way it should have been,” Wardlaw added, as reported by The Examiner.
As a result, Wardlaw said some type of cost-cutting and cost-controlling measures is inevitable.
“I think we need to resign ourselves to that fact,” she said. “I welcome the budget, personally. I welcome the idea, from a glance, that there has been some investment into some mainstream services like mental health and so forth. But I want those organisations to lift their game about being better service providers to people with disability.”
NDS chief executive David Moody is calling on government officials to “drop the politics” when discussing the NDIS and forego “media headline comparisons to Medicare.”
“At the moment, we are hearing scary talk about a scheme in danger, which is unsettling for people with disability and inconsistent with the Productivity Commission's outlook from 2017,” Moody said, as reported by The Examiner.
“Our ask now is that the government and [National Disability Insurance Agency] commit to constructive conversations with NDS, our members, and other disability sector stakeholders to help develop solutions to any concerns the NDIA or minister has.”
