More than 660,000 Australians with lifelong disability depend on the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme). And yet, this critical government program is threatened by uncontrolled cost growth and reputational damage.
Efforts to reform the NDIS and bring costs down to the federal government’s 8 per cent growth target, and maintain public confidence, are vital. However, the draft list of NDIS Supports will not achieve these goals. The lists are incoherent, heavy handed, and, worst of all, inconsistent with the purpose of the NDIS and with larger reforms the scheme needs to be sustainable.
For the sake of public confidence in the NDIS, there may be good reason to create a shortlist of supports that are illegal or at odds with public expectations about the appropriate use of public funds. But trying to codify all supports that are ‘in’ or ‘out’ is a fruitless exercise.
The government should ditch its 17-page list and focus reform efforts on bringing the NDIS back to its original design intent as a world-leading system of self-directed disability support.