Repeated cost blowouts of the $30 billion-plus National Disability Insurance Scheme have alarmed healthcare and social welfare advocates, who fear other sectors are being forced to suffer funding cuts while the unrestrained NDIS offers a bottomless pit of money.
Hassan Noura, a social welfare economist and former National Disability Insurance Agency executive, criticised the inequity between uncapped funding for the NDIS and the government reducing the number of subsidised mental health appointments.