States have role to play in service delivery

Returning the NDIS to its original intent of caring for Australians with severe disabilities is the most significant single budget reform the Albanese government needed to take. The process is essential for taxpayers and for the severely disabled who rely on the NDIS, and, ultimately, should benefit children with mild to moderate autism. On Saturday, disability advocates and parents welcomed the change as sensible and practical. Western Sydney mother Jenny Lai, whose toddler son Henry has Down syndrome and is on the NDIS, told The Australian the reforms create an opportunity for local, community-led support systems. “It’s a great opportunity to plan and do better for inclusion,” she said.

State governments are apprehensive about the cost of providing services. But NSW Labor MP and paediatrician Mike Freelander said: “If we let the NDIS go and do all things to all people, it will be unaffordable and what it will mean is the kids with severe disability will miss out.”

Part of the problem, Dr Freelander said, was that the states had stopped providing a lot of services in 2014 after the commonwealth established the NDIS.

The current situation, in which almost 300,000 of the scheme’s 740,000 participants have a primary diagnosis of autism, is untenable. About 43 per cent of NDIS participants are aged 14 and younger, with 11 per cent of all five-to-seven-year-olds on the scheme. This includes 16 per cent of six-year-old boys, or one in six. In some regions, it is even up to one in four boys.

The Albanese government is using a pragmatic mix of carrot and stick to prepare for the transition. On Sunday, in a veiled warning to the states, Jim Chalmers made clear they face missing out on billions of dollars in commonwealth hospital funding should they refuse to support the NDIS reforms. Hospital funding, Sarah Ison writes, is intrinsically tied to the NDIS reform package. The Treasurer told the ABC: “As always, with commonwealth-state financial relationships, there is a bit of back-and-forth about how we deliver … There are billions and billions of dollars tied up in (those deals) and so we’ve been trying to progress both … at once, for good reason, because there are swings and roundabouts for both of us.’’

The commonwealth will fund a new $2bn program from July next year, Thriving Kids, to establish services in the states for autistic children who will no longer be eligible for the NDIS. Health Minister Mark Butler expects the states to match that funding. The timetable is fair and reasonable, allowing enough time for the states, service providers and families to adjust.