Put $1bn into NDIS workforce or fall flat on reforms, union tells Labor
The Health Services Union is putting a $1bn hurdle in front of Labor’s NDIS reforms to move autistic children off the scheme.
The Health Services Union is putting a $1bn hurdle in front of Labor’s NDIS reforms, telling the Albanese government it must commit to a new compact to stem the carers workforce crisis if it has any hope of enacting its proposed changes to the $46bn scheme.
In the wake of Health and Disability Minister Mark Butler’s announcing eligibility to the scheme will change and a new $2bn system of services outside the NDIS will be set up for autistic children, unions and providers will meet in Canberra to discuss the looming exodus of workers from the disability sector.
The summit – titled “the NDIS workforce crisis” – will take place as the HSU releases data showing that over the past three weeks alone, more than 60 per cent of surveyed members had either already left the sector or were intending to.
A further 71 per cent said shortages had impacted their ability to provide the care they would want for a loved one, 62 per cent reported burnout and 72 per cent said the workforce was not large enough or stable enough for current and future needs.
HSU national secretary Lloyd Williams said that without major government investment, the workforce would continue to contract, making Labor’s ambitious NDIS reforms near impossible.
“None of it works without workforce,” he told The Australian.
“The problem that we’re finding is that the government’s done a terrific job in supporting aged-care workers in terms of dealing with those challenges that we had with the employment standards for them. The government has invested in early childcare educators, but there’s been no investment in the NDIS workforce. It is really unfinished business that we’re now starting to see people saying, ‘well, I’m not sure if I’m just going to stay now’.”
The HSU’s workforce warnings are the latest challenge for Mr Butler, as he seeks to corral the Senate and the premiers to support his plans to save the NDIS and rescue the budget from the disability scheme’s cost blowouts.
Mr Williams said employers and employees were frustrated by the inability to enter meaningful wage negotiations, because the NDIS was funded and based on the minimum wage award.
“No providers are able to use the bargaining system to bargain above it because they’re simply not funded,” he said.
To change this, the union movement is demanding a $1bn pool of commonwealth funding to serve as a new “worker compact” that will allow employers to increase wages and also invest in areas such as supervision and training.
“We’re calling for an effective pool that’s equivalent to $5 (wage increase) an hour, and then providers would bargain with employees through the unions to determine how much of that should go to wages, how much of it should go to professional development and supervision and supporting people in the workplace,” he said.
A Labor spokesman said the Albanese government was “securing the future of the NDIS” through its policies and would “continue working with participants, providers and the disability support workers who help the most vulnerable people in our community to make sure that the NDIS is sustainable over the long term”.
The HSU pointed to Department of Social Services data in 2021 that predicted 500,000 participants would require support from 353,000 workers by the end of 2024.
However, data released earlier this year showed there were 311,000 full-time equivalent disability workers.
The intervention by the peak health, disability and education unions followed the ACTU refusing to endorse or oppose the NDIS reforms announced by Mr Butler last week, arguing that consultation was needed with members before a position was finalised.
Labor is also facing pressure from the Greens over the changes, which will see a new NDIS annual growth target of 4-6 per cent pursued by the government.
Greens disability spokesman Jordon Steele-John said the proposal to shift children with mild to moderate autism off the scheme from 2027 – once the $2bn Thriving Kids program is in place to support them – was discriminatory.
“Autistic people are already experiencing poorer mental health, and they are already three to four times more likely to die by suicide,” he said.
“The so-called replacement programs are flawed. The government is pointing to programs such as Inklings and Thriving Kids. Inklings is designed for babies aged six to 18 months, and already we have raised serious concerns about transparency and practice.
“Thriving Kids is a last-minute curveball without evidence to back it. A few medical appointments cannot replace lifelong disability supports.”
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