AUKUS costs ‘give permission to reform NDIS’

A peak disability expert says the added budget pressure of AUKUS now gives the government ‘permission’ to make radical changes to the NDIS.

Professor of autism at the Telethon Kids Institute Andrew Whitehouse. Picture: Colin Murty

The cost of the NDIS is growing by an average $75m every month and jumped by $900m in the year to January, with a peak disability expert saying the added budget pressure of AUKUS now gives the government “permission” to make radical changes to the scheme.

Analysis of monthly data from the agency also showed an average 6000 participants were added to the NDIS each month, leading to total participants increasing by 14 per cent in the year to January.

Between December and January, an extra $200m was spent in monthly NDIS payments, bringing total monthly payments to $2.94bn; the average payment per participant rose from $57,600 to $58,500.

Professor of autism at the Telethon Kids Institute Andrew Whitehouse said the eye-watering price tag of AUKUS provided the government with “permission” needed to look at reforming the scheme and the number of participants – particularly children with autism – being added to the NDIS.

“The simple fact is there are more people within the scheme, including autistic children, than the NDIS ever thought was possible and we need to look at those numbers and realise as a nation we need to reimagine how we provide support to these kids,” he said.

“We must come to the conclusion as a country that the way that we’re providing support at the moment is not sustainable. That data in that regard is irrefutable.

“There is never a better time to do that than now, given all of the budgetary pressures we’re seeing.”

It follows another leading ­autism advocate – Sylvana Mahmic – revealing to The Australian this month that private diagnostic service providers were charging parents more than $5000 for an autism diagnosis to secure a place on the NDIS, with the cost being described as “a guarantee of funding for life” for their child.

Peter Dutton earlier this week indicated he was supportive of “budgetary savings” being made in order to fund AUKUS – due to cost up to $386bn over the next three decades – and quickly pointed to his desire to make the NDIS “more sustainable”.

Opposition NDIS spokesman Michael Sukkar on Wednesday backed the Coalition’s preparedness to see the scheme “strengthened”, urging Labor to be clear on its intentions for the scheme’s ­sustainability ahead of the May budget. “The Coalition is prepared to consider sensible government proposals to strengthen and ensure the scheme’s long-term sustainability,” he said.

People With Disability president Nicole Lee said it was “very concerning” that in conversations about government expenditure or savings, NDIS cost-cutting seemed to be consistently raised.

“Our response to the talk around NDIS cuts to fund programs or acquisitions like AUKUS is this is an outrageous, appalling and disturbing suggestion,” she said. “We fought hard for the NDIS and people with disability shouldn’t have to continue fighting to retain these essential, reasonable and necessary supports. Cutting NDIS funding is non-negotiable.”

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said the Coalition’s comments indicated its desire to slash the supports of the scheme participants.

“It’s disappointing the Liberals are backflipping on their bipartisan support for the NDIS that the Opposition Leader committed to in October,” he said.

Mr Shorten noted Labor was committed to reforming the NDIS to make sure “every dollar gets to the people who need it most”.

“It’s clear changes need to be made to fix the system after a decade of Liberal mismanagement, to get on top of things like provider fraud and waste,” he said.

He stressed that “defence spending comes out of the defence budget” when asked about the AUKUS budgetary pressures.

An independent review of the NDIS will examine the cost of the scheme before reporting back to government in October.