Minister backs off ‘supports’ deadline

Labor is unlikely to meet its ­original time frame of rolling out a new system of services for people with milder disabilities not eligible for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Health Minister Mark Butler. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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Labor is unlikely to meet its ­original time frame of rolling out a new system of services for people with milder disabilities not eligible for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

 Mark Butler, the minister now responsible for the NDIS, has sought to distance himself from the July 1 “foundational supports” deadline committed to by Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten.

Despite the Prime Minister last month responding to the question of whether Labor was on track to meet the July 1 deadline by claiming “that’s certainly the engagement that we have with state and territory governments”, Health and NDIS Minister Mr Butler on Monday said he ­expected to finalise negotiations “over the course of the … year”.

“The finalisation of foundational support arrangements and the finalisation of a multi-year hospital funding agreement are all tied together and I think all governments have recognised that interconnection of those processes,” he said.

“The position I outlined before the election remains the case. We are working to a timeline of finalising those negotiations … over the course of the rest of the year. That has been discussed between the Prime Minister and premiers and chief ministers.”

Asked if the message to take back to disability advocates was that the July 1 deadline would not be met, Mr Butler said the “published transcript” of his Monday comments would be available for anyone who needed clarity.

Mr Butler’s predecessor as NDIS minister, Mr Shorten, made clear quickly after passing the once-in-a-generation NDIS reforms in August that foundational supports would begin a phased rollout from July 1, but the then social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, sought to walk away from that start date.

In an interview with The Australian in February, Ms Rishworth made clear that since being handed responsibility to head up the implementation of foundational supports, she had never committed to the July 1 deadline.

Questions over the design of foundational supports – to be funded on a 50-50 basis between the commonwealth and states and territories – have ramped up over the course of the year, with peak bodies decrying the lack of detail around the new system.

Advocates have also raised alarm that NDIS participants were increasingly receiving letters from the disability agency informing them that they needed to have their plans reassessed, resulting in thousands having their plans later revoked.

Despite supporting the idea that the $40bn NDIS can’t be “the only lifeboat in the ocean” for the millions of Australians with disabilities, advocates have criticised the fact that those kicked off the scheme so far have not been able to access the promised system of foundational supports designed to assist those with less complex needs.

Children and Young People with Disability Australia said “without foundational supports in place, CYDA is concerned this will leave children and young people without adequate services if they no longer meet criteria for NDIS eligibility”.

Mr Butler assured the disability community there had been “no change to eligibility” for the NDIS, echoing the position of the NDIA, which has defended the thousands of reassessment letters sent out to participants as simply being a result of better resourcing within the agency.

Negotiations between states and territories and the commonwealth on foundational supports is taking place alongside the bid to strike an agreement on long-term public hospital funding.

Mr Butler said the fact he now had oversight of both negotiations – thanks to changes enacted as part of the Prime Minister’s post-election cabinet reshuffle – would give states a “single point of contact” and hopefully expedite agreements on both issues.