Anger over NDIS reform plan limiting ‘choice and control’

Disability advocates, state governments and the Greens have sounded alarm over the level of secrecy surrounding the design of Labor’s landmark NDIS legislation.

The new NDIS amendment bill will provide scope for participants to have a plan of up to five years after proving their eligibility, with funding provided at regular intervals. Artwork: Emilia Tortorella

Disability advocates, Labor premiers and the Greens have raised alarm about the level of secrecy surrounding the design of Labor’s landmark NDIS legislation, raising concerns with changes that are posed to ban certain items being funded by the scheme.

The Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Bill Shorten, unveiled his planned reforms for the scheme on Wednesday, with participants set to be given a set budget and no longer being able to obtain automatic top-ups after they’ve spent their original plan. The new bill will also move to define what can be claimed as an NDIS support and more importantly what can’t be, cleaning up the previous practice of some people looking to claim holidays, whitegoods or utility bills as part of their NDIS package.

However, Greens disability spokesman Jordon Steele-John, who is a member of the disabled community, branded the reforms as “outrageous”.

Senator Steele-John said the intent to give the agency more power over participants, stop the automatic plan top-ups and force participants off self-managed plans if they were mismanaging their funds was “outrageous”.

“The right of somebody to self-manage their plan is critical. This is about choice and control,” he said.

People with Disability Australia and a retired paralympian Marayke Jonkers also raised concern about any limits to participants’ “choice and control”, warning the bid to lay out clear items and services that could not be claimed under the NDIS was dangerous.

She added that the disability community had been left “in the dark” about the legislation until very recently, with those who were aware of the reforms forced to sign non-disclosure agreements.

Queensland Minister for Disability Services Charis Mullen is concerned about secrecy of the bill, which she said was put together “with very little consultation with states and territories and very little consultation with people with disability and the sector”.

“The timeframes for states and territories to review the bill and consider the complexity and impact of the proposed reforms on people with disability have been insufficient,” she said.

Labor’s NDIS changes are aimed at helping address plan inflation, one of the main cost drivers of the $42bn National Disability Insurance Scheme, but the bill does not address what disability services will be moved out of the NDIS in the future under a state-federal deal, so called “foundational supports”.

The new NDIS amendment bill will provide scope for participants to have a plan of up to five years after proving their eligibility, with funding provided at regular intervals.

Setting the framework for new NDIS plans will require more consultation and “co-design” with the disability sector and the states and territories, and it is anticipated this first stage of the new NDIS system won’t be fully operational for another 12 to 18 months.

NDIS minister Bill Shorten said he wanted to assure both NDIS participants and those living with disability outside the scheme that the reforms would not be introduced overnight and finer details would be worked out in consultation with the sector and state governments.

The new bill is silent on the issue of mainstream support for children with milder levels of autism and developmental delay; under a state-federal deal they will be handled outside the NDIS.

Additional reporting: Lydia Lynch