Federal Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) came to Adelaide last week to hear from people with disability about issues in the Scheme.
In the first session of the day, JFA Purple Orange Board Chair Tricia Spargo told Committee members about our deep concerns regarding the future of the NDIS.
She explained that tighter access, narrowed understandings of disability and functional need, reduced individualised supports, and cuts to social and community participation before Foundational Supports are established, will increase the risk of isolation, dependence, and exclusion.
“We agree that waste and fraud must be addressed,” Ms Spargo said. “But Australians with significant and permanent disability should not be made to pay for failures of governance, market stewardship, management, and oversight.
“Participants, their families, and the thousands of honest workers who support them are increasingly bearing the consequences, alongside a damaging public narrative that treats disability support as a financial burden and legitimate need with suspicion.”
Ms Spargo was joined in the session by Interim CEO Tracey Wallace and Interim Strategy Leader Belle Owen, who both highlighted the benefits of the NDIS and the consequences of blunt reforms.
“The NDIS is not a ‘welfare measure’ or a ‘social care scheme’ as those who like to diminish it suggest,” Ms Wallace said. “The NDIS is built on insurance principles. It provides all Australians with assurance that if they or their loved one has disability, or acquires disability, and they meet the eligibility requirements, they should not be institutionalised or abandoned, per practices of the past.
“Disability arises from the widespread barriers that exist in a world not designed to include everyone. The NDIS helps remove or reduce these barriers to enable people with disability to live dignified, meaningful lives in our communities, something that enriches us all.”
Ms Owen raised our concerns about recent reforms that detract from the core Scheme values of choice and control, individualisation, and independence.
“Compounding everything, is the significant reduction in participant’s access to reassessments, reviews, and appeals, despite the fact plans are now less likely to be fit for purpose,” Ms Owen said.
“Participants are forced to ‘trust in the system’ at the very time that ‘trust in the system’ has been decimated. This is why there is so much fear and anxiety in the disability community right now.”
Numerous organisations and providers appeared before the Committee throughout the day, before the hearing concluded with a Lived Experience Panel.
NDIS participant Andrew Gibson described the “emotional labour” of life with disability and navigating a Scheme that increases this load.
“The NDIS can cause an incredible amount of stress in people’s lives,” Mr Gibson explained. “There’s the repeated and ongoing stress, year in, year out, of retelling your story and evidencing and justifying your support needs, and begging for levels of funding.”