National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024

Submission 181

e-mail: seniorclerk.committees.sen@aph.gov.au Senate Review National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024

12 July 2024 Submission to the Senate Review. Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1 Bill 2024

Dear Senators,

I am the father and carer of a 52 year old man who is a Participant in the NDIS. My son lives with my wife and myself and will probably be with us until we are no longer able to care for him.

Our experience of the NDIS is not perfect, but it is so very much better than the support we had during the first 45 years of our sons life.

We experienced disconnected support living in 2 States and a Territory. We experienced Special Schools and Special Education Programs in standard schools and a wide range of programs that seemed to lose funding as soon as they became useful. We told our story countless times to well meaning people who would approve us for programs that had waiting lists and no vacancies. The whole system was frustrating, underfunded and confusing. If our son did not match exactly the description required for a particular program, he got no support until we found something else to apply for. It took us a number of years before we really understood that it is not possible to rely upon any long term commitments given by government funded programs. There is always a plausible excuse for failure and incompetence is common.

I am writing to express my concern that the delay in this legislation is preventing the NDIS from taking the decisions required to remain sustainable.

When the NDIS started it seems to me that it was a pseudo insurance company business model. The money came in from the Government, and to meet budget expectations the objective was to deny access to as many applicants as possible; and then defend those denials for as long as possible with the NDIS hoping the legal fees for defending poor decisions would be less than the money saved by denying access.

In that model Applicants are the problem and Service Providers are just the cost of doing business. To attract as many Service Providers as possible, systems, prices and claim methods were basically dictated by the Lobbyists and Service Providers networks. The underlying threat always was “ ..give us what we say we need or we will withdraw services…”

Unfortunately that development process has contributed to the NDIS being so focused on getting the cash out quickly that it has left the NDIS without adequate systems, without adequate price controls, without adequate service definitions and without adequate protection against fraud.

We now have some community and some business interests with a view that the NDIS is a great place to make money and they have unrealistic expectations for the NDIS.

In my view the mantras of “reasonable and necessary” and “choice and control” have

National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024

Submission 181

become catch phrases to lead a fight by some commercial interests to extract as much cash as possible from the NDIS and deny taxpayers any input in to what is “reasonable and necessary” and take the “choice and control” away from Government, which should be exercising those functions judiciously on behalf of taxpayers.

It has always been difficult to understand exactly what the NDIS will pay for. Some of the decisions made are so subjective it is hard to see any logic or common sense in them.

We need to get that right, we need to understand how and why money is spent, and I think this legislation is part of that process.

Regardless of political allegiance, everyone likes to make soothing noises about the continuation of the NDIS. However I do not believe the NDIS is too big to fail or too important politically to ever be starved of money.

I think there is a significant risk that Australian tax payers are already suffering compassion fatigue with the NDIS.

For many Australians the NDIS cheer squad is sounding disconnected from the reality that the NDIS has a very bad reputation for inexplicable spending decisions, very poor controls on where the money is going and significant fraud. This despite the fact that NDIS personal budgets have been inflexible and wasteful on purchasing repetitive reports.

Continuation of a well funded NDIS is extremely important for many families, including my family.

The current Bill does cause some legitimate concerns for some people, I hope this Review can find practical solutions for those concerns, without much more delay in passing the legislation.

Australia cannot even house its population, we have increasing poverty and younger generations feeling disconnected from opportunity, and yet the NDIS cheer squad do not want to cooperate with “reasonable and necessary” controls within the NDIS so that taxpayers can be sure the NDIS has “choice and control” over who is getting NDIS money and what they are doing with that money.

There is no excuse for the NDIS to have less financial controls and less accountability than other taxpayer funded programs.

We need to be careful that unreasonable noisy demands do not sink the NDIS.

I encourage the Senate to pass this legislation quickly and support any further changes recommended by the NDIS Review.

Sincerely,