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Australia’s biggest disability networks and the national legal aid service have made a private intervention to the Health Department, sounding the alarm that thousands of disabled Australians will be harmed under Labor’s push to save billions from the ballooning National Disability Insurance Scheme.
In the week since their presentation to department officials, other disability groups, advocates and legal services have escalated their campaign against the government’s overhaul by providing evidence to an eight-week Senate inquiry about their fears for participants.
The Australian Human Rights Commission added its weight on Wednesday, urging the Albanese government to pull its NDIS bill until “significant human rights concerns around process, accountability and the impact of the reforms are addressed”.
A further 100 academics and community organisations – including former disability royal commissioner Alastair McEwin – also signed an open letter on Thursday to reject, specifically, the new powers that will allow Health Minister Mark Butler to make sweeping cuts to funding for participants’ personal social and community support budgets.
“They enable people to take part in ordinary community life, develop trusted relationships and maintain the informal networks that the Disability Royal Commission identified as critical,” their statement said.
“Alternative supports are not yet available, and because many people with disability live on low incomes and experience persistent poverty, these supports cannot be replaced or self-funded when they are removed.”
But the government wants to forge ahead with its overhaul, which includes individual budget cuts as well as eligibility changes and a raft of measures to improve integrity in the provider market. The Coalition has signalled its support, given the scheme’s huge budget pressures, and the government has already made some tweaks in consultation with the Greens.
The $50 billion NDIS has swelled to 775,000 participants as unforeseen numbers of children and people with autism have joined, compared with initial estimates of about 410,000 participants. Butler’s changes are expected to reduce the number of scheme participants to 600,000 and save $35 billion in the short term.
The Senate inquiry has heard that about 241,000 people will be removed from the scheme by mid-2031 under eligibility changes that will come in over the next few years. Of that group, 155,000 would be 18 and under – 60 per cent of whom would be autistic.
The five peak disability organisations, National Legal Aid and other legal groups made a presentation to the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing last Thursday to make their case that the bill will cause “significant and foreseeable harm”.
They raised concerns about the bill’s drafting, saying it relied on broad and undefined concepts and future rules that would have uncertain impacts. They suggested legal amendments that would strengthen the bill’s language around access and permanency, bolster people’s right to reviews and embed strong protections for carers.
“[They] were united in their position that the bill should not pass in its current form,” their communiqué, published on Friday, said.
The attendees included Disability Advocacy Network Australia, Children and Young People with Disability Australia, Inclusion Australia, People with Disability Australia and Women With Disabilities Australia.
The Human Rights Commission, meanwhile, said it recognised the need for NDIS reforms so the scheme met its intended purpose, was sustainable, and market failures were fixed.
But it said all seven commissioners, as well as the president, were jointly urging the government to slow down the process and “take a more considered approach to modifying the scheme in a way that protects and promotes human rights”.
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Natassia Chrysanthos is Federal Political Correspondent. She has previously reported on immigration, health, social issues and the NDIS from Parliament House in Canberra.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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