For many years, One Nation has been warning the government to reign in out-of-control spending on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) or else risk support for the very existence of the scheme among the Australian taxpayers who pay for it.
As they watch NDIS costs spiral beyond $50 billion a year – well beyond projections – it appears the Albanese Labor government is listening (a bit). As far as One Nation is concerned, just about the only thing Labor is getting right at the moment is trying to make the NDIS more sustainable.
This week, Labor has announced a move to reduce the number of NDIS participants from 760,000 to 600,000 by 2030. There’s no detail about tightening eligibility requirements, better standards for providers, or cracking down on fraud. And there’s no word whatsoever about one of the biggest problems with the NDIS blowout: pay rates.
Whether you’re a specialist or an unskilled worker, you’ll get around three times as much working in the NDIS than you would in a different health sector. Not only is this costing taxpayers much more than it should; it’s creating shortages of these workers in public health and aged care.
One Nation supports the NDIS. We want it to survive to deliver on its original purpose: providing reasonable and necessary support for Australians living with significant or severe disability.
The NDIS shouldn’t be funding home improvements and renovations, vehicles bought by providers to transport clients, services outside of medical requirements, holidays for clients or carers, sex workers or recreational activities dressed up as ‘therapy’. All providers should be registered and audited, and much bigger penalties should be in place for compliance breaches.
And the NDIS should be means-tested. Currently any billionaire can claim it. Labor appears to have ruled this out, and that’s a mistake.