Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This episode is brought to you by our friends at ComBank.
Good morning and welcome to The Daily Aus. It's Monday the 27th of April. I'm Zara Seidler. I'm Billie Fitzsimons.
Chapter 2: What major changes were announced for the NDIS?
Late last week, Mark Butler announced major changes to the NDIS, Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme. Those changes were in an attempt to cut rising costs. Under the changes, every single person on the scheme will be reassessed from 2028 with a view to moving people with lower needs to other supports.
In today's podcast, we're going to explain the context behind the government's decision, the changes themselves and what the response to these changes have actually been. But before we get there, here is a quick note from the newest member of the TDA team, Em.
Chapter 3: What is the context behind the government's decision on NDIS cuts?
Hey, my name is Em. I am TDA's new Senior Partnerships Manager. I'm actually the newest of TDA's employees and now one of three Ems in the office. I'm here to help the commercial team build a sustainable revenue stream that will mean that TDA can remain an independent media company. To do that, we need to grow our audience and you can help with that by giving us a five-star review.
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Chapter 4: How many people are currently accessing the NDIS?
Zara, this was a huge announcement from the government last week that they are going to be cutting some of the resources to the NDIS. Before we get to exactly what that announcement was, I think for anyone unfamiliar, we should explain what the NDIS is. Like you said, it's the National Disability Insurance Scheme. What does that mean?
Yeah, it is a good starting point. I also do want to talk through the numbers because I think that paints a picture as to why this is such a big national conversation. So the NDIS, as you said, National Disability Insurance Scheme, it provides support and services for Australians with disability.
Now, what those services and supports actually look like can vary from person to person, whoever is on this scheme, but it's It includes things like access to community services like doctors and assistance for necessary support. So think of something like a car modification, for example. Now, the NDIS was launched in 2013. And when it was set up, it was intended to support 410,000 people.
Sorry, how many? 410,000. So just under half a million.
Chapter 5: What are the projected costs of the NDIS and how have they changed?
That was when it was created in 2013. They said that at the peak, it will serve... 410,000 people.
What I find interesting about that is I remember learning the stat that there are five and a half million Australians who have a disability. So that's a big disparity between how many people this is available to compared to how many people in Australia live with a disability.
Well, that number hasn't actually rung true in terms of how many people are actually on the scheme itself. That's what they intended for it to be. Because I think when they set it up, it was intended to be for a specific cohort of people. The number it's actually at right now is 760,000. So that number has gone from a $410,000 to $760,000. Now, obviously, that costs money.
That costs taxpayer money. So at its peak, the NDIS was projected to cost about $13.5 billion. So at that first number that we just said, now in this financial year, it's set to cost over $50 billion.
Chapter 6: What are the implications of the new reassessment policy for NDIS participants?
Wow.
Wow.
Which is quite a jump from the projections. And those projections were set by the Productivity Commission more than 10 years ago now. So there's nothing to say that those were always going to be right. But that's what the government keeps highlighting in terms of when they say there's been a blowout or this has cost way more than intended. Those are the sorts of numbers that they're talking about.
Now, in terms of painting a picture as to who is on the NDIS, because you just referred there to the number of people with disability in Australia. So under 25s represent more than 60% of active NDIS participants. So a lot of young people are on the NDIS. Around 22% of recipients are between the ages of zero to eight years old. And the most common primary disability of NDIS is autism.
That makes up nearly half of the people accessing this scheme. The other most common primary disabilities are an intellectual disability and developmental delays. So those are the people currently who are accessing the NDIS at present.
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Chapter 7: How are the changes to the NDIS expected to affect service providers?
It's a huge range of people who access NDIS. And I know for a lot of people, it has been life-changing, their ability to access the services that the NDIS does subsidise. But like you said, there have been issues about how much the cost of it has blown out. And that was at the centre of what the Health Minister, Mark Butler, announced last week. What was that announcement exactly?
Yeah, so we had Mark Butler. He's the NDIS minister. I don't think he is.
I think he's the health minister. I think he's also the NDIS. Jenny McAllister. Because I was interested last week. Wait, I'm Googling this.
Oh, you're right.
It's Jenny McAllister that's the NDIS minister.
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Chapter 8: What has been the response from opposition parties regarding the NDIS cuts?
And that's why I found it interesting that the health minister and not the NDIS minister was announcing this. Well, that is very interesting.
Yes. Okay. Well, Mark Butler, health minister. Yes. He got up, he spoke at the National Press Club. We had known for quite a while that there was something brewing, even when the prime minister came in, that announcement hadn't been made yet, but we knew there was something coming. And- So this speech had a few elements to it.
The first was to show and tell the Australian public why the government thinks there is an issue and what that issue actually is. And then the second half of it was, and here's what we're going to do about it. Right. So to the issue that the government has identified, Mark Butler claimed in his speech that there is a lot of fraud in within the NDIS.
And he is talking here not about people who are with disability accessing the NDIS. He's actually talking about people who are actively choosing to use this as a fraud scheme. I'm going to let Mark Butler explain.
Part of the challenge that we face is that the NDIS has become a soft target for shonks and rortas, as well as the worst elements of organised crime. I want to be very clear about this. When we talk about fraud in the NDIS, we're not talking about people with disability. We're not talking about families who've been put on a plan and offered support. They're not doing anything wrong.
The fraud in the NDIS is being perpetrated by low lives who are scamming both the taxpayer, but more importantly, people with a disability.
So he's talking there about the people who are providing the service to people with a disability. So, for example, if you're a home carer, he's saying that there are people taking advantage of the scheme who are taking money from the NDIS without actually helping people with a disability. That's one example.
He called it shonks and rorts. So he's using quite deliberate language here of people who are intentionally doing this. And he said fraud prevention efforts have failed because of the design of the scheme itself. So taking some responsibility there for the fact that the design, according to Mark Butler, is the problem here. It's easy for people to take advantage of the NDIS and
that's accounted for why these costs have blown out so much. That's according to the government. He reiterated the government's concerns around the growing cost of the NDIS and he said he wants to make sure it's sustainable now and for future generations and that's why he announced what he did.
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