Health and NDIS Minister Mark Butler has defended the Albanese Government’s decision to trim the National Disability Insurance Scheme just days after announcing $53 billion in new defence spending. Source: The Guardian.
Mr Butler conceded Australians may be “uneasy” but insisted the scheme would remain one of the best support services “anywhere in the world”.
The Coalition looks likely to back the proposed changes, despite alarm from the Greens and some in the disability sector about the 160,000 participants expected to be removed by 2030 and changes to who can access the scheme.
NSW Premier Chris Minns also warned changes made to the program could have major flow-on effects to state health systems, saying “we can’t provide equivalent care in the state system” to people removed from the NDIS.
Mr Butler said that specifics – including new assessments for every NDIS participant and whether there will be appeal rights – would be finalised with the disability community, saying there were major “flaws” in the support program.
He announced a dramatic overhaul of the NDIS on Wednesday. The scheme now caters for 760,000 people, with projections by 2030 it could have 900,000 participants, but that number will be cut to 600,000 instead.
The remaining people will be shifted onto alternate supports, such as state-based schemes yet to be finalised.
Six days before Mr Butler’s National Press Club address, Defence Minister Richard Marles appeared at the same venue to announce $53 billion in new military spending over the next decade.
Asked about the contrast between cutting the NDIS at the same time as boosting defence, Mr Butler said: “I get that there’s always a bit of compare and contrast that happens as people look at these choices.”
The Greens called the changes “cynical and cruel”, pledging to fight the plan.
“Disabled people are now left dreading whether they will be one of the 160,000 people Labor plan to kick off the NDIS – because their disability is too invisible, or because a computer predicts they will be fine without supports,” Senator Jordon Steele-John said.
Opposition health spokesperson Anne Ruston told the ABC the Coalition had long-supported “sensible reforms” to ensure NDIS sustainability, indicating the Government will get its support to pass the changes through parliament. But she said participants needed more information about how the scheme would change.
FULL STORY
Australians ‘uneasy’ about NDIS cuts amid $53bn in new defence spending, Mark Butler concedes (By Josh Butler and Tom McIlroy, The Guardian)
