Treasurer Jim Chalmers has warned the National Disability Insurance Scheme is not affordable in its current form, laying the groundwork for major changes to the $50 billion program to become the central savings plank of next month’s budget. Source: The Age.
Mr Chalmers will try to keep backlash from the states at bay by holding an online meeting today to brief treasurers on the NDIS overhaul, which Health and Disability Minister Mark Butler will announce at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.
The states have regularly pushed back against the federal Government’s request that they provide more disability services to ease pressure on the NDIS, fearing their own cost blowouts, and Queensland has not yet signed up to fund children’s early intervention despite agreeing to step up in a national cabinet deal.
Mr Butler is expected to unveil changes to NDIS eligibility and plan budgets in the biggest reforms since the scheme was launched 13 years ago.
The NDIS has since become the federal budget’s third most-expensive item as it has expanded beyond forecasts to service 760,000 people, putting significant pressure on Labor to curtail spending amid broader economic pressures.
“The NDIS is growing too fast for Australians to afford. It’s about $49 billion this year. By the end of the forward estimates – not that far away – it’s about $62 billion,” Mr Chalmers said yesterday.
“We are huge believers in the NDIS and massive supporters of the care that it provides Australians who need it … but in order to make sure that it is sustainable into the future, we have to deal with some of these escalating costs.”
Mr Butler, earlier this month, said the Government was deliberating over restricting the number of people eligible for the scheme, constraining people’s plans, or doing both.
He has promised to consult Australians with disabilities, but many NDIS participants have since expressed fears about the Government’s commitment to consultation and keeping the scheme’s foundational principles of choice and control.
FULL STORY
Chalmers says overhaul of unaffordable NDIS key to budget savings in grim times (By Natassia Chrysanthos and Shane Wright, The Age)
