Shorten calls for “common sense” fixes to the NDIS

SHADOW Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Bill Shorten says the changes needed to fix the scheme are “just common sense” and are especially needed in the Geelong region.

Mr Shorten has made several recent public statements criticising the proposed reforms of the scheme, and spoke about the topic at a community forum in Ocean Grove on Wednesday last week with Corangamite Labor federal member Libby Coker.

Speaking in front of about 50 people at the Shell Road Reserve Pavilion, Mr Shorten said the NDIS was a “world-first idea” when Labor introduced it a decade ago.

“I’ve got this view that individuals and families are going to be more economical with scarce taxpayer dollars than if the money’s invested through a large bureaucracy or charity.

“While I’m inestimably proud of the fact we have an NDIS – it didn’t exist – it’s not working the way I think it was meant to work.

“There’s too much micro-management of people’s packages. There’s the constant onslaught that somehow this is an unaffordable, unsustainable scheme, and the drumbeats of unsustainability are emerging from the latest minister (Minister for the NDIS Linda Reynolds), saying ‘Oh, people are getting too much’, as if there’s too many people with severe or profound disabilities.”

Several audience members at the meeting expressed their frustrations with the existing NDIS, and their fears about tightened eligibility processes.

“The agency treats everyone – providers and clients alike – with hostility,” one woman said.

Mr Shorten said the changes needed were not politically-driven.

“These are not ideological fixes, a lot of them – it’s just common sense,” he said.

“When you make an application, they should spend more time with you in the pre-planning phase than the planning interview.

“There’s nothing worse than asking for a plan, having the meeting, and then getting back a plan that you think must be for someone else; you think it must be a mistake.”

Speaking to the media afterwards, Mr Shorten said there was a particular challenge for the 8,703 NDIS users in the Barwon region, who had a take up rate of 59-64 cents in the dollar on their packages – lower than the national average of 69 cents in the dollar.

“The Morrison Government has no concept of what workforce development means,” he said.

“You can have a great career working in disability, in the caring economy, but this government isn’t training enough people to work in disability, there’s not enough allied health professionals.”