When the National Disability Insurance Scheme was voted into existence in the final year of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government in 2013 it was rightly hailed as a groundbreaking social welfare initiative on a par with the Whitlam government's introduction of Medibank (now Medicare) decades before.
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The vision was that the millions of Australians battling to live their best lives while coping with disabilities would have a "one-stop shop" where they could access essential assistance quickly, simply and cost-effectively.
A person with a significant physical or mental impairment (and often both) would no longer have to traverse of a confusing maze of state and federal assistance programs and a plethora of individual service providers.
It was a wonderful and transformational vision; a great step forward in the way Australian governments viewed the value, and the needs, of the disabled community.
Sadly, while the NDIS and its administrative body, the National Disability Insurance Agency, has tried to fulfil that vision the reality is far short of the high expectation of the scheme's architects. That is because the NDIS and the NDIA were nobbled from the get-go by the Abbott government elected at the end of 2013.
One of its first acts was to cap permanent employment within the NDIA, preventing it from reaching the 10,000 staff the Productivity Commission had estimated was needed to bring the NDIS into being and to deliver services effectively.
This, coupled with the Coalition's failure to adequately fund the service and the realisation demand was much higher than anticipated, has had a catastrophic impact on its development.
Instead of developing a committed, compassionate and highly-trained permanent workforce focused on best outcomes and quality service delivery, the NDIA had to fall back on almost 50 individual labour hire firms just to plug the gaps. It spent nearly $500 million on labour hire in the three years to 2021; $200 million of that in 2020-21 alone.
This, as Australian Community Media newspapers reported earlier this week, has resulted in a very poor workplace culture, high staff turnover - particularly among contract workers - and a "tick and flick" approach to clients' needs.
To suggest, as former Coalition NDIS minister Linda Reynolds did this week, the scheme could be "saved" by renegotiating funding arrangements with the states and giving the Commonwealth more control, is to ignore the larger issue.
That is the need to restore empathy and engagement by developing a highly-committed workforce who, while keeping a close eye on costs, make clients their top priority.
To throw away billions while not giving people what they need is actually far more wasteful than spending more to do the job properly. The similarities between what has happened with the NDIS and the problems the Department of Veterans Affairs is struggling with are quite striking.
We need to talk about the NDIS
Read more from The Canberra Times' campaign examining the future of the scheme:
- Australia, this is why we need to talk about the NDIS
- 'No longer sufficient': Former top cop's NDIS fraud warning
- Marcus 'needs to stay in his home': a mother's fight for her son
- 'Marking their own homework': Why Shorten rejected advice on NDIS review
- 'Like same-sex marriage vote': How NDIS costs debate is harming people with a disability
If, as Ms Reynolds' suggests, there are relatively quick and simple solutions to this challenge the obvious question is: why didn't her government implement them during their nine years in power? Her argument the Albanese government is better-placed to get the Labor states to hand over power and to contribute more money is hardly convincing.
It's time to move on from the preoccupation with what the NDIS will cost. If it is done properly it will pay dividends in both human and economic terms.
If it continues to be underfunded and understaffed then much of what is spent will continue to be wasted.
