Physical Disability Australia has told Senate hearings that NDIS reform cannot be built on the false premise that people with disability are a burden to be reduced, and has recommended an alternative approach that significantly reduces the NDIS debt without impacting supports.
CEO Suzanne Gearing said the debate has taken a dangerous turn, with participants increasingly treated as a line item rather than Australians whose support enables work, independence, community participation and dignity.
"A narrative has crept into public debate that frames people with disability as an expense to be reduced. That narrative is not only harmful; it is false. And it is leading us toward reform options that would cut the very supports that allow people with disability to live, work and contribute." Ms Gearing stated.
She confirmed the organisation rejected any reform pathway that reduces supports for participants in order to fix a scheme shaped by design flaws, administrative inefficiency and poor stewardship. "The NDIS is under real financial pressure, but cutting eligibility or slashing packages would only shift costs elsewhere into unemployment, poorer health, poverty and crisis care. Stripping support is not reform. It is failure disguised as restraint,” she said.
Physical Disability Australia instead urged the Committee to take the Bill "back to the drawing board" by supporting structural reforms that strengthen the Scheme. It noted that the root causes are based in design flaws and administrative efficiencies, not the supports themselves, and quoted alternative approaches including work by economist Cain Beckett, who worked on the original NDIS. Mr Beckett's report recommends an alternative approach to the Bill which relied on overhauling claims processes, fixing market settings, redesigning Supported Independent Living and Specialist Disability Accommodation, and building the NDIA’s insurance capability.
The organisation says those reforms could deliver billions in annual savings, creating a pathway to sustainability that does not require rushed reform that risks the very lives of people with disability or ask them to bear the burden of past implementation errors.
Physical Disability Australia went on to urge the Committee to recommend a different kind of success measure. "Let’s measure success not by what we cut, but by what we enable. Not by who has won the battle, but by how well we collaborate together to achieve an outcome that works for everyone. Blindly pushing forward with a harm laden solution when there are other options just doesn't make sense" Ms Gearing notes.
About us:
Physical Disability Australia Ltd (PDA) is a national peak organisation run by and for people with physical disabilities, advocating for the rights, inclusion and full participation of Australians with physical disability.
Contact details:
Suzanne Gearing, CEO
0484187208