Grace Tame: The NDIS overhaul is a missed opportunity

Health Minister Mark Butler’s “major overhaul” of the National Disability Insurance Scheme will reduce the total cost of the scheme by $15 billion over the next four years. The majority of the savings will come from the 160,000 people who will be kicked off the scheme – a brutal decision given that the NDIS only supports a fraction of the 2 million Australians with a severe disability.The justification for these cuts is the “social licence” that even supporters of the NDIS believe it has suffered from reports of provider rorting and criminal abuse of the system. So why has Butler’s overhaul focused on reducing participant numbers, rather than scrutinising the business-side waste within the scheme?Grace Tame joins the podcast to challenge the corporate media spin that has made disabled people the scapegoats for what she believes is a poorly designed system. Read more:Slashing $15bn from NDIS while giving $53bn to Defence. Anyone’s autistic pattern recognition radar wailing? I’m an NDIS insider. Forget rogue providers — conflict of interest is built into the auditing systemNDIS headlines are turning autistic people into the new dole bludgersBelting the disabled, protecting fossil fuel giants: That creaking sound is Albanese’s project under severe stressGillard’s NDIS vision was a promise she couldn’t keepSign up to Crikey’s free newsletter: https://bit.ly/crikey-newsletterCrikey’s independent journalism is supported by readers — 98% of our revenue comes from our subscribers. We’re not accountable to billionaires; we’re accountable to you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.