Yesterday’s speech at the National Press Club condensed real warnings about the coming changes to the NDIS with a dramatic new proposal to make them work far better - for both the sector and the country.

Yesterday’s National Press Club saw a dramatic call event for an independent NDIS inspector-general and an appeal mechanism for automated decisions from Aruma chief executive Martin Laverty.

As the boss of one of the counrty’s largest not-for-profits, Laverty knows what conditions are like on the frontline. As someone involved with the scheme from its inception, he knows the disability sector. And as somebody close to government, Laverty understands the policy space.

The idea is good, because it’s a way of smoothing the implementation of the new scheme. Something like this will, eventually, be necessary and it’s difficult to see why a government that wants to make a success of these changes didn’t immediately embrace it.

People with Disability Australia acting chief executive Megan Spindler-Smith insists the Bill should be rejected. What was new about her call was a solid economic basis for the call. A paper prepared by the Australia Institute shows how the cuts will not just hit the marginalised, they will increase unemployment just in time for the coming election.

Women with Disabilities Australia chief executive Sophie Cusworth warns cutting supports before alternatives exist would push more unpaid care onto women and could make women escaping violence harder to reach.

Today these speeches are just warnings. The political difficulty for the government is that soon - just before the next election, to be precise - they will be proved real.

Just speaking politically, it doesn’t seem very sensible to be attacking your base when you’re running for office.

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