The abilityNEWS Daily
The Big Story
A dudded investor (courtesy ABC)
The Story That Wasn’t Told: SDA’s Systemic Issues Remain Hidden
Last night’s Four Corners carried a strong report on how some would-be investors were dudded of close to $100 million. It capitalized on other controversies surrounding the NDIS to gain viewers.
To make sense of Monday’s program, you need to understand television.
To make a visual story, you need pictures. The ABC had lots of vision of emotional interviews with people who’d apparently been swindled. It also had some far more reasoned commentary about broader issues to do with disability housing. It didn’t really have anything about the many problems bedeviling disability housing.
So what it did do was juxtapose the pictures it had and pretend it had a story about the failure of the disability housing sector. In reality, it just had a tale of some people who believed they could make big money from property.
There is a story about the failure of disability housing. Unfortunately, it’s still waiting to be written.
No viewer can doubt the raw power of the story Four Corners did put to air. It exposed the underside of how easily property promoters can make money. And yes, promoters happily used the veneer of respectability that came from people assuming, naively, that because the NDIS was a government scheme, ‘investments’ were guaranteed by the government.
Unfortunately, like most schemes promising extraordinary returns, this was equally unbelievable.
The reality of disability housing is far more complex.
The Briefing
Debt review to strengthen debt approach into the future
by NDIS
Government is reviewing its debt management strategy to improve long-term fiscal sustainability and safeguard public finances. The move follows growing debt-servicing costs and aims to strengthen policy responses amid shifting economic conditions.
Increasing cancer screening for people with disability
by Disability Advocacy Resource Unit
Cancer Council Victoria partnered with four disability organisations to boost cancer screening awareness among people with disability. Their 2024–2025 projects focused on improving knowledge and confidence around cervical and bowel screening across Victoria.
Joint Submission: National Energy Retail Amendment (Improving the application of concessions to bills) Rule 2025: Draft Determination
by People with Disability Australia
A coalition of social service and advocacy groups has backed proposed rule changes to improve how energy concessions are applied. Their joint submission urges clearer processes, regular eligibility checks and better systems to ensure concessions reach those entitled.
CFA Australia Celebrates Milestone in Laptop Donation Initiative – 100 Laptops to People with Disability in Australia!
by Centre For Accessibility Australia
Centre for Accessibility Australia has donated 100 laptops to support individuals with disability across a range of needs nationwide. The initiative, supported by Brayco, helps recipients like Corbin engage with study and rebuild independence following life-changing injury.
The Benevolent Society appoints Kevin Barrow as new Chief Executive
by Community Service Organisations
The Benevolent Society has appointed Kevin Barrow as Chief Executive following a nationwide recruitment process. Barrow brings over 20 years’ leadership experience across healthcare and not-for-profit sectors.
Kevin Barrow (courtesy Benevolent)
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The Wrap
After autism changes, Labor will still need to find billions more in NDIS savings
by SMH
Children with mild to moderate development delays or autism account for almost 30 per cent of the National Disability Insurance Scheme’s participants but less than 7 per cent of its budget in a sign the government must make further significant changes to the scheme if it wants to curb its yearly growth.
Kids with ‘developmental delay’ will be diverted from the NDIS. But how do you know if your child is delayed?
by The Conversation
Developmental delay is a general label for a range of conditions. Developmental refers to something arising during development and delay means a child is progressing in the expected way, just more slowly. Up to 24% of children are considered “developmentally vulnerable”. This means they haven’t met a key milestone and are at risk in one or more areas, including speech and language, motor skills, thinking and learning, social and emotional development, and everyday life skills.
Teal MP Allegra Spender urges Albanese government to cut NDIS spending growth to match GDP
by Sky News
Teal MP Allegra Spender has urged the Albanese government to cut the NDIS growth rate to match GDP after Labor unveiled a plan to reduce it to 5–6 per cent—still well above the current GDP growth of 1.4 per cent.
Moving autistic children off NDIS will hit GDP: Goldman Sachs
by AFR
The Albanese government’s plan to move children with mild autism off the ballooning National Disability Insurance Scheme could cause a significant slowdown in GDP growth, according to projections by Goldman Sachs that underscore the economy’s growing dependence on government spending.
Union’s $1bn worker crisis plan threatens Labor’s NDIS reforms
by The Australian
The Health Services Union is putting a $1bn hurdle in front of Labor’s NDIS reforms to move autistic children off the scheme, unions and providers will meet in Canberra to discuss the looming exodus of workers from the disability sector.
Hundreds of homes for people with disability sit empty at expense of NDIS participants and investors
by ABC
Property investment adviser Goro Gupta said part of the problem was that the NDIA — the agency that administers the policy — has not released clear data about where eligible people with a disability want to live. That has meant many SDA houses have been constructed on the outskirts of capital and regional cities where the land is cheap.
The key figures underpinning the NDIS and its generational reform project
by Crikey
Health Minister Mark Butler wants to make generational changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), diverting children with autism or developmental delays off the scheme and into a new program dubbed “Thriving Kids”. States and territories may have felt blindsided by the move, announced last week, but Butler expects them to eventually help fund the new program. In our latest instalment of Paint by Numbers, we present the key figures involved in the massive reform project.
The Diary
