Labor’s beginning its fourth year of governing the country - but you wouldn’t necessarily know that by looking at the hordes of newcomers wandering up and down the halls of Parliament this week.

The person staring at her phone was, it turned out, just trying to find her way back to the office. With every new government there are many new people and with Labor’s new (and huge) majority the turnover’s been bigger than normal. It will still be some time before this government is comfortably in charge of what’s going on.

In the meantime, statutory authorities (like the NDIA, or the ABC) just continue.

Some, like the ABC, are left to drift. The slow loss of direction that began under Chair Ita Butrose has increased since Kim Williams took over. Audiences have abandoned the corporation which now dominates the lowest-rating slots in capital cities across the country. The rapid production of audience figures means management failures are rapidly exposed.

It’s not like that with the NDIA.

It was weeks, for example, before the Agency even announced that its CEO was on leave after a diagnosis of breast cancer. Our sympathy is very much with her at this time; but it does seem outrageous that the country had no idea who was in charge of this critical organisation, with its massive multi-billion dollar spend, for so long.

And then there was the sudden, non phased-in slashing of expenditure arbitarily imposed at the beginning of the financial year. Major reductions in allied health & travel rates, restrictions on therapy eligibility based on “Functional Capacity, a shift in autism support criteria, and abrupt plan reviews and budget reductions for participants.

Big changes; little explanation.

So parliament’s resumption provided an opportunity for questions, but here in Canberra, politics reigns supreme.

_____________________________________

[continue reading from newsletter]

The Liberal party was unable to tackle the growing cost of the NDIS when it was in power; and this week its contribution has been providing the government with cover. Shadow Treasurer Ted O’Brien told Sky he’d be open to discussing deals with Labor to cut the cost of the NDIS. Other parliamentarians have added their voices to his warning.

The National Party have been very present in regional media, listening to complaints about the cuts and telling constituents they’ve been heard. It’s difficult, however, to discern any move to turn this listening into action.

It’s been different with the Independents. The first question Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie asked was on exactly this issue.

His description of what followed is illuminating.

“I provided a copy of my question to the Minister [Mark Butler] beforehand in the hope of receiving a well-considered response,” Wilkie says. “His response was simply unbelievable given the feedback I’ve been receiving from a very broad range of allied health professionals.”

“Chatting to some of my cross-bench colleagues afterwards, it was clear that they too were far from convinced by the Minister’s answer.”

“I remain convinced that the re-pricing is ill-considered and will result in service cuts, especially in rural, regional and remote markets. They are ill-informed, arbitrary, rushed and being applied in blanket form even though both the need and the services being offered are complex and diverse.” Wilkie added.

As he says, other independents share Wilkie’s concerns. The question is what will happen next. Allied health professionals and recipients are, obviously, furious, but these concerns have not yet resonated in the media more generally.

For momentum to build on any story, what’s required is a villain. The question is; who will it be.

This is a question of whose definition will manage to carry the day. Will it be the NDIA, insisting the changes are reasonable and well thought out? Or will it be Bill Shorten’s, that some providers are simply ‘rorting the system’ and money needs to be taken back?

Or will it be the providers and recipients, who are suddenly finding the scheme isn’t providing what they need?