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Queensland has become the first real test of Mark Butler’s plan to remake the NDIS.

Not the fiscal test. That is clear enough. Butler wants to pull the scheme back from projected growth, tighten eligibility, expand provider regulation and reduce the number of people on the NDIS from more than 900,000 projected participants to about 600,000 by the end of the decade. The NDIS, he says, “costs too much and is growing too fast”.

The test is political.

Queensland has not simply raised concerns. It has accused the Commonwealth of walking away.

Amanda Camm, Queensland’s Minister for Families, Seniors and Disability Services, told state parliament the federal government would “walk away from their responsibility for people living with a disability”. She warned parents of children with autism that one-on-one occupational therapy or speech therapy could disappear under the proposed changes.

This is the real fight. Butler calls it sustainability. Queensland calls it cost shifting.

The state’s argument is simple. When the NDIS was created, state disability services were wound down, folded in or hollowed out. Now Canberra wants to push some people out of the scheme and towards “foundational supports” that do not yet exist in any settled form. Canberra’s response is equally simple. This is exactly what your Premier signed up for.

The politics are sharpest around children. Butler’s package includes tighter eligibility and a shift away from diagnosis as the gateway to the scheme. Queensland has not signed the operating deal for Thriving Kids, the program due to begin in October for children with autism and developmental delay.

Canberra is applying pressure but Butler warns Queensland would be “answerable” if it failed to sign up to the first implementation test of the reforms. So what happens?

Queensland’s reply is still extremly blunt - do not remove the supports first and promise the replacement later. That is not reform.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t get us closer to a solution.

[continued on the abilityNEWS website]

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Assistant Minister pressed on 160,000 people facing NDIS changes
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AAPi flags NDIS eligibility and mental health access concerns
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Australian Association of Psychologists Inc

Exercise physiologists campaign to ‘axe the tax’ on their services
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MS advocate breaks record on Munda Biddi track
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ABC Radio National Breakfast

NDIS backlash: Less than 1 in 10 Australians think Labor’s disability scheme is taxpayer money well spent
Sky News reports polling showing fewer than one in 10 Australians believe the NDIS is money well spent. It frames the result as public backlash to the scheme’s cost and Labor’s proposed reforms.
Sky News Australia

States slam Butler’s 5000 aged care beds pledge as insufficient
The Australian reports state health ministers have criticised Mark Butler’s aged care and NDIS-linked hospital bed-block plan, arguing the pledge for 5,000 new aged care beds annually from 2029 will not address immediate hospital pressures.
The Australian | Paywall: Yes

Sorry Jim, your budget ‘savings’ come with a big asterisk
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Australian Financial Review | Paywall: Yes

A response to Linda Reynolds on the NDIS
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The farewell speech ‘joke’ that ended in private school head’s sacking
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NSW government launches inquiry into ‘stranded’ aged care patients
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Man arrested over alleged offensive shirt outside royal commission venue
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