One of the architects of the National Disability Insurance Scheme has called for extra oversight of the program similar to that of Australia’s aged care system.
But the NDIS Minister Mark Butler, seeking to get cost-cutting reforms to the disability-support scheme passed in the next two weeks, remains unconvinced the proposal would make it easier for participants to get the help they need.
Martin Laverty, the chief executive of disability support provider Aruma who helped to set up the NDIS, said the scheme needed a national inspector general.
Mr Laverty, who will unveil the proposal at a speech to the National Press Club on Monday, said the inspector-general would have oversight of how the NDIS is run and regulated as well as its federal funding.
“This is needed because NDIS participants face extraordinary challenge in navigating their way through the NDIS,” he told ABC Radio.
“Their role is to recommend to government better coordination to address those systems failures. And I think this is a proposal that’s been long overdue in the NDIS.”
Mr Laverty said the proposal would be similar to that of an aged care inspector general, who oversees the running of the federal response to the sector.
It comes as the federal government is still seeking support to pass its reforms through the Senate.
The measures would cut more than 100,000 participants from the NDIS to rein in growth of the $56 billion program.
However, Mr Butler dismissed the calls from Mr Laverty for national oversight of the disability scheme.
“There are a lot of different committees and bodies that oversight the NDIS. So I’d have to be convinced that another one, another level of bureaucracy, would serve a real purpose,” Mr Butler told ABC Radio.
He was confident a deal could be struck to get the disability scheme reforms through parliament.
“Obviously, we’ve got further discussions to have over the course of this parliamentary sitting fortnight. But I take (the coalition) at their word that they see this as something we can work together on,” Mr Butler said.
“I’d like to see it passed this fortnight because it is critical we start the work of getting the NDIS back on track.”
A Senate inquiry into the NDIS changes it also due to hand down its findings on Friday.
The make up of the NDIS will also be examined at the National Press Club, with Women With Disabilities Australia head Sophie Cusworth warning of significant impacts if the reforms pass.
“The government says this won’t affect participants’ health and safety. But for women with disability, that simply is not true,” Ms Cusworth will say in a speech.
“More than half have experienced physical or sexual violence since the age of 15 … for us, social and community participation is a safeguard.”
Ms Cusworth isn’t ignorant to pitfalls in the NDIS but is also mindful that while half of disabled Australians are women, just 38 per cent of the scheme’s participants are female.
“We are under-diagnosed with disability the scheme recognises, more likely to live with conditions it does not properly see,” she will say.
“When the government proposes major changes to access, eligibility, and supports, it is doing so within a system that already disadvantages women.”
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