Disability advocates have reacted furiously to the government's move to rein in spending on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), after it unveiled a plan that could save the budget $50 billion over the next decade.
Speaking after national cabinet in Brisbane, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the federal government would implement an "annual growth target" of 8 per cent for the total cost of the scheme by 2026, arguing the NDIS was currently not sustainable.
Under the current trajectory, the cost of the NDIS will reach $97 billion by 2032-33.
But if the scheme achieves just an 8 per cent growth rate instead, the NDIS will cumulatively save more than $50 billion over the next decade.
Disability advocate Elly Desmarchelier said the move equated to a cut in NDIS funds, arguing advocates were blindsided by the announcement.
"I am in shock … I'm incredibly disappointed, I'm disappointed in the lack of detail, I'm disappointed in the direction when it was supposed to be about working with people with disability to find the solutions to make sure the NDIS is sustainable," she said.
"I feel like people with disability got taken out with the Friday afternoon trash.
"And in that was a pretty big announcement about the future of the NDIS which I didn't see coming. And I don't think the disability community saw coming.
"It's a target to reduce the spending on the NDIS. They're aiming to spend less on the NDIS. And the government needs to come out and explain where they're going to spend less."
The 8 per cent growth target falls significantly short of the current rate of NDIS growth of around 14 per cent a year.
That includes rising wages, extra therapy and support for some participants and more hours of disability support work — alongside the increasing cost of services the whole nation is experiencing.
Earlier this month, National Disability Insurance Scheme Minister Bill Shorten vowed he would not "slash and burn" the NDIS, as he flagged plans to "reboot" the scheme and argued it had "lost its way".
But Advocacy for Inclusion head of policy Craig Wallace said the government needed to provide more detail about what the changes would entail.
"We need greater visibility and transparency of the modelling and assumptions behind these estimates and projections," he said.
"We will continue to advocate for an uncapped but sustainable NDIS as a disability support safety net for Australians when they need."
NDIS not 'a frivolous expense'
George Taleporos, the independent chair of Every Australian Counts, said people with disabilities and their families were "exhausted and stressed" by having to defend the importance of the scheme.
"The government and the community needs to understand that the NDIS is an investment, not a frivolous expense," he said.
"It provides life-saving and life-changing supports that are essential for Australians with disabilities to live a good life in the community.
"Of course we want the NDIS to be sustainable. So we need to stop the fraud and stop the businesses profiteering and overcharging."
People With Disability Australia president Nicole Lee said the news of the target had come as a shock.
"It is a demand-driven scheme, and under the legislation caps can't be introduced," she said.
"How can we not be concerned by this language that our funding and supports aren't going to be halved?"
Ms Lee also questioned why the government had announced the target, given a review looking at the sustainability and design of the NDIS was due to be finalised in October 2023.
"There was a commitment to co-design, and doing this before the review risks trust in that," she said.
The government has also announced it will invest more than $720 million over four years in the upcoming budget to the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), which is responsible for running the NDIS.
In a statement, Mr Shorten said that money would go towards several measures, including better supporting participants to manage their plans within budget and cracking down on fraud and non-compliance.
"We will work together with people with disability and the sector to implement these initiatives to ensure we get it right and people with disability are with us every step of the way," he said.
"We are going to improve how the scheme works for participants, their families and the people who work in the disability sector."
Agreement to improve Medicare
Along with the changes to the NDIS, the prime minister said the state and territory leaders had endorsed the Commonwealth's plan to spend $2.2 billion to "strengthen Medicare".
The figure is a combination of old and new money, and the breakdown of what proportion is new funding will be announced in next month's budget.
The money will go toward improving primary-care delivery and taking pressure off public hospitals, as well as boosting health workforces across a number of industries.
Among the new policies to be detailed in the new budget is a plan to expand the National Immunisation Program to pharmacies so Australians aged five and over can get a wider range of vaccines at their local chemist for $19.
The Pharmacy Guild has been fighting for the change, and it comes just days after pharmacists were left reeling by the federal government's decision to shake up the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
The Commonwealth will also move to entice 500 previously registered nurses back to the health workforce, and support 6,000 placements of nursing students in primary care.
And, as expected, the government will move to adopt a key recommendation of the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce report and change the way chronic conditions are handled by changing funding models so teams of different health professionals can work together more effectively to treat patients.
