Chairman of the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) Bruce Bonyhady reports that the agency has welcomed the first progress report by the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which is responsible for reviewing the scheme’s implementation, administration and expenditure.
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As recent tragic events on the sporting field have reminded us, any one of us, rich or poor, can have our life turned upside down by a severe and permanent disability in the blink of an eye.
Individually, the risk of being severely or profoundly disabled before the age of 65 is low, but the consequences for those unfortunate enough to be so can be catastrophic.
“There but for the grace of God go I.”
The National Disability Insurance Scheme is the answer to that prayer.
By paying premiums to the NDIS through the Medicare levy, Australians share the risk and help each other. Pooling the risks make them affordable for all.
And by operating like an insurance scheme, using rich data to make continual actuarial assessments of costs and effectiveness, the NDIS is able to continually improve.
Another benefit of the insurance model is that it calculates and seeks to minimise the cost of supporting someone over their lifetime rather than just 12 months, enabling the NDIS to invest in people with disability as well as support them.
The NDIS will grow our economy, make the most of our human potential, avoid massively growing and unsustainable costs in the decades ahead and only asks governments to do what people cannot do for themselves.
We recently celebrated the first anniversary of the scheme, and the achievements are ground-breaking. It has a satisfaction rating from its clients that is over 90 per cent.
These early results are very encouraging and consistent with the Productivity Commission report which estimated that the economic benefits of the NDIS would significantly outweigh the costs, it would add 1 per cent to GDP and stabilise government spending on disability, which has been growing at a rate which would have overwhelmed the budget within a generation without powerful reform.
It’s a pioneering piece of economic and social reform designed to provide fairness, security and opportunity for more than 400,000 Australians and their families, who have missed out on a genuine “fair go” for far too long.
However, notwithstanding our best efforts, not all aspects of the NDIS and its implementation, so far, are perfect.
Evidence given to the Joint Standing Committee of the Commonwealth Parliament, earlier this year, shows there are aspects of the scheme that need to be improved.
The internal review processes of the agency have also identified areas to be refined and strengthened. Given that the scheme is still in its trial phase, these lessons are not surprising.
They are welcome and will contribute to an even better NDIS.
Learning, listening to criticism and showing respect for people with disability, their families and carers is the only way to keep them at the centre of the scheme.
We welcome that criticism and feedback, because it shows people care about the NDIS. They care deeply, and so do we.
We are using these lessons to build the NDIS right, for future as well as current generations.
If you want to learn more about the NDIS, visit www.ndis.gov.au or call the NDIS information line, on freecall 1800 800 110 (mobile phone calls may incur additional costs).
