Media Release
Australia’s leading disability advocate, Spinal Life Australia, is calling for a 10% reduction to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) budget – not by cutting support for people with disability, but by cutting the waste, mismanagement, and bureaucracy threatening the future of the Scheme.
This includes millions spent on reports that are never read, ballooning legal costs from the National Disability Insurance Agency’s (NDIA) excessive use of the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART), and an oversized management structure that has failed to deliver value to participants.
The call comes amid growing evidence that the NDIS is expanding not due to increased demand from participants, but because of duplication, inefficient administration, and poor decision-making across the system1. These issues are contributing to rising costs without delivering meaningful improvements to participant outcomes.
With NDIS CEO, Rebecca Falkingham, admitting that staff within the NDIA do not have time to read expensive medical reports requested from participants, exposes a broken system, representing a waste of both time and money for participants, clinicians, and taxpayers.
Spinal Life Australia CEO, Mark Townend, stresses that the NDIS budget has ballooned for all the wrong reasons, and it is time for the Federal Government and all political parties to commit to restoring the Scheme’s sustainability and integrity.
“For too long, the NDIS budget has grown not because of the genuine needs of people with disability, but because of systemic waste, poor management, and unnecessary bureaucracy,” Mr Townend says. “There is enough money in the NDIS. It simply needs to be managed better.”
The increasing cases of fraud and financial mismanagement are being uncovered within the NDIS, adding further pressure to the system. At the same time, the NDIA continues to fund unnecessary reports and processes that add little or no value to participants while delivering ever-growing costs to the system.
Costs are also blowing out due to significant middle management expenses, poor procurement processes, and ballooning legal fees associated with the NDIA’s aggressive use of the ART to defend decisions, at a cost of nearly $50 million annually to the Australian taxpayer2. This exceeds funding provided to advocates and legal aid to assist people with disability in their appeals3. In a staggering 70% of cases, the decision under review was changed as a result of ART involvement.4
“This is no longer about cutting supports – this is about cutting waste,” Mr Townend continues. “Millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent defending decisions that are overturned, funding reports that are never read, and maintaining an executive management structure that is failing to deliver a streamlined, efficient service to participants.”
Spinal Life Australia hopes the upcoming Federal Election will be a turning point for the NDIS, where all political parties commit to restoring the Scheme to its original intent – supporting Australians with disability to live full, independent lives.
“One of the first steps should be a stop to the requirement for physiotherapy and occupational therapy reports for simple plan reviews. These professionals should be able to spend their valuable time working directly with clients to improve health outcomes, rather than being burdened with report writing that the NDIA itself has admitted is rarely read or properly understood,” Mr Townend adds.
“Both political parties must also commit to significantly reducing the number of senior management and executive roles within the NDIA, cutting unnecessary costs from the system and improving the speed and quality of decision making for participants.
“We are not calling for cuts impacting the people who need the NDIS – far from it, in fact. We are calling for 10% cuts to the waste, the mismanagement, and the broken processes that have led to a system that is unsustainable and unfair. The time for reform is now!” Mr Townend concludes.
Spinal Life Australia will continue to advocate strongly on behalf of people with disability to ensure that the future of the NDIS is not compromised by poor governance and bureaucratic waste. The organisation believes the NDIS remains one of Australia’s most important social reforms – but its future depends on bold action now to fix what is broken.
To find out more about our advocacy services, contact us.
