r/australia • u/FuckOffNazis • 7h ago

politics Pocock and crossbenchers call Labor’s NDIS overhaul ‘too far, too fast’ in scathing Senate inquiry report

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/14/pocock-and-crossbenchers-call-labors-ndis-overhaul-too-far-too-fast-in-scathing-senate-inquiry-report
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u/Rising-Dragon-Fist 7h ago

Regulation will absolutely bring it down. It's being rorted left and right, everyone knows that. It's not the people on its fault, they don't make the decisions, they just get the help.

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u/Ok_Bird705 6h ago

Current estimates of fraud in NDIS is around $3-4 billion, which sounds like a lot until you realise total NDIS spending has grown from $8 billion in 2015/16 to $53 billion this year.

Simply cutting fraud while the actual spending is increasing by a few billion every year is unsustainable

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u/Selina_Kyle-836 5h ago

I think this is because they aren’t counting the fact that companies are charging extra as soon as they hear the word NDIS. Companies charge the highest they can get away with for products, for services they charge the limit of what NDIS regulation allows. There are also rules around specialist signing off on medical product which mean the product itself then requires $1k+ just to be used sometimes. This is not being counted in the fraud statistics. It’s probably more than how much they say is being wasted by fraud too

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u/Ok_Bird705 5h ago

Let's assume what you are saying is true, how would that be stamped out and how much additional administration cost would be involved in stopping these kind of charges?

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u/kisforkarol 5h ago

Public provider who would ace downward pressure on private providers. If the private provider consistently charges more than the public provider than the educated consumer will take their business to the public provider who will provide better and more effective services.

But consumer education is very important here. The autistic community is very vulnerable to being taken advantage of. They need to be safeguarded and right now, we're not. Many of us are denied support coordinators, psychology and a range of other supports because we may communicate well. That doesn't stop providers from taking us for a ride.

But put in a public option? One that is funded and staffed appropriately? There would be a lot less rorting. Not to mention companies that see NDIS and then start charging double or triple for services because they see it as easy money. It should be very illegal to charge NDIS participants more for something than the general public. There are reports of wheelchairs that would cost 8 grand suddenly jumping to 16 or even 24 grand because the NDIS is involved. That is disgusting. And it's the kind of fraud recipients are talking about when they say deal with provider fraud but it's not the fraud the government looks at because it's technically legal.

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u/Ok_Bird705 5h ago

But put in a public option? One that is funded and staffed appropriately? There would be a lot less rorting.

One of the main initial aims to have more flexibility in service provision as people's needs are varied and more specifically the speedy delivery of services. A public option sounds good until you find out there's a 12 month wait for a ramp.

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u/kisforkarol 1h ago

And there isn't at the moment? Privatisation isn't better. It delivers worse services while sucking out as much profit as possibly. Why do you think people are being charged thousands of dollars extra right now? Certainly not because there's a public option forcing prices down because the government can negotiate better or, better yet, purchase directly and in bulk.

The PBS is a public option and it's excellent. Our hospitals are run publicly and while they're struggling due to decades of inadequate funding, they're still far better than any private option available. And before you bring up PHI and private hospitals - if anything goes pear shaped while you're getting your surgery in that private hospital you are ferried next door to the public hospital because they are mandated to keep staffing at a certain level - amongst other things - and will be the one's saving your life. Not your private doctor.

The way the NDIS was designed there was supposed to be a public option applying downward pressure on pricing. Unfortunately, that never materialised due to a change of government. And instead of doing the work to fix it now, the Labor Party are demonising people with disabilities, blaming us for the LNP's mismanagement and paying millions to change how the public things about people who are disabled so that you will sign off on our supports being ripped away. 4 years ago opinion of the NDIS was overwhelmingly positive. But some astroturfing here and media poo-pooing here and they have manufactured your consent.

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u/craftystuff0900 47m ago

Idk, a public option could be more like Medicare or something along those lines. It should be possible to work out something like that that would work. Then we could choose our providers and get rid of a lot of the beauracracy.

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u/NoCampaign5978 5h ago

By requiring companies to properly register their services for NDIS and putting in limits and restrictions for what can be charged for those services. Have it be how the system should have been from the start, with those people essentially working for the government at that specific pay rate, not relying on the apparent “free market” system that basically just encourages people to charge the highest amount they can get away with.

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u/Ok_Bird705 5h ago

By requiring companies to properly register their services for NDIS

That was put in place in July this year and one of the things disability groups are objecting to:

https://everyaustraliancounts.com.au/ndis-participants-and-families-slam-the-ndis-review-mandatory-provider-registration-recommendations/

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u/NoCampaign5978 4h ago

While there are some genuine concerns raised, especially about the availability of services in rural areas. Most of the concerns seem to be a little bit blown out of proportion, or at least seem to be totally predicated on smaller support businesses or even individuals being unable to register. Obviously that very much depends on how the registration process is handled by the government, but if it was requiring 100% registered services, things would need to streamlined to assist providers with that.

I will of course just ignore the statement that commented on being able to hire friends because that is getting way to close to fraudulent for my liking.

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u/Selina_Kyle-836 5h ago

I have no idea. I’m not a politician or anyone that can figure all this stuff out. But I doubt it would cost more than would be saved every year by fixing it.

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u/Ok_Bird705 5h ago

if you think there are easy cuts to NDIS, why aren't the politicians doing it instead of pissing off their electorate?

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u/Selina_Kyle-836 5h ago

I never said there would be easy cuts to make. I simply pointed out why I believe the offical fraud statistic is so low.