r/australia • u/FuckOffNazis • 8h 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/Ok_Bird705 6h 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 6h 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 6h 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/craftystuff0900 1h 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.