Submissions

QAMH welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS (the Committee) as part of its inquiry into the Capability and Culture of the NDIA. The NDIS has experienced a number of challenges in recent years, including an erosion of trust between participants and the NDIA, poor public perception of a system represented in terms of economic liability rather than social investment, and bureaucratic complexity that makes the NDIS stressful, unpredictable and confusing for people to navigate. These failures have culminated in people missing out on life-changing supports and being denied choice and control – a fundamental tenet of the NDIS. QAMH welcomed the Albanese government’s election commitment to reform the NDIS and we believe this inquiry is an important part of that process.

As of 30 June 2022, there were a total of 56,559 Australians with psychosocial disability receiving an NDIS funded package.1 In many instances, this has been transformative and allowed people to access supports and services they require to effectively participate in society. However, the NDIS has not been without problems. This submission will explore the particular challenges stemming from the failures in capability and culture of the NDIA including:

• Inequitable variation in plan funding
• Recovery coaches as a cost cutting measure
• Pricing arrangements not reflecting real costs
• The inaccessibility of the NDIA
• The NDIA as ‘Custodian of the Data’
• The need for a human rights lens