Uh, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has warned that the National Disability Insurance Scheme is not affordable in its current form. Where have you been for five years? Laying the groundwork for major changes to the $50 billion program, which is going to be a $62 billion program in forward estimates to become the central savings plank of next month's budget. Nicole Rogerson,
the chief executive of Autism Awareness Australia. Nicole, do you get the impression that the part of the NDIS that they're looking to make the most savings from is autism and spectrum are the type areas.
Look, we just don't know yet. Um, I think it's fair to say the government's already last year made a lot of announcements about the changes that would be in the autism sphere, particularly for children. So we don't yet know what the announcement is going to be tomorrow. I think it might be more broad than just autism itself.
So, Nicole, it appears that what they're trying to do is push push it back to the states. And so if you if you imagine how that plays out for autism, what do you think's going to be the outcome?
Well, I hate to be a doomer here, okay? Because I just want to be really clear. I think it is really sensible for the federal government to come in here and say, we need to make some changes. The NDIS cannot be a runaway train of cost. We need it to be here in the long run. And successive governments have failed. The NDIS has, as has the agency itself. So clean up time is here. I totally get it. What we're asking the government is to think about this
really carefully and, you know, measure twice, cut once. You know, we we need a scalpel here, not a machete. So yeah, they are trying to bring the states back in and the states agreed to do that. But of course what happens is then that becomes a fight between the feds and the states as to who owns what. Who's paying for what. And in the end, people, vulnerable people with a disability lose out. So that will be a no win scenario if that's where this lands.
Someone told me about three years ago what was happening with the NDIS is that state governments were simply pushing it all onto the federal government to get it off their books and onto the federal government's books. Is that true?
Oh, that's absolutely true. That started ten years ago. The states ran away from disability. The minute those four letters of NDIS came up on a headline, you know, they ran away fast, so they're coming back. I think it's fair to say kicking and screaming. But in that mess of fed state, who does what, we have to remember that there are hundreds of thousands of Australians with a disability. This this scheme has given dignity and agency to those people who need it. It's not their fault that the
runaway cost has been allowed to continue. That lies with the agency, and that lies with successive governments, as far as I see.
MM. Well done. Well, said Nicole. Nicole Rogerson, chief executive of Autism Awareness Australia.