Already and this da this is the Daily os. Oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to the Daily Odds. It's Friday, the fourth of October. I'm Harry, I'm Zara. Yesterday the approved list of NDIS support services came into effect. Wheelchairs, railings at home and hearing aids are among the supports that got the tick, but the government's list has removed some supports, including alternative therapies, sex
services and gym memberships. The list dropped two days before it came into effect, raising concerns from disability advocates that it didn't provide them enough time to adjust to the new rules. In today's deep dive, we'll look at how and why the NDIS is changing. But first, Sarah, what's making headlines.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong is urging all Australians in Lebanon to leave the country. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has allocated five hundred seats for Australians on two flights to Cyprus this weekend, but Wong said that flights are depending on the airport in Beirute remaining operational. In oppost to x the Foreign Minister said, and I quote if you are able to secure a seat on a flight out take it. Now is not the time to wait and see. Now is the time to leave.
New South Wales has recorded the largest outbreak of EMPOC since twenty twenty two, with four hundred and thirty three recorded cases since the beginning of June. Empox is a viral disease that can cause skin and muscle lesions, high temperatures, headaches and muscle aches. The state's chief health officer, Carry Chance Set quote, the rapidly rising numbers are very concerning and said twenty six people have since been hospitalized with
severe symptoms. Chant is urging sex workers and men who have had with other men to get vaccinated against MPOs. It requires two doses, which are available for free in New South Wales.
One hundred and sixty five pages of court documents relating to a criminal case against former President Donald Trump have now been made public. Prosecutors say there's new evidence in the documents to prove that Trump intentionally tried to overthrow the results of the twenty twenty election, which he lost
to Joe Biden. The unsealed files include an account from a staffer who alleges they overheard Trump telling his family it quote didn't matter who won or lost the election, he would still quote fight like hell to remain in the White House. The US Department of Justice said that Trump resorted to crimes to try to stay in office and launched a series of increasingly desperate plans to overturn
the results of the election. Authorities are seeking to convince the court that the former president is not immune from prosecution.
And today's good news, neuroscientist have completed the first map of a fruitfly brain. Scientists from Princeton University found the poppy seed sized brain of a fruitfly contains over one hundred and thirty nine thousand nerve cells with nearly fifty five million connections. It took nearly two decades to map the tiny brain in such detail. Researchers said most people thought the project was either not possible or that even
if they were successful, the data would be useless. However, the findings have given neuroscientists new insight, for example, how brains react to changes in light and motion, and how information flows to the brain. The map could also give new insights into how nervous systems work.
Generally, Harry I think that sometimes in the news. We can use acronyms very often that sometimes don't get explained as such and are used as this kind of assumed knowledge. So to start us off for this deep dive, can you just explain what actually is the NDIS.
So it's the National Disability Insurance Scheme and I think most people would associate it with two things, people with disability and money. But to recap, the NDIS is a scheme helping to support people with disabilities to live as independently as possible. And it's set up for people nine to sixty five years old and they are given a budget to spend on the things that they need, so that includes things like hearing aids, wheelchairs or railings to
be installed in your house. Australia's quite advanced in terms of this funding model because it's entirely government funded. And when it was first hatched and brought into existence in twenty thirteen under the then Gillard government, they would use words like world leading pioneering support for people with disabilities.
Okay, And so this scheme has been in existence since twenty thirteen. We're talking about it today because some things have changed.
Right, Yeah, So I think it's important to note that the NDIS isn't cheap. It is a very costly program. So in the last year, the government spent forty four point six billion dollars on the scheme and it was the fastest growing expenditure out of all the government's spending categories, and the only thing that topped it was its interest repayments,
which is a whole other separate economic category. Now, the majority of the funding in the NDIS goes towards the NDIS plans for each individual participant, so that's forty two out of the forty four point six billion dollars that we're talking about. The question of the scheme's viability financially has been something that both sides of politics have long grappled with, both Labor and the Coalition, and there is a bit of flame shifting about why the scheme has
blown out. Now, the government passed legislation under the title Getting the NDIS back on Track earlier this year.
So that was their attempt to try and cut those costs that you said have blown out so much.
That's right, and they wanted to introduce ways to just rein in a bit of the spending associated with the NDIS. The government said the reforms that they were introducing would save about fourteen point four billion dollars over the next four years.
What were the type of reforms we're talking about here.
So that's the kind of support services that someone on an NDIS plan can claim. So that's why we're talking about it this week because we found out what is categorized as an approved support service and what is.
Not harry For people that might not be on the NDIS themselves or know someone on the NDIS, can you just talk us through what sort of services are we talking about? What can people claim as part of the NDIS.
So it's a pretty comprehensive list that's meant to act like kind of a set of guardrails about what you can claim on the scheme. So that includes things like a guide, animal hearing, envision AIDS. There's some broader categories, so a home modification, so if you need a rail, or if you need an access ramp, or you might need to make adjustments to your car, so that would
include installing a hoist or modifying your seat. And also things to help you physically move around, so mobility, scooters, wheelchairs, walkers, those kinds of things are what's been categorized as approved NDIS support services. There was a bit of commentary through the year about whether menstrual products would be part of an approved support service.
That's because the government published a draft list that said that they weren't included those menstrual products.
That's right, and now they've walked back on that and they have included menstrual products. So that's things like applicators and period underwear.
Okay, so Harry, just to recap here, we're saying the government wants to bring down its spending on the NDIS, and the government of the day, the Labor government, has identified that one way they can do that is to more carefully define what supports someone on the NDIS can access using that money versus what they can't. So you run through a bit of a list of what they can, but I think a lot more of the media attention has been now on what people on the NDIS cannot access.
Take me through some of the things that we now understand cannot be accessed using NDIS funds.
So the list of things that you can't access is also quite comprehensive. And as I mentioned about the guard rails, these are the things that exist outside those guardrails, and the government went to some length to define what won't be approved. And that's not to say that all these things that I'm about to talk through have been claimed in the past. Some of them have, but Bill Shorten, the NDIS minister, has said that not all of these
things have been claimed previously. So day to day expenses for things like rent, food, internet, gym memberships, they won't be covered under the NDIS. Surrogacy and fertility treatments aren't classified as an NDIS expense either, and then the government went into a range of what it described as alternative therapies that can't be claimed. So crystal cuddle, yoga, wilderness and sound therapies are all out. Frequency healing, REYKI, deep
energy cleansing, no Tarot card reading either. The NDIS also won't cover what the government turns wellness and coaching, so that's areas that it says aren't based in evidence, so that's life coaches, hypnotherapy, or a career advisor.
One of the things that's been spoken about a lot was sex services, and we've spoken about it before on this podcast. Which category have sex services actually fallen in?
Now they're not an approved NDIS support service. The government has also given a bit of a grace period, so over the next year, if someone accidentally claims something that isn't covered by the NDIS, that will be flagged and they won't necessarily get in trouble. Sex services, alcohol and illegal drugs are the only exception to that. You can't claim that, and if you are flagged, you could face
a bit of trouble. It's not so clear what that would be just yet, but the government was definitely quite clear that you can't try and claim any of those things.
Okay, so those new rules came into effect yesterday, but we only got those lists this week as well. You know, there's been lots of speculation about what would be on them, what wouldn't be on them, but the government only actually published them earlier this week.
The disability community had two days to really comb through everything that has been either categorized as approved or not approved, and it's fair to say that some of the advocacy groups were not only concerned about it, they weren't happy about it at all. The deadline had been approaching for some time, so we knew that October third was the date that the new Support Services list would come into effect, but we didn't know what was officially going to be
on that list until two days before that. We've heard from a number of organizations now who said they're quite concerned, so the Disability Advocacy Network Australia and People with Disability Australia who said there just wasn't nearly enough time to fully adjust to the new rules. And those groups had been asking the government to give what they termed reasonable notice about what was changing, and they're basically saying that two days is really pushing the friendship.
But just to clarify here, there's not two days in which this changes forever. There is that grace period that the government has outlined.
That's right. So if you are an NDIS participant and you claim something under one thy five hundred dollars and you weren't meant to claim that thing, the agency overseeing the NDIS would flag that and you would then just be told you can't claim that and there wouldn't be necessarily any punishment. So that's their way of sort of transitioning into this new support system.
Okay, but there still is this criticism that remains from as you mentioned, these advocacy groups. How has the government responded to that criticism.
So the NDIS Minister Bill Shorten has said that nobody would lose their NDIS funding to help manage their disabilities for the things that they need. He also said that this list is pretty much a continuation of the status quo, that these are things that are currently being claimed and that the vast majority of cases won't be affected by
setting out these approval lists. The President of People with Disability Australia, Murray A. Kred Jonk, has said the comber nation of the narrow time frame and some possible confusion about the changes coming into effect mean that some people
could go without critical supports that they do need. So it's going to be a really big test for the government and the agency overseeing the NDIS who is implementing these changes and whether people with disabilities are going to still get the right level of support that they need.
Harry, this is a scheme that involves some six hundred thousand people in this country. As you said, you know, the costs associated with it have been something that both political parties have really grappled with. So understanding how these changes affect, you know, the communities and the people who need them and who rely on them, but also understanding whether that will make a difference then to the government's budget. It's certainly something that we'll be keeping an eye on.
Thank you for explaining that story to us today, and thank you for tuning into another week of The Daily. If you are listening on Apple or Spotify, we would love you to hit follow. It sends a signal to the platforms that you like what they're doing. If you are watching us on YouTube, you can hit subscribe and never miss another video. We'll be back again on Monday, but until then, have a fabulous weekend.
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Kalkuton woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.