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Having single-handedly landed Australia with the second-most outrageously costly socialist boondoggle in the nation’s history (the first being ‘Net Zero’), does anyone seriously believe that Labor are even remotely capable of reining in the NDIS? This out-of-control debt monster isn’t an aberration that no one could have foreseen: it’s going exactly how anyone with half a brain could have anticipated.
Who else but Labor would have seriously believed, after all, that setting up a bottomless pit of free money for anyone who can scare up a dodgy doctor’s certificate, for ‘conditions’ with no objective measurement or diagnosis, would result in anything but rampant fraud?
And who seriously believes that the same socialist numb-nuts are going to ‘fix it’?
Labor are avoiding the colossal elephant in the room, the 21st-century equivalent of the ‘Greek Back’: the ‘Fucked-in-the-Head Pension’.
The long-awaited blueprint, which [NDIS and Health Minister Mark Butler] will present at the National Press Club on Wednesday, is not set to include major changes to how those with psychosocial disabilities access the NDIS.
And that is the biggest, most costly, scam of the whole dodgy rip-off scheme.
Not to mention the rampant criminality, which makes even the Somali fraudsters of Minnesota look like amateurs.
An investigation by the Australian revealing the extent of the NDIS crisis has found legal expenditure has blown out to $313m over the past seven years as the scheme is forced to fight actions brought by participants claiming Thermomixes, pilates reformers and a $4800 temperature-regulating mattress under their plans.
It has also discovered the NDIS has become a hunting ground for criminals. An accused romance scammer, nurses who stole thousands of dollars from vulnerable patients and a man who starved his dog are among a host of convicted criminals found inside the scheme.
Instead of real reform – such as scrapping the whole disaster, the Albanese government are just trying to shift the cost burden from one set of books to another and make it all someone else’s problem.
Labor will unveil sweeping changes to the NDIS aimed at reining in the cost of at-home care and other multibillion-dollar scheme expenses, while demanding states commit to their biggest investment in support of reforms to the $50bn-a-year program.
But states only get their health funding from the commonwealth. So, demanding they pony up more money to feed Labor’s fraud machine is just passing the buck while adding another costly layer of bureaucracy. Even Labor state governments can see that Canberra is trying to pull a fast one.
Queensland Disability Minister Amanda Camm writes in the Australian: “What appears to be Minister Butler’s next move is to walk away from even more NDIS responsibilities, abandoning even more vulnerable Australians, and stopping them from accessing the care they deserve … hoping others will instead fill the void.”
Queensland is the only state yet to sign up to Labor’s $4bn Thriving Kids program – which was intended to support children with mild autism outside the scheme through a 50-50 investment between states and the commonwealth – leaving the key policy plank unfinished on the eve of Mr Butler’s address. While NSW has signed on, Premier Chris Minns hit back at states being forced to absorb costs of those “knocked off the NDIS” as part of future reforms, while the state’s Treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, said he expected the commonwealth to make clear where it wished states to invest more to care for those with milder disabilities.
Oh, well, it’ll give Labor governments an excuse to employ thousands more public servants, who’ll all dutifully vote for the hands that feed them – with our taxes.
