The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was introduced with much fanfare by the Gillard Government in 2013. Eleven years on, how is it performing and are elements of it under threat? On Tuesday, the Minister of the NDIS Bill Shorten spoke to the ABC’s Nadia Mitsopoulos on the scheme’s progress and future. As Minister of Government Services he also fielded questions regarding the Disability Support Pension and related Centrelink frustrations.
The interview was aired on ABC Perth, meaning most Australians did not hear his views. However, a transcript of the interview reveals his thoughts on these matters, including an acknowledgement that wait times aren’t satisfactory.
Putting NDIS aside, Ms Mitsopoulos led the interview with a challenging question about listeners’ frustrations with pension application wait times. “Some of you have told me how you’ve been waiting up to nine months and it’s putting a huge financial and emotional strain on you,” she said. “Now the Government hopes recruiting more staff will get through the backlog but are they deeper problems?”
Ms Mitsopoulos then directed her attention to Mr Shorten and said, “This issue, these backlogs within Centrelink, they didn’t happen overnight. When were you first made aware of them?”
Mr Shorten’s answer could perhaps be described as a classic politician’s response, acknowledging the issue without directly accepting responsibility. “I think the problem has been getting progressively worse for years,” he said. “First of all, I should just say to people experiencing delays, I’m sympathetic and we will come to some of the solutions that we’ve got. But it’s a real problem. No sugar-coating at all it’s a real problem and it’s a problem affecting people.”
How long had Bill Shorten been aware of these delays?
In terms of his awareness of the delay, Mr Shorten said “Really, the last six months it’s really been hitting. So, in the course of last year, towards the end of last year, it’s a real problem.”
Mr Shorten then made a clear inference that the root cause of the delays lay with the previous coalition government. “Back in 2012, about 37,000 people work[ed] in Department of Human Services and the population of Australia was 22 million. Our population now is north of 26 million. But before this latest decision last October of increasing staff, we were down to 30,000 people.”
Such a drop in the ratio of staff to client would certainly have an impact, and it did in two ways. Firstly, in terms of the time it takes for a applications to be processed and secondly, long phone call wait times.
Mr Shorten was also quick to point out that an investment by the previous government into replacing humans with software. This, he claimed, “just didn’t work”, resulting in the need to “scrap $200 million worth of investment”. Unsurprisingly, Mr Shorten took that opportunity to point out the previous government’s Robodebt disaster.
Implementing solutions
Acknowledging the mistakes of past governments, Ms Mitsopoulos pressed Mr Shorten for information on resolving the issues. The solution, he said, was humans, and he was able to convince his colleagues and the PM of this. “We made a decision in the last quarter of last year to employ 3000 extra people,” he said. We started recruiting them in November, December. By mid-January, the beginning of February, we’ve now hired 3000 people.”
Mr Shorten made a further commitment to hire more staff and clear the existing backlog of disability pension applications.
What about the NDIS?
Amid rumours of changes to the NDIS, Mr Shorten was asked about an unexpected spike in applications people with autism and other developmental delays. Ms Mitsopoulos asked: “Why is that? Are people rushing on before your reforms come in?”
Ms Mitsopoulos asked if these people were an example of those currently on the NDIS who might be removed. “No, I wouldn’t put it as harshly as that,” Mr Shorten responded. However, he did suggest that “the NDIS can’t be the only lifeboat in the ocean.”
“The NDIS was designed for the most severely and permanently, Australians with the most severe and permanent disabilities,” he said. It was, “not for every Australian with disability.”
This would suggest that reforms may well be coming. As to who might be directly affected by these reforms, that remains a matter of conjecture for now.
Have you experienced undue delays with a disability pension application? Do you feel Mr Shorten’s interview responses were good enough? Let us know via the comments section below.
Also read: Age Pension applications taking months to be processed, reports claim
Health disclaimer: This article contains general information about health issues and is not advice. For health advice, consult your medical practitioner.