Bills Digest no. 112 2015–16
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WARNING: This Digest was prepared for debate. It reflects the legislation as introduced and does not canvass subsequent amendments. This Digest does not have any official legal status. Other sources should be consulted to determine the subsequent official status of the Bill.
Paula Pyburne
Law and Bills Digest Section
29 April 2016
Contents
History
of the Bills
Purpose of the Bills
Background
Committee consideration
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights
Special Account Bill
Amendment Bill
Concluding comments
Appendix 1
Date introduced: 16
March 2016
House: House of
Representatives
Portfolio: Social
Services
Commencement: as set
out in the body of this Bills Digest.
Links: The links to the Bills,
their Explanatory Memoranda and second reading speeches can be found on the
homepages for the National
Disability Insurance Scheme Savings Fund Special Account Bill 2016 and the National
Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment Bill 2016 or through the Australian
Parliament website.
When Bills have been passed and have received Royal Assent, they
become Acts, which can be found at the Federal
Register of Legislation website.
All hyperlinks in this Bills Digest are correct as at
April 2016.
History of
the Bills
The Bills lapsed on prorogation of the Parliament on 15
April 2016. A new session of Parliament commenced on 18 April 2016. As no
election was held between the two Parliamentary sessions, the Bills may be
proceeded with in this new session at the stage they had previously reached, if
the House of Representatives passes a resolution restoring them to the Notice
Paper.[1] This had not occurred at the date of publishing this Bills Digest.
Purpose of
the Bills
This Bills Digest discusses two Bills.
The purpose of the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Savings Fund Special Account Bill 2016 (the Special Account Bill) is to
establish the National Disability Insurance Scheme Savings Fund Special Account
(the Special Account) which will be used to assist the Commonwealth to meet its
funding obligations under the NDIS Act.
The purpose of the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Amendment Bill 2016 (the Amendment Bill) is to amend the National Disability
Insurance Scheme Act 2013[2] (NDIS Act) to increase the maximum number of Board members for the
National Disability Insurance Scheme Launch Transition Agency (the Agency) from
nine to 12. There are also changes to the quorum arrangements.
Background
About the NDIS
In 2009, in response to a campaign for national disability
insurance, the Productivity Commission was asked to ‘examine a range of options
and approaches, including international examples, for the provision of
long-term care and support for people with severe or profound disability’.[3]
The Productivity Commission report found:
The current disability support system is underfunded, unfair,
fragmented, and inefficient, and gives people with a disability little choice
and no certainty of access to appropriate supports. The stresses on the system
are growing, with rising costs for all governments.[4]
In response to the Productivity Commission’s report and
recommendations, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) signed an
Intergovernmental Agreement for the NDIS Launch on 7 December 2012.[5]
In 2013, the Commonwealth Government enacted the NDIS
Act which:
- established
the framework for the NDIS and the National Disability Insurance Scheme Launch
Transition Agency (the Agency) and its Board. This enabled the NDIS to be
launched, and the Agency to operate the launch, in five sites across Australia
from July 2013
- sets
out the objects and principles under which the NDIS is to operate, including
ensuring that people with disability are supported to exercise choice and
control over the care and support they receive, and giving effect in part to
the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities[6]
- sets
out the process for a person becoming a participant in the scheme, how
participants develop a personal, goal-based plan with the Agency, and how
reasonable and necessary supports will be assured to participants and
- provides
that the Agency will be responsible for the provision of support to people with
disability, their families and carers. This could include providing funding to
individuals and organisations to help people with disability participate more
fully in economic and social life.[7]
The states and territories subsequently signed bilateral
agreements with the Commonwealth detailing the operational and funding
arrangements for the NDIS in each trial site. These agreements included matters
such as the planned intake of participants and the balance of cash and in-kind
contributions to the scheme.[8]
Current position
The gradual roll out of the NDIS at specific
sites in all states and territories has been ongoing since July 2013.[9] In November 2015 Bruce
Bonyhady, Chairman of the Agency, reported that the NDIS ‘is in eight sites and
has more than 19,500 participants, with another site due to commence shortly in
North Queensland, in Townsville, Palm Island and Charters Towers’.[10]
More recently, Mr Bonyhady reported:
… the NDIS is on time and on budget and client satisfaction
is above 90 per cent …
On 1 July the NDIS will move from a trial to a
fully fledged program in all States and Territories (except WA). This is after
having been assessed and reassessed by each Government and their Treasuries.[11]
Future projections
Agreements for the full scheme roll out of
the NDIS have been reached with New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South
Australia, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern
Territory. On 28 April 2016, the Commonwealth Government
announced the trial site in Western Australia would be extended by 12 months
to 30 June 2017 to ensure people with disability continue to receive supports
while a full scheme approach is finalised.[12]
Accordingly, the scheme will be available to
all eligible residents in the Australian Capital Territory by July 2016, in New
South Wales and South Australia by July 2018, and in Tasmania, Victoria,
Queensland and the Northern Territory by July 2019.[13] When it is fully
operational in 2019 the Scheme will serve around 460,000 participants across
Australia.[14]
The full scheme Heads of Agreement for each
state and territory outline the parameters for transition to full scheme
arrangements within specific timelines.[15]
Committee
consideration
Selection of Bills Committee
At its meeting of 17 March 2016 the Selection of Bills
Committee decided to defer consideration of the Bills to its next meeting.[16]
Senate Standing Committee for the
Scrutiny of Bills
At the time of writing this Bills Digest the Standing
Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills had not commented on the Bills.
Statement
of Compatibility with Human Rights
As required under Part 3 of the Human Rights
(Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 (Cth),[17] the Government has assessed the Bills’ compatibility with the human rights and
freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in
section 3 of that Act. The Government considers that the Bills are compatible.[18]
Parliamentary Joint Committee on
Human Rights
At the time of writing this Bills Digest, the Parliamentary
Joint Committee on Human Rights had not commented on the Bills.
Special
Account Bill
Commencement
The provisions of the Special Account Bill commence on Royal
Assent.
Paying for the NDIS
When the NDIS Act was enacted it did ‘not include any
provisions establishing a funding mechanism for the NDIS’.[19]
The Parliamentary Library’s Budget Review 2012–13 stated:
The NDIS will be a major and highly complex reform to the way
in which disability care and support are funded. It is likely to have
far-reaching effects throughout the disability services sector. The NDIS will
also represent a significant new area of Commonwealth responsibility and
expenditure. The estimated annual cost (nearly $14 billion) is around the same
amount spent on the Disability Support Pension, more than the current annual
cost of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme ($10 billion), and not substantially
less than the current annual cost of Medicare ($18 billion) …
… The question of how the NDIS will be funded (will there be
an agreed formula entrenched in legislation?) is crucial in determining whether
the longstanding problem of funding shortfalls will be adequately addressed. In
the absence of an adequate and secure funding base, the NDIS would, in the long
run, provide little advance on current arrangements.[20]
What the Productivity Commission
recommended
The Productivity Commission recommended that the NDIS
would:
… lock in tax revenue to meet its annual liabilities, without
a yearly battle through the budget process to secure sufficient funding in
competition with other government spending initiatives …. In effect, the NDIS
will be funded by a mandatory annual insurance premium.[21]
The Productivity Commission proposed, amongst other
things, that the Australian Government specify in legislation a special
account—the ‘national disability insurance fund’. It was proposed:
… the legislative provision would require the Australian
Government to earmark funds according to the prescribed formula. The elements
of this approach that ensure a stable revenue stream are its legislated basis and
that the amount earmarked for the fund would not be an absolute amount of dollars,
but act effectively as a rate applied to a growing income base. Without the latter,
the amount of revenue would fall relative to the costs of the NDIS, and making
up the shortfall would require new legislation—leaving too much scope for
future governments to renege on a stable source of revenue. As much as
possible, the formula should be as simple as possible and transparent.[22]
What is a special account?
Under section 81 of the Constitution [23] all moneys raised or received by the Commonwealth form part of the Consolidated
Revenue Fund (CRF). Furthermore, section 83 of the Constitution provides
that no money may be drawn from the Treasury of the Commonwealth without a
legal appropriation authority.[24] The CRF in section 81 of the Constitution is synonymous with the
Treasury in section 83.[25]
Under section 80 of the Public Governance,
Performance and Accountability Act 2013 [26] if an Act establishes a special account and identifies the purposes of the
special account, then the CRF is appropriated for expenditure for those
purposes, up to the balance for the time being of the special account.
A special account which has been established under an enactment,
such as is proposed by the Special Account Bill, can only be varied, revoked or
abolished with the amendment or repeal of the provision which establishes the
Special Account in the enabling legislation.[27]
While Special Accounts can record amounts solely from
Commonwealth appropriations, they can also record amounts from other sources as
allowed by the terms of the Special Account’s establishing legislation. These
funds can include indirect taxes or other imposts (for example, an industry
levy), contributions by other governments, or discretionary contributions by
members of the community. Amounts standing to the credit of Special Accounts
may only be debited strictly in accordance with the Account’s purpose.[28]
Policy position of non-government parties/independents
At the time of writing this Bills Digest, Labor had commented
specifically on the funding of the NDIS and whether there was a budgetary short
fall rather than on the establishment of a special account per se.[29]
Position of major interest groups
At the time of writing this Bills Digest, stakeholder
groups had not commented on the Special Account Bill.
Financial implications
According to the Explanatory Memorandum for the Special
Account Bill it:
… will have nil or negligible financial impact over the
forward estimates. The special account would not increase the Commonwealth’s
gross debt and would not have a negative impact on the Budget bottom line as
the special account sits within the Consolidated Revenue Fund and there are no
associated Public Debt Interest or management costs.[30]
According to the Minister for Social Services, Christian
Porter:
At full-scheme rollout, the bill for
the NDIS will be $22 billion a year … The Commonwealth government will be
committed to $11.3 billion worth of funding to the NDIS. Of that, $1.1 billion
comes from existing Commonwealth funding, $3.3 billion from the Medicare levy
and $1.9 billion from existing specialist disability services. That leaves a
gap of $5 billion. We have created an account into which we will place
identified savings to the tune of $5 billion over the next period of three
years, to 2019.[31]
Special appropriations
Speaking about the Special Account Bill, Minister for
Social Services, Christian Porter, said that it will collect underspends and
savings that will help meet the Commonwealth’s contribution to the NDIS from
2019–20. Once the fund is set up the government will ‘set aside specific,
identified and protected savings… The fund will have an opening balance of
$162.4 million, which was set aside in the 2015–16 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal
Outlook’.[32]
Key issues and provisions
Clause 5 establishes the National Disability
Insurance Scheme Savings Fund Special Account as a Special Account for the
purposes of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act.
The Minister for Social Services has said that there is:
… $5 billion worth of funding shortfalls from 2019-20
onwards. This Special Account is the mechanism for securing that funding
shortfall …
The Special Account will allow the government, over future
budgets, to identify savings from existing programs and set aside those savings
to assist in meeting the Commonwealth’s future financial commitments to the
NDIS.[33]
Accordingly, clause 6 provides that the purposes of
the Special Account are:
- to
assist the Commonwealth to meet its funding obligations in relation to the NDIS
Act
- to
make payments to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Launch Transition
Agency for the purposes of the Agency
- to
reduce the balance of the Special Account (and, therefore, the available
appropriation for the account) without making a real or notional payment.
The Explanatory Memorandum to the
Special Account Bill provides that the credits to the Special Account may
result from:
- underspends and net savings from
the NDIS and other portfolio savings, as determined by the Minister for Social
Services
- discretionary decisions by the
Prime Minister or the Cabinet and
- decisions by the Prime Minister or
the Cabinet about identified savings from other Commonwealth portfolios.[34]
The effect of clauses 5 and 6 together is that the
CRF is appropriated for expenditure only for those purposes outlined above, up
to the balance for the time being of the Special Account.
As stated above, the Commonwealth is setting up the
Special Account to meet an expected future funding shortfall. This is required
because the Intergovernmental Agreement on the National Disability Insurance
Scheme Launch states as follows:
Governments agree that managing unexpected costs is a
critical issue. The Commonwealth agrees that it will fund any costs associated
with high population numbers, higher per person care and support costs, 100 per
cent of the Agency’s cash flow risk and any other risk sharing arrangements
identified in Schedules A-E during the launch and transition to a full scheme …[35]
Clause 7 of the Special Account Bill sets out the
manner in which funds may be credited to the Special Account. It empowers the Minister
to determine in writing that a specified amount is to be credited to the
Special Account on a particular day or that a specified amount is to be
credited in specified instalments on specified days. That determination is not
a legislative instrument and so would not be a disallowable instrument under
the Legislation
Act 2003, and would not be required to be tabled in both Houses of the
Parliament.[36] Clause 8 of the Special Account Bill allows the Minister to delegate any
or all of his, or her, powers
under clause 7 to the Secretary of the Department or an SES employee, or acting
SES employee, in the Department.
Under clause 9 the Minister must cause a review of
the operation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Savings Fund
Special Account Act 2016 to be undertaken in the financial year ending on
30 June 2027. However there is no stated requirement that the report of the
review be tabled in both Houses of the Parliament or that it be published.
Amendment
Bill
Commencement
The operative provisions of the Amendment Bill commence on 1
July 2016.
Board of the Agency
Part 2 of Chapter 6 of the NDIS Act establishes the
Board of the Agency. Relevant to this Bills Digest membership of the Board is as
follows:
- the
Board comprises a Chair and eight others[37]
- Board
members are appointed by the Minister, in writing, on a part-time basis[38] for a period of no longer than three years[39]
- the
Minister must be satisfied before appointing a person to the Board that he, or
she, has skills, experience or knowledge in at least one of the following:
- the
provision or use of disability services
- the
operation of insurance schemes, compensation schemes or schemes with long-term
liabilities
- financial
management
- corporate
governance[40]
- in
relation to the appointment of the Chair—the Minister must consult the states
and territories[41]
- in
relation to the appointment of a member other than the Chair—the
Minister must both seek the support of all the states and territories for the
appointment and be satisfied that the appointment is supported by the
Commonwealth, states and territories.[42] However, if 90 days have passed since the Minister sought that support and it
is not known whether support is given, the Minister may appoint the person as a
member of the Board.[43]
Moves to replace the Board
The current members of the Board, including the Chair, were
appointed from 1 July 2013 for three years. As a result, the term of each of their
appointments ends on 30 June 2016. The NDIS Act does not explicitly
provide for the reappointment of any member.
As early as July 2015 it was reported that the Government
was ‘preparing to replace the board of the National Disability Insurance
Scheme, sidelining the states and people with disability in favour of big
business’.[44]
It appears that the Government had earlier commissioned
KordaMentha ‘to review the board requirements’.[45] Although the report of KordaMentha’s review has not been made public, according
to the Australian Financial Review it states:
… NDIA's board requires strong financial, operational and
governance experience which should have been obtained in the very largest
[government enterprises] and/or larger corporations, preferably with
significant government/ regulated industry interaction … [and that] … the
majority of the NDIA board members should have experience as a senior manager
or CEO, as they have responsibilities as a communicator, decision maker,
leader, manager and executor.[46]
In the face of allegations that the Government moved to
replace all of the Board members without first informing them of its intentions,[47] the Assistant Minister for Social Services, Senator Mitch Fifield, clarified
the process which was taken:
- 17 April 2015: consultations with jurisdictions were commenced with
agreement by First Ministers at COAG to develop a process to ensure the next
iteration of the board had the best skill set for the transition phase of the
Scheme
- 24 April 2015: the agreement was discussed at the COAG Disability
Reform Council (DRC) Ministerial Meeting
- 7 July 2015: Senator Fifield wrote to all Ministerial members of the
DRC seeking their agreement to an appointments process that would include the
engagement of a search firm
- 9 July 2015: the Department of Social Services, at the direction of
Senator Fifield, outlined the proposed Board selection process to the Chair of
the Board, which included providing a copy of the 7 July 2015 correspondence
- 17 July 2015: Senator Fifield wrote to the Chair providing further
details of the Board selection process
- 29 July 2015: all jurisdictions had written to confirm their
agreement to the process
- 2 September 2015: Senator Fifield wrote to DRC Ministerial members
confirming the search firm had been engaged and advising that advertisements
calling for expressions of interest would soon appear
- 3 September 2015: Board members were contacted by the National
Disability Insurance Agency and the Department of Social Services and advised
that expression of interest advertisements would appear in the press from the
following day and that further advice on the process would be provided
- 4 September 2015: the Department of Social Services emailed a letter
from Senator Fifield inviting interested Board members to take part in the
process.[48]
A copy of the relevant advertisement is in Appendix 1 of this Bills Digest. Importantly, from the perspective of some stakeholders a
difficulty arises because that advertisement does not include a reference to
persons with disabilities.
The Commonwealth Government’s desire to replace the Board
may have been, in part, due to concerns expressed by business leaders that the
‘National Disability Insurance Scheme faces a cost blowout of $3 billion a year
when it is in full operation’.[49] Business Council of Australia chief executive, Jennifer Westacott, highlighted
three main areas of concern:
First, there is no clear and transparent spending envelope,
to provide added impetus for cost discipline. This is particularly important in
the early stages of a new government scheme that is being quickly rolled out.
Secondly, in such an underdeveloped market, we are also
unlikely to see services delivered for best value. The NDIS itself has conceded
that market capacity will need to increase significantly as providers
transition to the new model.
The third problem is that eligibility is still evolving, including
major boundary issues with aged care and mental health.[50]
Interim measures
In order to ensure some continuity of the Board post 1 July
2016, Minister for Social Services, Christian Porter, announced on 4 March 2016
that he had ‘asked the Board Chair and three members to serve for a further six
months after their current terms expire’.[51] The remaining members were ‘invited to extend their terms for twelve months,
taking them through to mid-2017’.[52]
Productivity Commission view
The Productivity Commission was particularly concerned about
the composition of the Board of the Agency. It recommended that a skill-based
board should oversee the Agency.[53]
In making this recommendation, the Productivity Commission
stated:
The NDIA would have responsibility for billions of dollars of
annual expenditure, and process claims from hundreds of thousands of people. It
would have to employ a diverse workforce to oversee its key functions
(management and strategy, case management, assessment, quality oversight,
actuarial services, financial and data management). It would have to coordinate
supports for people in all parts of Australia. It would deal with hundreds of
specialist providers and with scheme brokers. Any significant failures in
governance by the NDIA in any of these areas would rebound on some of the most
vulnerable Australians, on taxpayers, and ultimately could threaten the
long-term sustainability of the NDIS.
Based on its experiences of governance in insurance and
management, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) identified four
significant sources of managerial risk for a scheme—ignorance,
self-interest, ideology and political interference. It drew attention to the
failure of some [compulsory third party] CTP schemes in the 1980s and early
1990s, where poor claims management, inadequate financial discipline, cost
blow-outs and the vagaries of government interventions quickly led to a
breakdown in governance and prevented the schemes from operating viably …
The overarching goal of the NDIA’s internal processes and
external rules must be to avoid these risks and, instead, to encourage the
hard-nosed, focused pursuit of the sustainable and cost-effective provision of
support services for people with disability.[54] [emphasis added]
Stakeholder views
The views from stakeholders about the composition of the
Board are clear from the report by the Senate Standing Committee on Community
Affairs (the Committee) into the originating NDIS Bill.[55] Submissions to the Committee argued that the Board should play a role in reflecting
the NDIS's mission to advance the rights of people with disabilities so that
the list of skills and attributes of a Board member should include
'demonstrated knowledge of and commitment to disability rights'.[56] In addition, it was submitted that the Board recruitment process should
actively seek to identify people with disability who possess the skills,
knowledge and lived experience required to be members of the NDIS Board.[57]
The Committee took the view that it is important that the Minister
recruit talented people with disability to the Board. That being the case, it recommended
that at least three members of the Board are people with disability.[58] Although it has been reported that ‘the current NDIA board consists of 8
members, two of whom have disabilities (including Deputy Chair, Rhonda
Galbally) and two who have children with disability (including Chair, Bruce
Bonyhady)’[59] the recommendation of the Committee was not reflected in the NDIS Act.
Proposal for legislative change
It is in the context of the transition to the full NDIS in
2019 and the consequential increase in its costs that the Commonwealth ‘won
agreement from the states for the board of the NDIS to be expanded by three
places’.[60] However it has been reported that:
… In papers presented to a meeting of federal and state
disability ministers on Friday, the federal government has put forward a
detailed proposal to "simplify" the management of the scheme, which
in fact would allow it to change key definitions of who is eligible for support,
and to give directions to the agency that runs the scheme …
The proposal, which was opposed by all states and
territories, would, for example, mean that in future the federal government
could define—without consultation—who can be covered by the scheme, what can be
included in participants' care plans, and what constitutes "reasonable and
necessary support" … [61]
The Bill puts into effect only the enlargement of the
Board. It does not put in place any other change which would skew the existing
balance set out in the bilateral agreements which have been negotiated between
the Commonwealth and the various states and territories.
Policy position of non-government parties
Australian Greens
Senator Siewert acknowledged in March 2016 that ‘speculation
about aspects of the NDIS are understandably making people nervous about the
future of the scheme’. She stated:
Any substantial reform package takes time to be fully and
effectively implemented, the Federal Government needs to stay on course to
ensure the NDIS is delivered as intended, they clearly have the support of the
Australian community to do so. [62]
Australian Labor Party
Jenny Macklin, Shadow Minister for Disability Reform, stated
in relation to the moves to seek new membership of the Board:
Currently, the Board of the NDIS, including the Chair, is
made up nominees from each of the states, and is representative of people with
disability.
To maintain the NDIS as a truly national scheme, the NDIS
board must be reflective of the jurisdictions that are involved.
Above all, the NDIS Board must continue to include people
with disability, the architects and beneficiaries of the NDIS.[63]
Position of major interest groups
The Australian Federation of Disability Organisations
stated that it is:
… critical that we continue to have an
independent Board leading the scheme who will protect the interest of people
with disability and their families. Disability Australia supports the
current system of state nominated representatives in consultation with the
Commonwealth. For the sake of the scheme it should sit in a neutral bi‑partisan
space with cooperation from both the state and federal governments.
We also think it’s critical that the Board
continues, as it currently does, to include people with disability who also
have the extensive governance experience required.[64] [emphasis added]
Financial implications
According to the Explanatory Memorandum to the Amendment
Bill, ‘the measure will cost $0.8 million over the forward estimates’.[65]
Key issues and provisions
Item 1 of the Amendment Bill amends section 126 of
the NDIS Act to increase the number of board members other than the
Chair to ‘up to 11’ from the present membership of eight.
Currently subsection 138(1) of the NDIS Act provides that a quorum is constituted by five Board members. The exception, set
out in subsection 138(2) of the NDIS Act is where a Board member is not
to be present during the deliberations, or to take part in any decision. The
subsection provides for the making of rules under section 29 of the Public Governance,
Performance and Accountability Act 2013[66] in relation to a conflict of interest. However, no such rules have yet
been made to date. Where such rules are made, the remaining members at the
meeting constitute a quorum for the purpose of any deliberation or decision at
that meeting with respect to that matter.
Item 2 of the Amendment Bill amends subsection
138(1) so that a quorum is constituted by a majority of the Board. Given the
amendments in item 1 of the Amendment Bill there will be a quorum if just six
of the 12 members are in attendance. This suggests that a tied vote is
possible.
At common law, the Chair of a meeting does not have the
power or right to exercise a casting vote if the voting is equal.[67]
Accordingly, for the chair to be able to exercise a casting
vote, express power to do so must be given by the body’s rules or a relevant
statute. In order to assist meetings to be able to arrive at decisions where
voting is equally divided, it is usual for the rules of organisations expressly
to provide that the chair of a meeting has a second or casting vote where there
is an equality of votes.[68]
It would be prudent for an additional amendment to address
this circumstance. It is worth noting that section 248G of the Corporations Act
2001 (which
is a replaceable rule[69])
provides that:
(1) A
resolution of the directors must be passed by a majority of the votes cast by directors
entitled to vote on the resolution.
(2) The chair has a casting vote if necessary in addition
to any vote they have in their capacity as a director.[70]
Concluding
comments
It is unfortunate that the Commonwealth Government’s decision
to transition the membership of the Board to include persons with high level
risk management skills was attended by confusion, misinformation and angst.
When the NDIS is fully operational in 2019 it will cost $22 billion a year, of which the Commonwealth government will
pay $11.3 billion. As stated above, the Commonwealth agreed in the
Intergovernmental Agreement on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Launch,
that it will fund any costs associated with high population numbers, higher per
person care and support costs, 100 per cent of the Agency’s cash flow risk and
any other risk sharing arrangements during the launch and transition to a full
scheme. This is an enormous and imprecisely quantified financial
commitment. That being the case, it is not surprising that the Commonwealth has
been seeking (and will probably need to continue to seek) greater control of
the decisions which dictate how, and how much, money is spent. Underlying this
action is the knowledge of the real risk that without the necessary financial controls
the NDIS could become unsustainable. This much has been recognised, and warned
against, by both the Productivity Commission and business leaders.
The tension arises because that
need to make risk-based financial decisions may lead to outcomes which are
contrary to the needs and expectations of persons with disability for whom the
NDIS has promised so much. The difficulty for a Government of any political
persuasion will be in finding a workable balance.
Appendix 1
Below is the advertisement inviting applications for Board
membership:[71]
An advertisement calling for applicants for
the NDIA board
Members, Senators and Parliamentary staff can obtain
further information from the Parliamentary Library on (02) 6277 2500.
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