19/06/2025
Wake up NDIS! People need their school and home visits for speech pathology support!
I met today with a group of local Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapists and Physiotherapists today to discuss the consequences on NDIS participants of the recent pricing changes for critical allied health services by the National Disability Insurance Agency.
There is a lot of discussion in the community about reining in the overall cost of the NDIS scheme, ensuring that it delivers its original purpose.
After my discussion today with this strong group of local health professionals, its clear that this latest decision to achieve this aim is not the right one.
The government's intent to cut costs will simply reduce service delivery in the home and natural environment and does not meet the clinical needs of patients. People in need in our isolated and smallest communities without public transport will suffer the most.
This city-centric decision compromises the accessibility and safety of critical services to the most vulnerable in our society. It does not appear that the regional impacts were considered and I have deep concerns over the data used.
Everyone deserves access to allied health support regardless of where they live. This decision fails the equality test of the NDIS.
I call on the Albanese Labor Government to go back to the drawing board by overturning the implementation of the cuts on 1 July. We need reform of the NDIS but not this way.
