Amid reports that Labor may exclude people with a psychosocial disability from the NDIS, and cut help from others to eat, bathe and shower; the Greens say they will not support cuts to the NDIS.
Labor is reportedly considering changes to Supported In-home Living (SIL) and excluding participants with a psychosocial disability.
In making these cuts, Labor would be leaving many disabled people unable to eat, bathe, and go to work, and booting people who have no other affordable services available to them off the NDIS entirely.
These cuts to the NDIS are in a context where governments have failed disabled people for years, through lack of investment in publicly available supports, things like high-quality accessible public housing with shared supports, and mental health in Medicare, and the low rate of the Disability Support Pension.
The Greens say they will not back NDIS cuts that look set to leave vulnerable people without any other options.
Senator Jordon Steele-John, Greens Disability spokesperson said:
"The Greens will not support more cuts to the NDIS or Labor's attempts to balance the budget off the back of disabled people.
"Labor are spending their days before the budget trying to pick which group is least deserving of having the support they need to live a decent life.
"These Labor cuts would leave disabled people unable to bathe or eat, and push people with psychosocial disability out of the only supports they get.
"The community are telling me they're scared. Yet again, the government are talking about massive cuts to the NDIS without clarity and with nowhere to turn to, it's leaving everyone on edge.
"Labor's trying to choose a group in the disabled community they think is the weakest target - but disabled people are used to fighting for their basic rights, and the Greens will back them the entire way.
"The government must not cut critical disability supports to balance their budget, while allowing big corporations to avoid paying their fair share of tax and letting fossil fuel subsidies soar."
