The passage of the NDIS (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill puts people with disability at risk of serious harm and jeopardises the support they need to live full, dignified lives, warns ACOSS.
"ACOSS condemns the passage of NDIS legislation. Our thoughts are with the hundreds of thousands of people with disability, their families and carers, who are scared that they will lose the support upon which they rely," said ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie.
"The tragedy is that for years, the disability community, their representative organisations and advocates were eager to co-design reforms with the parliament to strengthen the NDIS. Instead, the Government has rushed deep and lasting changes without proper collaboration, and without listening to the people most affected.
"The late amendments provide welcome additional protection for some people. But the Bill still gives the Minister interventionist powers to reduce funding in participants' plans, cap available supports, set pricing, and expand the use of automated decision-making."
"Amongst numerous problems, ACOSS also holds serious concerns about how the Bill enables automated decision-making across the scheme, including decisions that require discretion and evaluative judgment.
"The Robodebt disaster looms large over these changes. Seeking to make large scale budget savings in a short time frame, by relying on automated decision-making to deliver services to people who rely on them for life sustaining support, is a recipe for a potential disaster.
"We saw and named the early warning signs with Robodebt. ACOSS firmly believes that across government, decisions that require discretion or an evaluative judgment should not be automated.
"The disability representative organisations and their communities demonstrated outstanding leadership in their advocacy around the Bill. We recognise and honour all those who have spoken up, sharing their personal circumstances and advocating on behalf of others.
"With the passage of the NDIS Bill, ACOSS will continue to work with the disability representative organisations and their communities to prevent serious harm inadvertently occurring due to these changes.
"We strongly urge the Federal Government and the Parliament to do the same."
