Federal Member for Forrest Ben Small MP is calling on the Government to immediately reverse the National Disability Insurance Agency’s decision to slash travel funding for allied health services, a move which is discriminatory and unfairly disadvantages regional communities across the South West.
Mr Small said “local therapists have been contacting me in growing numbers, expressing serious concerns about the sustainability of their practices and small businesses under the new pricing model. The cuts to service charge rates pose a significant threat to their ability to continue operating, where extensive travel to clients’ homes is often essential to deliver effective, person-centred care.”
Mr Small said that “the Government’s misguided attempts to cut costs in the NDIS follows a troubling trend where cost-cutting efforts have shifted blame onto participants, or worse still, resorted to use of taxpayer-funded lawyers to try and bog participants down in legal processes so that they simply run out of money to fight.”
The situation has become so dire that many large service providers, including the not-for-profit agencies that have supported local people for decades in the South West, are now operating at a loss and are totally unsustainable. Therapists say the new pricing structure makes it increasingly difficult to cover basic costs such as fuel, travel time, staff training, equipment, and the overheads of running a practice.
Mr Small said “it should not take complaints through a Member of Parliament’s office for participants to receive assistance with getting through the red tape and bureaucracy to access the help that they need—yet this has become the only course of action for many families in our community.”
Despite these serious concerns, the Federal Health Minister, Mr Mark Butler MP has dismissed local feedback, stating in Parliament under questioning from the Coalition:
“I stress this was an independent decision of an independent board, but it is one I support. It's a decision I support.”
Mr Small argues that this response fails to acknowledge the realities of service delivery in regional WA, where vast distances and limited infrastructure demand a different approach.
Ben Small MP, Federal Member for Forrest, will be inviting affected stakeholders to meetings in Bunbury and Busselton in the coming weeks to package up local concerns and advocate for them directly with the Health Minister.
NDIS service providers who are interested in attending a community meeting are encouraged to email: [email protected], including ‘NDIS Forum’ in the subject line.
ENDS