Veteran Victorian Liberal Russell Broadbent has raised concerns over the Morrison government’s plans to introduce independent assessments for participants in the National Disability Insurance Scheme, declaring control should not be handed over to an “unelected, unaccountable, for-profit organisation”.
In a regular video message to constituents seen by Guardian Australia, Broadbent says a review of the NDIS earlier this year “recommended market intervention on behalf of participants and a tender to deliver independent assessments of participants will go out shortly with a view to starting the new arrangement early next year”.
“One advocacy organisation is extremely concerned that independent assessors who do not have the experience, or possibly the qualifications, to assess people with a disability will result in worse outcomes,” Broadbent says in the message.
“This should not be a tick and flick exercise, so why would you hand over the final say to an unelected, unaccountable, for-profit organisation, whose sole purpose is to return a profit to shareholders and please the masters they serve – the government?”
Broadbent expressed concern that the ultimate objective would be a money-saving exercise “by knocking back all of these people who were about to be approved, rather than working in the best interests of those with disabilities”.
He says the qualifications of the privatised assessment teams are not stated. Broadbent asks of the government: “Have we not learned from the aged care debacle?”
The backbencher resigned from two parliamentary positions in protest against the government’s treatment of aged care in his electorate in 2017.
In August, after the Covid-19 outbreak in residential aged care claimed hundreds of lives in Victoria, Broadbent characterised the sector as a “disaster waiting to happen” and railed against the privatisation of care.
On the NDIS assessments, the Victorian MP said: “People with disabilities and their families deserve special care and consideration. They need all the support that is promised by the NDIS – I know, I’ve worked with them.”
Broadbent repeated some of his concerns about the shift during a short statement to parliament on Monday. Later in the day another Liberal MP, Bridget Archer, abstained during a vote on the Morrison government’s cashless debit card legislation in the house.
Broadbent’s critique echoes concern that has been expressed by some disability advocates that the assessments will be deployed as a cost-cutting measure, although the government argues the change is about making the system more efficient.
The government first flagged pursuing independent assessments in November 2019, following a recommendation from the Productivity Commission in 2011, and a subsequent recommendation of an independent review of the NDIS Act.
In late August, Stuart Robert, who is the minister for the NDIS, said independent assessments would deliver “a simpler, faster and fairer approach for determining a person’s eligibility right through to developing more flexible and equitable support packages”. The minister said he would ensure people with disability “have a seat at the table when it comes to implementing these reforms”.
But the shadow minister, Bill Shorten, has blasted the change, saying the shift “has blindsided Australians with disability”.
Shorten says the assessments would “force people with disability to audition before a panel of strangers to get on the NDIS or to remain on the NDIS”. The Labor frontbencher has organised a petition against the assessments.
