Australian Government Response to the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) final report: Inquiry into NDIS Planning

The Australian Government welcomes the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme’s (the Committee’s) final report on the Inquiry into National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Planning (the Report).

The final report was released by the Committee in December 2020 and contains 42 recommendations to improve the participant experience with the NDIS and support the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) to deliver a transparent, consistent and equitable approach to planning.

The final report’s recommendations cover a number of areas including:

• the experience, expertise and qualifications of planners,
• the value of informal supports and the role of families, carers and health practitioners in the planning process,
• the interface between the NDIS and other service systems,
• the planning experience in particular communities of need, such as those in rural and remote communities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and those from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds,
• the timeliness and transparency of the internal review process, and 
• the availability of advocacy support and access to legal services for people seeking external review of NDIA decision-making.

The Government is committed to improving participant experiences with the NDIS and is on track to deliver improvements to the NDIS that make it fairer, simpler and work better for participants, their families and carers. These reforms will help deliver on the promise of the NDIS – to provide people with permanent and significant disability true choice and control over a flexible support package to pursue their goals. They also deliver on independent assessments, an element of the Productivity Commission’s original design for the NDIS, as well as recommendations of other reviews and inquiries, particularly the 2019 independent review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 by David Tune AO PSM (Tune Review).

The Government supports, or supports-in-principle, 26 of the recommendations made in the Committee’s report. Given the ongoing reforms to the planning process being progressed by the NDIA, the Government notes the Committee’s remaining 16 recommendations and provides information on the key initiatives underway and planned to address them.