Yes. And people all around the country are saying, "I told you so". What a flop! There is more moaning and groaning and genuine complaints from affected or interested people than there were before this amazingly costly abomination was let loose on people it was supposed to help.

What on earth made people think that a scheme thought up by "career bureaucrats" and paid for by taxpayers was going to work! The longest "gravy train" ever.

"... politicians need to grow a spine and begin speaking honestly about a scheme they know to be excessively bureaucratic and costly".

Fat chance of that happening. Too many self-serving thugs involved.

Here is a bloke who knows what he is talking about.
If ever there was a gravy train for service providers this one absolutely takes the prize.
David

It's in vogue to bash the NDIS as another groaning bureaucracy as though it replaced something better, the "natural" or "familial" supports. Let's get real and understand that before the NDIS there was NO support system for families with a disabled member. If you gave birth to a disabled child in the 60s,70s or 80s, as I did, the Australian plan was that you looked after that child till you died and encouraged a sibling to take over the care. Previous generations of disabled people failed to live good quality lives and their parents did likewise. Now the NDIS has given hundreds of thousands of Australians the freedom and independence to meet potential. When you count the cost in dollars, remember the workforce of carers, mostly migrant, who are contributing to the economy. Remember the parents, especially the women, who, unlike me, will enjoy fulfilling careers. Then remember the PWD who have found jobs with support from the NDIS. Certainly, we need to encourage more self management, especially for SIL packages and we need to forget the proposed "independent assessments" currently mooted. Out here in disability land, we give the NDIS 9 out of 10 and urge it to keep working at the final 10%.

The NDIS system works well.
Every two years the disabled person and his family representative
meet with the NDIS officer and discuss the needs.
After that the family representative can shop around for a service
provider for daily activities and for employment arrangements for
such organisations that run workshops or cleaning services etc.
Once such organisations are engaged from the list of approved service
providers the budget is approved and invoices from the service
providers is entered into the NDIS web site via the mygov.gov.au portal
and the money appears in the bank the next morning.

It works like a clock and is very efficient and personal at their
help site are knowlegible and can almost always explain a problem.

People complaining always seem to not understand the system and have
not had a meeting with NDIS.

This scheme is a dog's breakfast that has way too many chiefs and not enough Indians, in my view.

And the system, therefore, is top-heavy with administration al commercial premises etc-etc.

This needs root and branch reform and a complete makeover to individual providers working from home to service the one group bubble of clientele.

And need to be qualified and win their contracts in an open transparent tender!

Admin such as is required, needs to be mentally able, disabled!

And that's where the rubber needs to hit the road.

We cannot allow this scheme to morph into a gamed cash grab by shonks and Landlords! And instead, reform it so the bulk of the funds are directed at the coal face and individual qualified providers working from home!
Alan B.

The first thing we should do is cut the gravy train for equipment suppliers.

I recently bought a large mobility scooter. Big 17" wheels & independent suspension, it is capable of some real work. It cost me $2299, plus $300 delivery. I found the supplier easily on the net.

I also found the same item from a company stating they are an NDIS registered provider for $5,750 plus unquoted delivery.

So for over double the price I could have got the same thing from a "PREFERRED" NDIS supplier.

The NDIS was Gillard's revenge on the tax payer for not loving her, & aren't the poor long suffering taxpayer paying for it in spades.

An enlightening article. There are parallels between the exploding cost of the NDIS and the exploding cost of formal child care. In both cases government formal services cost massively more than that provided by the family or extended family. In the end all this waste ends causing a big increase in taxes.

Hasbeen, if you are a self managed NDIS client you can buy your needs
from anywhere. You can shop around companies on the list.but if you
are not self managed the services like cleaning etc will be appointed
by NDIS from a provider on the list.

It's a "Gillard Reform", so it's not going to be for mug punters. Same as her "reforms" of the mining tax, education funding, and population policy.

Labor will never be reelected, as long as they believe in St Julia.

No, it is not for the mug punter.
It is for the mother mostly and the father who have been carrying the
burden for sixty years and feel guilty of handing the burden to their
other sons and or daughters.
Have you not ever noticed the old lady with her 40 or 50 year old
son in tow taking him shopping in your local shopping centre ?

That is who it is for !
So before you snipe about it all think of that old lady.

“Ten years have now passed since the NDIS campaign was launched by the then Chair of Yooralla Disability Services in Victoria, Bruce Bonyhady. Despite Yooralla's reputation as one of the least innovative service providers in the disability field (running, to this day, sheltered workshops and day centres), Bonyhady and four colleagues from Price Waterhouse Coopers and the NSW Motor Accidents Authority, managed to devise a scheme that appealed to governments and oppositions, policy makers, the media, disability services and funded advocacy groups alike as an apparently innovative and visionary solution to the crisis in disability support.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the limited knowledge of disability by policy makers, politicians, and journalists, the scheme was widely seized upon as a 'solution'. Members of Parliament saw a hope that parents of sons and daughters with disabilities – the biggest source of angry correspondence that many MPs received from constituents – could be assuaged.”

Sure mate but this is what you wrote in 2015.

“Six years have now passed since the NDIS campaign was launched by the then Chair of Yooralla Disability Services, Bruce Bonyhady. Despite Yooralla’s reputation as one of the least innovative service providers in the disability field (running, to this day, sheltered workshops and day centres), Bonyhady and four colleagues from Price Waterhouse Coopers and the NSW Motor Accidents Authority, managed to devise a scheme that appealed to governments and oppositions, policy makers, the media and disability services, as an apparently innovative and visionary solution to the crisis in disability support.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the limited knowledge of disability by policy makers, politicians, and journalists, the scheme was seized upon as a ‘solution’. Members of Parliament saw a hope that parents of sons and daughters with disabilities – the biggest source of angry correspondence they received from constituents – could be assuaged.”

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=17868

Not a fan of virtual cut and paste efforts from anyone.

Thanks for the advice Bazz, but I don't have anything to do with the NDIS. I can still drive a vacuum cleaner & wash a few clothes & dishes.

What I can't do is walk 300 meters down & worse back up from starting the dam pump, & the Mazda shopping trolley has been complaining about too much rough track driving to do it & repair kangaroo damaged fences. Dragging a couple of wheely bins 150 Meters out to the gate is getting beyond me too.

It is also hard to get to the new shed 150M from the house to get a car. The old one was severely damaged by a tree in a gale, & it was no more expensive to build a new one in a safer place with easy cheap access to power, than repair it. I love it, & always wanted a shed like this, but in less than a year that 150 meters walk to it is getting harder to manage.

I have decided life is like a camel. He fills his hump to cross a desert, we retire with some assets, but if you live a long life many assets die. You have to replace the stove, washing machine, fridge etc as they die. Cars wear, & need expensive repairs or replacement, & on a property, maintaining or replacing pumps & fences gets expensive.

Worst of all, your ability to fix things diminish. For me today it is a question of will the knees or the lungs stop me before I get to the shed, or after. I bought a battery leaf blower, [it is lighter] to use to clean out the roof gutters, our only supply of drinking water. However getting onto the roof with it is also getting hard.

With a bit of thought & planning you can manage most things, but I keep thinking somewhere smaller, in the nice warm tropics would be nice. Fat chance, unless someone could tell me how to move a grand mother a thousand kilometers from the grand kids. Divorce, too messy.

Hasbeen, sounds like you may have reached the point where you need to
consider a retirement village.
I have found it a very good decision. The men have their own group and
meet which means you get to know more of them better than you do at
events for all such as dinners etc.
Because of all the talents available we can help each other out with
solutions to problems. Maintenance is handled by the village staff.
No climbing ladders to clear gutters etc.
Some people go to all events, some are never seen, it is all personal preference.
If interested look for a village that is Strata Title which is similar
rules to a unit in a block of units, but has separate villas.
Strata Title is fairly rare but is better than Licensed Occupancy
which is the most common. Being strata title you own the property.
There are many in your area

Bazz, I'd jump off the edge first mate. I have a lovely Rhodesian Ridgeback because his owners went into a retirement village, & couldn't take him. Then there is the other dog, the cat, lathe, tools & parking for 4 cars, if the lady is coming with me.

No I might down size, but I'll be independent to the end.