NDIS ‘reforms’: Doing no harm must be the MINIMUM standard

There’s a lot of concern right now about NDIS reform—and we understand why.

 

Watch Jenny Karavolos on NDIS Reform

 

Our Independent Co-Chair, Jenny Karavolos GAICD, spoke recently about the proposed NDIS reforms in this podcast.

THE KEY MESSAGES ARE CLEAR:

• Up to 160,000 people may be moved out of the NDIS.
• This is not a small adjustment it’s a system shift.
• We support reform
• But there is a clear line:

Reform must meet a clear standard.

DOING NO HARM IS THE MINIMUM STANDARD.

No one should be worse off. No one should go backwards.

And critically:

No one should be moved until something better is in place—for that person.

“Autistic people should not be the shock absorbers of systems governments have not yet fixed.”

Because:
• Changing access doesn’t change need—it shifts it. And the cost doesn’t disappear.

“It becomes a hidden cost to the economy—lost education, lost employment, increased health and mental health pressures, greater loneliness, and growing reliance on the informal care economy, currently estimated at $79 billion.”

For many, the NDIS has delivered real outcomes.

“Support meant my son was seen as teachable – that he learns, that he progresses.”

That is what good outcomes look like.

Without it, we return to uncertainty and the impact will be real.

The risk is not reform itself but that we lose what is working before something better is in place.

The key question is simple:
Where does that need go and are those systems ready?

That’s why our focus is on:

• Designing systems that work for autism—and for everyone
• Change the system, not the person

When systems embrace difference, people thrive.

#SYSTEMSTHATWORK #NDIS #DisabilityReform