Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Government Services) Share this | Hansard source

I again thank Senator Askew for the question. While the NDIS has been life-changing for 450,000 Australians, we also need to realise a scheme that can financially endure, as I've said, for many generations to come. Participants entering from the state and territory schemes are today receiving 50 per cent more support, on average, than they were when they transferred into the scheme, and, at the moment, the costs of the NDIS are increasing far more quickly than we ever anticipated. For example, the average payment per participant has increased by 48 per cent, on average, over the last three years, from 2017 to 2020, and the average plan budget has increased by 22 per cent over the same three years. For example, 450 participants receive support packages of over a million dollars a year, and the numbers are far greater today than the 2011 Productivity Commission—