Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Imagine spending 25 years of your life unable to talk, unable to speak up for what you need. That was life for a young man with autism on Tassie's east coast. Eighteen months ago he could only speak three sentences in total; today he can speak independently, and that's because of the great work he's been doing with his speech therapist, but that might now be taken away from him. On 1 July the National Disability Insurance Agency introduced new measures to cut costs. They chose to slash the travel allowance by 50 per cent for allied health professionals on the NDIS. The NDIA says this is to make sure participants are only paying for the true cost of care, and no-one wants to see vulnerable people be overcharged and taken advantage of. But this change means services to rural and regional areas of Tasmania will stop. It means hundreds of vulnerable Tasmanians will go without care.

It's a four-hour return trip from Launceston to Scamander, on the east coast—$90 isn't enough to cover the costs of that travel. It's not even enough to cover the petrol costs. I've talked to Tassie providers and allied health workers, who are absolutely devastated. They can't absorb these costs. They've been put between a rock and a really hard place. Do they stop looking after some of our most vulnerable people or take on the costs and send their organisations broke? It's an impossible choice, and it's left NDIS participants scared and confused. Imagine being that young man from Scamander and having come so far in 18 months just to have it all ripped away from you by the stroke of a pen, by bureaucrats in Canberra.

The NDIS needs to cut spending. You won't see me arguing about that at all. The NDIS costs the government more than Medicare does. It's about to cost more than the age pension. We've got to start being more efficient and sustainable, but there are ways to do that without making cuts that impact on the care people receive.

Here are my thoughts on what should be done instead. We should be reusing medical equipment, and wheelchairs are a great example of this. I've heard stories of a child getting a wheelchair on the NDIS, equipped with all the bells and whistles, but, as anyone who's raised kids knows, they grow pretty quick. Suddenly, the child has outgrown the wheelchair, in six months or 12 months, and they need a new one. What you think happens with the old one? There's nothing wrong with it, and it could be used again. Instead, it just gets tossed out and is never used again—what a waste. Where we can, we should be repurposing medical equipment that's still fit for purpose. Imagine giving that used wheelchair to another child in need at half the price. It would mean they wouldn't be spending as much money from their plan, and we'd be being much more sustainable in the way we reuse and recirculate equipment. It's not a system that can be set up overnight, but it's the perfect place to start to stop leaking money and stop the waste.

Another way to save money in the NDIS is to give organisations more flexibility on what supplies can be bought and where they can be bought from. This is just a little example I heard from a physio. Let's say a participant needs a therapy ball. You can get one from Kmart for $13, and we all like going to Kmart. But the NDIS wants these products to come from speciality disability stores, where a therapy ball costs $50 plus postage. There's no difference between the two balls, by the way; they're exactly the same. Sometimes the Kmart therapy ball will be approved; sometimes it won't be. If it's not approved and the physio really wants to save their client money, they will write letters to the plan managers about why the Kmart ball makes sense over the specialty one, but taking time to write the letter costs the client too.

Another example I heard from a speech therapist was about communication devices used for therapy. They used to purchase iPads for their clients to run the program they needed. It would cost between $500 and $1,000. The NDIS says that iPads aren't allowed anymore and clients have to buy specialty communication devices. Guess what? That costs four grand. Once again, the client is paying far more than they need to for the equipment that they need. And that means taxpayers are paying more than they should pay too.

Fixing the issues with equipment approvals or reusing perfectly good equipment won't happen overnight. That's why it's easier for the NDIS to slash travel allowances and rates for physios. But, if we are going to get the NDIS to a place that's more efficient and more sustainable, this is where we need to start. We need to pull back spending on the NDIS, but there are plenty of ways to do it that won't impact on the care vulnerable Tasmanians receive every single day.