11 February 2025
People with Disability Australia (PWDA) the national cross-disability rights and representative organisation is deeply concerned that state and territory governments are delaying the rollout of foundational supports, leaving millions of people with disability to continue without access to essential services—at a time when NDIS reforms are restricting access and reducing supports available under the Scheme.
PWDA President Trinity Ford said this delay amounts to an abandonment of responsibility by state and territory governments, who walked away from disability services when the NDIS was introduced and are now refusing to step up when people need support the most.
“People with disability are being squeezed from both sides. The NDIS is tightening access, reducing the supports available to many participants, and now states and territories are refusing to deliver the services they were always responsible for,” Ms Ford said.
“This is a crisis of their own making. States and territories cut disability services, handed everything to the NDIS, and now they are kicking the can down the road instead of fixing the gaps they created. People with disability cannot afford to wait while governments play politics with their lives.”
PWDA Deputy CEO Megan Spindler-Smith said foundational supports must be properly funded and co-designed to ensure people with disability can access services they need—whether they are able to access the NDIS or not.
“The NDIS was never meant to be the only support system for people with disability, but because state and territory governments stopped maintaining their responsibilities, it remains the only option for far too many people with disability. Now, with the Scheme restricting access and supports, rolling out foundational supports is more important than ever,” Mx Spindler-Smith said.
“If states and territories are no longer willing to co-fund these services, they are continuing to leave people without essential supports. This delay will push more people into crisis, place additional strain on families and carers, and force more people to rely on already overstretched health and emergency services.”
Foundational supports are intended to provide critical services like community access programs, disability peer support, early intervention, and mental health support—many of which are no longer accessible through the NDIS due to the tightening of eligibility and planning decisions.
PWDA is calling on state and territory governments to stop delaying and commit to properly funding foundational supports now.
PWDA is also urging all federal election candidates to publicly commit to a national system of properly funded, co-designed foundational supports and hold states and territories accountable for their failure to act.
“We will be watching closely in the lead-up to the federal election. People with disability and their families deserve to know which leaders are standing up for them—and which ones are failing them,” Mx Spindler-Smith said.
Media contact
People With Disability Australia
0491 034 479
ENDS
The various Australian states have abandoned their responsibility to fund and ensure there are state-based disability services. The federal government introduced the NDIS (the huge National Disability Scheme). Now many states and territories have come to over-rely on the NDIS as it saves them a lot of money. How the federal government allowed them to withdraw and abandon their disability services beats me. Tasmania, where I live, is one of the worst offenders here.
With its poor mental health provision (especially public mental health) and its even poorer autism disability provision. Tasmania is the biggest area in Australia, if not in most western countries, where almost no autism-related services operate now. The Tasmanian government (and the federal) doesn’t seem to be eager or willing (able?) to fix this. This means such services have not just stood still (pretty low service provision at best) to now way less. It is a tragic, nasty, and very backwards situation. It abandons many thousands of people who, say, are autistic but also have (not unusually so) co-occurring mental health conditions. I could write a book on how bad and absurd this is. I have no clue if foundational services (if ever implemented here) will address this. We need a new kind of peer-focused autism service here that works for the young, older, parents, and families. The same goes for our backwards (and semi-privatised) mental health community-based sector. We must demand and agitate for something far better.
Without people power, we are in a big disability services hole at the moment, and nobody but us coming together to fight and repair such neglect will get us out of it.