Shorten’s

2. Long-term planning

Shorten also promised a move away from short-term planning and towards more multi -year plans. This was a bit of a nonannouncement, as 3-year plans have been the standard for people with stable needs for a while now.

“Unless we’re moving to even longer plans, there’s not much to see here.”

3. Addressing rising costs

Now for the reason the majority of journalists were in the room: the rising cost of the NDIS. Very importantly, the Minister was clear that the NDIS would continue to fund reasonable and necessary supports and that there would not be a move to kick people with certain diagnoses off the NDIS. Instead, he spoke about ensuring every dollar was well spent, and that people are not being charged higher rates for supports just because NDIS is footing the bill. Depending on the outcome of the Review, they ‘could’ also trial an approach where payments would be more closely tied with outcomes rather than just time spent.

A major focus was ensuring interventions reduce lifetime costs, with Shorten making the rather dubious statement that ‘The parent of any child on the NDIS will tell you they hope to exit the scheme as quickly as possible.’

One of the more concrete announcements was the trial of an early intervention program for infants between 9 and 15 months old showing early signs of autism. 700 families in WA will participate in the trial, which will be run in partnership with Telethon Kids Institute.