Developing a new NDIS Agreement between Western Australia and the Commonwealth: Submission to the Western Australian Government

The Western Australian and Commonwealth governments are undertaking negotiations with respect to establishing a new bilateral agreement relating to the National Disability Services Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and its operation in Western Australia.
This process represents an important opportunity for the Western Australian government to reset the NDIS agreement to ensure Western Australian public financial resources are applied to the best effect in support of those people with disability in our community. It is of critical importance as the NDIS is not currently operating effectively.
Additionally, this opportunity lies in the fact that a decade of experience has been gained nationally in the operation of the NDIS and lessons learned can be applied to rectify structural issues that are impacting the efficiency and effectiveness of the Western Australian disability services system, of which the NDIS is a significant part. These issues have been well documented in academic and industry research, and reported accordingly.2 As such, the issues we raise, and the recommended responses, are not new to the audience of this paper and are able to be resolved. Further, the levels of under-utilisation demonstrate clearly the reality of the deficiencies in the system. Therefore, we posit that the issues experienced to date are now required to be rectified as part of the bilateral renegotiations.
This document has been prepared by the Not-for-profits UWA Research Team (UWA Business School) in conjunction with those members of the Coalition of Disability Advocacy Organisations in Western Australia listed in the final section below. We have used our experienced gained over the past decade to inform this document which is intended to provide the Western Australian government with an understanding of the highest priority issues negatively impacting the efficiency and effectiveness of the NDIS along with key opportunities that can be pursued by the government in order to meet these challenges. These issues are focused on systemic improvement and specific detail and examples are available should they be of interest.
We are also very keen to confirm that we would be pleased to meet with the state government in order to tease out any of these issues and to discuss further the key recommendations or to provide additional information.