Submission to NDIS Act Reform
On 27 March 2024, The Australian Government introduced changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, through the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No.1) Bill 2024. The Bill seeks to respond to concerns related to quality and safeguards, fraud and financial sustainability issues within the scheme.
The Human Rights Law Centre is concerned that the Bill will not address these underlying concerns, without strengthening safeguards for whistleblowers. It is crucial that providers, workers and participants are empowered to speak up about wrongdoing under the scheme, but the NDIS Act whistleblower protections have fallen drastically behind best practice.
The Human Rights Law Centre, in its submission to the Committee, recommended reform to the whistleblower protections under the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (Cth) to address key deficiencies in the NDIS Act whistleblower protections. The submission calls for:
expanding the scope of eligible individuals to make a disclosure and be protected under the scheme
introduce key reforms to make it simpler and easier for NDIS whistleblowers to make a disclosure to the appropriate body
introduce a positive obligation for the Safeguards Commission or National Disability Insurance Agency to investigate a whistleblower disclosure
Read the submission here.