When the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was first launched in 2013, it was widely seen as the much-needed reform to address the discrimination, service access and social justice inequities disabled people faced.

No one expected a magic bullet, but it was embraced as a good start and had bipartisan support. Julia Gillard’s Labor government talked it up as an investment rather than a cost. 

The Productivity Commission agreed, having released a report showing for every $1 put into NDIS, Australia could expect a $2.15 return. The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) was set up to manage the scheme with the independent NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission to oversee compliance and providers.

The hope and relief in the disability community was palpable.

But, as with disability itself, the devil is in the day-to-day management detail that no one else sees.

The scheme was launched with three sleeper grenades at its core. The first of these was the NDIA recruitment framework. In the critical early stages, it did not sufficiently prioritise across-the-board recruitment of people with a disability at all levels, including the board. This has now been addressed and 19.1% of the NDIA workforce and 12% of Senior Executive Staff (APS) are now people with a disability. But the agency is still playing catch-up.

The second was the NDIS specific price list. It initially over delivered on pricing, to attract providers, but under delivered on integrity and risk management, rolling out without sufficient guardrails into a privatised market.

Last year’s annual NDIS Pricing Review made the most significant progress to date, after finding some people were still paying up to 68% more than Medicare rates for the same service under NDIS pricing.

Third was the damaging combination of under-estimation of need combined with a severely under-staffed disability sector workforce. Disabled people began to find themselves pitted against each other for scant services and fighting the NDIA over inappropriate funding. 

Some were allocated support budgets that were 

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