Grievance Debate

Disability Services Funding

Ms COOK (Hurtle Vale) (15:16): With the help of the current Marshall government, our community services sector is approaching another fiscal cliff of block funding in respect to the funded disability service providers. Until the full transition occurs from state-based block funding to the NDIS, which is the biggest social reform and opportunity the disability sector has ever seen, the cooperation must continue. The state government cannot take its hands off the wheel. Yes, the sector is currently in flux as we transition, but it is at least 12 months behind schedule.

I hear that the Minister for Human Services has said that we will be at full rollout of the NDIS by 30 June this year. That is only 3½, four months away. I might add that on 16 January I received a letter from the federal Minister for Families and Social Services, who is responsible for NDIS funding, which stated, 'As you are aware, the NDIS is fully rolled out in South Australia.' Well, I think there are many people waiting for their plans and approvals who would be very surprised about that. I am not sure what information the federal minister is getting, but we are a long way from full rollout. On latest figures, we are at around 70 to 75 per cent.

After taking office last year, I met with many disability service providers to hear about the stories of block funding, the transition to the NDIS and what was happening to them. With only days left to run on their existing funding arrangements, the Premier and the minister stumped up the additional package of block funding required to keep the doors open and keep their programs running. But it seems that this government has not learned from its past mistakes because now, in February 2019, we again see that the same cohort of disability service providers are worried about block funding arrangements coming to an end.

There has been no word from the Premier or the minister about the current status of these arrangements. Some are due to end within a month. In answer to allegations from the minister regarding the understanding of the interface between state block funding and NDIS funding, we on this side of the house are well aware of the arrangements and the need to reduce block funding pro rata as the increased uptake of the NDIS occurs.

The providers of services are the experts in this. They are very worried, and they are the ones informing us that many of them have no arrangements past the end of March. We see and expect many more job losses and reductions in services over the next few months as organisations cut services to community members who need it the most. It is a debilitating existence for disability service providers when they have no way of retaining staff, no way of attracting new staff and no way of growing to be the sector that they need to be to provide the services that are needed in the coming years.

I take great interest in the Social Development Committee. Parliament is currently inquiring into the NDIS, and funding arrangements have been questioned. Credible large providers like Uniting Communities who have hundreds of dedicated people working for them, have stated something to the effect that they are waiting until March to find out how much, if any, funding the state government is prepared to provide to them. If that is not a worry about a fiscal cliff, I do not know what is. It is only a month away. They need to have some surety.

There are people working for them on the lowest incomes: disability support workers, community workers and coordinators, and they cannot wait. They need some guarantees that they are going to have a job after the end of March in order to give a commitment to stay with these organisations that have trained them and been loyal to them for years. The organisations cannot innovate, they cannot plan, they cannot employ.

The regions are worried. The regions are also at a precipice, and they have bigger problems in respect of the challenges of retaining and recruiting staff. The organisations that serve the disability sector in the regions need some guarantees. They need to know that the funding is not coming to an end. It is a lived reality in South Australia: our NDIS transition is behind the times. We will not be in full rollout by the end of June. The guarantee currently being given is unfair and untrue. There is no way that after this time 25 per cent more people will transition to the NDIS by the end of June, and the minister must take some responsibility.