Labor’s planned NDIS overhaul is ‘blunt and inequitable’, thinktank says

Proposed funding cuts ‘underpinned by dubious policy logic’, Grattan Institute says in scathing critique Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Labor’s plans to slash social participation budgets for national disability insurance scheme participants in half is “blunt and inequitable”, “underpinned by dubious logic” and could lead to “absurd” outcomes, an influential thinktank says. It’s one of the latest scathing critiques levelled at the federal government’s proposal to return the NDIS to its “original intent” by drastically overhauling who can access supports and how much they can receive. The Albanese government’s NDIS bill is designed to dramatically curb the $50bn-a-year scheme’s growth by reducing category budgets from later this year and the number of Australians with disabilities who can access it from 2028. Without these changes, the government estimates it will cost $117bn a year in a decade’s time. Before the bill is voted on in parliament, it will go under the microscope of a Senate committee, due to report later this month. In a submission to the inquiry, the Gra