NDIS INFLATION UNDER FIRE; ENERGY RISKS
NDIS plan inflation adds $3.3 billion to costs
Intra-plan inflation in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) drove more than $3.3 billion in additional NDIS costs over the 12 months to February, the Federal Government has revealed. NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said overspending of NDIS plans remained a major issue, especially in cases where thousands of participants were encouraged to spend their NDIS funding too quickly and to spend on non-disability supports. Mr Shorten said that as a result, NDIS authorities had reminded NDIS plan managers and coordinators of their obligations, in a bid to weed out unscrupulous providers. The Minister said the National Disability Insurance Authority was also working with the Australian Taxation Office to ensure that “dodgy providers” were detected. Mr Shorten said some examples of supports claimed incorrectly by participants included mobile phones, theme park passes, treadmills, TV antennae and bird seed.
PM stands firm on funding reforms
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has hosed down suggestions that Federal and State governments will split on future funding proposals for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Mr Albanese said funding for the NDIS would continue to grow strongly, but both tiers of government had a responsibility to ensure the scheme gave value for money. The PM said the NDIS (projected in the Budget to cost $48 billion in 2024-25) needed to be made sustainable, to ensure that any person with a disability got the support they needed to participate in Australian society. Mr Albanese said he was confident that foreshadowed Federal NDIS-related legislation being discussed with the states was right, in the context of other funding support for states in areas such as education, health, hospitals and housing.
Energy regulator warns on supply risks to electricity reliability
A report by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has warned that urgent investments in capacity in the national electricity market (NEM) are needed to manage risks in supply reliability. AEMO says that reliability risks have increased in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia because of a combination of delays to battery projects, mothballed and retired generators and transmission limitations. The energy market operator noted that Federal and State government programs had the potential to address the majority of forecast reliability risks. But AEMO says that additional investments are required to further reduce reliability risks; it says that new supply developments will be needed and will also need to connect in locations that can service loads, which it says at times may be geographically distant.
Shakeup for disability employment services aimed at lifting job rate
Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth has flagged wholesale changes to improve the access of people with a disability to long-term employment. In a major address, Ms Rishworth said the unemployment rate for people with a disability was more than double that of working age people without disability, and was at a level that had not shifted in decades. The Minister committed to a relaxation of the mutual obligations framework to ensure it catered to individual circumstances. She also foreshadowed greater controls over provider entry into disability ability services, to support the viability of smaller and more specialist providers. Ms Rishworth said the May 14 Budget had committed an additional $227.6 million over four years to the new disability employment services system, for a total commitment of $5.5 billion over four years.
Farm, manufacturing export access to head India free trade push
Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell says Australia will seek a fresh trade deal with India, but only one that offered “commercially meaningful market access” for exporters. In a speech to an industry forum, Senator Farrell said Australia would only agree to a deal that was in its national interest, and was beyond what it received in its first agreement with India, especially in the areas of agriculture and manufacturing. The Minister said India was now Australia’s fourth largest export market, and was on track to become the world’s third largest economy by 2030. In the 14 months since the existing trade deal was implemented, more than $24 billion worth of Australian exports to India had zero tariffs or lower tariffs than many of its competitors. Agricultural exports were up by 60 per cent, and manufactured goods exports up by 66 per cent, Senator Farrell said.
Electricity prices tipped to ease
In the same week as the release of the AEMO report, the Australian Energy Regulator says that from 1 July 2024, most residential customers in three states could have electricity price reductions of between one and six per cent. The AER’s default market offer caps the price that retailers can charge household and small business customers on standard retail plans in South Australia, New South Wales and South-East Queensland. It said that wholesale energy costs had decreased by around 21 per cent in SA, by between seven and 11 per cent in NSW, and by 0.2 per cent in SE Queensland. Some customers, however, may face small increases according to their region and their electricity load usage profile.