The haphazard decisions being made by the federal government around the NDIS are fuelling burnout and causing waitlists to balloon, while client care thins out.
Recent and proposed NDIA reforms are shutting down small allied health businesses, cutting off regional and remote clients, and forcing unsafe caseloads onto those workers who remain, according to Professionals Australia, the union for workers in STEM professions.
Workers from the union were in Canberra yesterday, lobbying the government to reverse recent travel changes, index allied health price caps to real costs, and introduce a time‑limited viability supplement for small and/or regional providers.
“The haphazard decisions being made by the federal government around the NDIS are fuelling burnout and causing waitlists to balloon, while client care thins out,” said Professionals Australia CEO Sam Roberts.
“Workers have told me that outreach is becoming uneconomic, plans are departing from clinical advice, and program roles like AHAs are being cut as travel becomes a loss‑maker.
“Cost‑cutting first, evidence later is a demolition plan, not reform.
“Starving small providers won’t fix ‘rorting’ – it cuts access for the very people the NDIS was built to serve.
“Work with clinicians, not against them, and put clinical evidence back in charge,” he said.
“Robodebt taught us that when governments chase numbers and ignore evidence, people get hurt. If we keep starving small providers, we won’t fix misuse – we will cut access.
“The fix is simple: restore viable travel, index price caps to real costs, and put clinical evidence back at the centre.”
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Judy Scott, an occupational therapist working in Queensland and the NT, said:
“The real costs and time needed to provide these services isn’t reflected in NDIS pricing. My business was unable to pay me for 12 months – I survived on savings and a loan.
“We had finally recovered, then the cuts came in.
“I pour everything into keeping our business afloat so that we can continue to provide services to people with a disability, but the unsustainable model the NDIS has forced us into keeps me up at night.
“We provide services to First Nations communities throughout the Northern Territory. With the heavy reduction to the travel pricing, we’ve had to move to a model that lacks the time needed to deliver culturally sensitive services and places our therapists at greater risks; everyone needs to work longer hours to keep the service – just barely – viable.”
Sarah Moran, a speech pathologist from NSW, said:
“When plans ignore travel, report writing and coordination – that time comes directly out of therapy hours.
“We don’t want to bill for everything, but without fair prices we’re faced with an impossible choice: work for free until our business goes under, or bill the time.
“A 30-minute travel cap doesn’t cut it in congested city areas where it can sometimes take half an hour just to travel three suburbs over.
“We’re faced with the choice to either turn down appointments or absorb the cost ourselves. The system depends on our unpaid labour – we can’t do it forever.”