Sarah Ison
Anthony Albanese and his state counterparts are mulling over a secret report that argues for each jurisdiction to have its own distinct plan for children with mild autism coming off the NDIS, as federal Labor races the clock to land key elements of its Thriving Kids program.
But as the Prime Minister and premiers prepare to lock horns over wide-ranging health and disability funding arrangements at national cabinet on Friday, The Australian understands the Thriving Kids report does not include any detailed modelling or costings for the “robust system of supports” promised to autistic children redirected from the $50bn-a-year National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Those familiar with the design of Thriving Kids warned the program was not intended to be an “NDIS lite”, and that the notion of disabled Australians being given “total control” over the funding they were entitled to and services they needed would not be replicated by the new initiative.
Rather than a national program running alongside the NDIS, the head of the parliamentary committee that investigated Thriving Kids, Mike Freelander, said he expected the commonwealth to look at setting up individualised systems in each state.
“It will vary from state to state and from area to area in fact,” Dr Freelander, who has been active in disability reform and the development of the Thriving Kids program, said. “And it can’t be open ended. I think that some people will be a bit stressed by what we’re suggesting, and want overall and total control. But I think certainly from a budgetary point of view, we can’t allow that to happen.”
While the findings of Dr Freelander’s parliamentary committee were made public late last year, the report from the Thriving Kids advisory group was not.
Co-chaired by Health Minister Mark Butler and children’s health expert Frank Oberklaid, the report was handed down before Christmas and identifies principles to guide state and Commonwealth negotiations while laying out potential areas each state could invest in.
This model takes into account strengths and weaknesses in each state and territory, with funding to bolster areas the jurisdictions are doing well in and fill gaps in those which they are not.
A flurry of bilateral meetings between federal and state counterparts have already taken place in recent weeks and come just five months ahead of the anticipated Thriving Kids’ launch date, which the federal government is being pushed to delay.
Mr Butler confirmed states had “certainly put positions back to us about the time frame” he laid out during his national press club address in August, which was met with shock and frustration by premiers who claimed they had been blindsided by the announcement.
“This is obviously something we need to do, and want to do in partnership with jurisdictions. So any feedback from states and territories, we obviously take seriously, but that will be a matter of negotiation over the coming 12 or 18 hours,” Mr Butler said in Melbourne. “There’s been a huge amount of work over the last six months or so, and I’m very confident we’ll reach an important landing on Thriving Kids, as well as the other elements of the (hospital) deal that we hope will be finalised by national cabinet tomorrow morning.”
Speculation over the design of the Thriving Kids program has raged in recent months, with questions over how the $2bn in federal funding already committed to the policy will be spent, along with the “matching” investment the Albanese government said it expected from states.
This included whether the commonwealth would identify initiatives already operating in one state and fund them nationally, such as the Kids Institute’s Inklings Program, which has been invoked frequently by Mr Butler as a successful model.
However, the Australian understands the idea of “picking winners” and rolling them out in every state and territory is something being argued against.
Health Minister Mark Butler. Picture: Tertius Pickard/NewsWire
While pursuing a state-by-state model for Thriving Kids, the Commonwealth may also invest in broad initiatives such as GP training or even a new Medicare number for check ups intended to pick up developmental delay early on.
Speaking ahead of national cabinet, a WA government spokesman said it was crucial disability supports were “tailored” based on states’ geographic and population characteristics, confirming the need to “build on the strengths of our existing service ecosystem”.
Thriving Kids is central to the government’s aim to rein in spending and return the NDIS to catering for those with the most acute disabilities or else risk the scheme blowing out to $100bn a year.
Future eligibility changes flagged by Mr Butler in August are another key pillar to the policy.
Mr Albanese said he was confident his government would reach its target of reducing the annual growth of the NDIS to 8 per cent by the middle of this year, and said it could “certainly” be reduced further. He said it was “in the interest of all Australians” that agreements on disability reform and the five-year hospital funding deal were struck, but pushed back on premiers’ claims the federal government was cost shifting on to states and needed to increase its investments. “We’re not an ATM,” Mr Albanese declared. “We have to make sure that we’re responsible going forward. We understand a number of state budgets are under pressure as well. But I’ve been having constructive discussions with state and territory leaders.”
Responding to questions on the state-by-state model likely to be adopted in the development of Thriving Kids, opposition NDIS spokeswoman Anne Ruston said the initiative was “looking less like a new federal program and more like a smokescreen for additional services the states are being asked to deliver”.
“The minister … announced this program without state support and we know the frontline organisations expected to deliver these services have been left completely in the dark,” she said.
Before meeting the Prime Minister on Thursday night, premiers participated in a closed-door meeting to discuss their position on looming disability and health reforms, with a strong “unity of view” that sources said was shared ahead of the high stakes national cabinet meeting on Friday.
It follows Queensland Premier David Crisafulli saying his state “won’t be signing” any deal on long-term hospital funding and disability reform unless the federal government deal was fair, heaping pressure on the Commonwealth to increase its current $23bn offer.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING: Paul Garvey
Subsequently, Government released the previously secret report - see https://a4.org.au/node/2762