The federal government will overhaul the National Disability Insurance Scheme, hoping to cut the annual cost by $15 billion by the end of decade. Health Minister Mark Butler said the scheme was not just unsustainable, but also in danger of losing its social licence.
Some of the key changes include clamping down on the number of unregistered providers of services, paid for by the NDIS. Currently, 93pc of service providers are unregistered, and the plan is to ensure mandatory registration of higher risk activities, such as providers of personal care and daily living support. The government will also introduce an electronic invoicing system.
There will be a tightening of access for people with mild to moderate conditions, both children and adults. The government wants to introduce standardised, evidence-based assessments of a person’s “functional capacity” to determine access to the scheme, rather than relying on a diagnosis.
And, assuming Canberra can convince Queensland to sign up, the government will give back responsibility for children with mild conditions and developmental delays to the state via a cheaper, co-funded Thriving Kids program. As a result of the changes, 160,000 people will no longer be eligible for the NDIS.
On emerging markets, investing through global turmoil, and how the game has changed for investors:
"What we’re seeing now fits into a broader framework we’ve been thinking about for the last few years — that we’re in a new regime for investment markets. You’ve got more volatile inflation, which doesn’t necessarily mean higher inflation, but inflation that moves around a lot more.
You’ve got commodity scarcity — whether that’s energy today or things like rare earths over recent years. You’ve got rising protectionism that was happening even before tariffs were introduced. And you’ve got a rollback of globalisation after decades of expansion.
So we try to put what’s happening in the Middle East into that broader context rather than just reacting to individual events."
The ASX tumbled 1.2 per cent yesterday to 8844 points – the largest one-day fall in more than a month. Earnings downgrades, particularly in healthcare, rattled the market, and overshadowed news that US President Donald Trump had extended the ceasefire with Iran.
The residential rental market across the country is close to breaking point, with affordability limits preventing higher prices even though there is little available stock across most capital cities.
The share price of bluechip healthcare stock Cochlear sank 41 per cent yesterday, wiping off $4.5 billion in value, after it slashed its full year earnings forecast saying sales of its hearing implants were lower due to the Middle East conflict and record low consumer sentiment in the US.
The corporate basket case of the past 12 months has been Corporate Travel Management. The situation for the group has gotten worse after it admitted it had detected overcharging of the British government three years ago but decided not to tell the market because local executives had dealt with it via “letter agreements”, which were allegedly fake.
OpenAI is facing a criminal investigation in the US over whether its ChatGPT technology played a part in the murder of two people during a mass shooting at Florida State University last year.
Fear-o-meter
Health Minister Mark Butler on why we need to open a new Aged Care home every three days for the next 20 years.
A little over 80 years ago, both my grandfathers were coming home after serving in North Africa, the Middle East and New Guinea.
Like so many returning service men and women, they’d been away for several years in their 20s.
They were all impatient to get back to civilian life. They found jobs, partners and homes. And they had kids – lots of kids. Including my Mum and Dad. Now, those babies are turning 80 – the critical age for measuring demand for aged care. And they’re doing it in unprecedented numbers.
In the four years from 2012, the net increase in Australians aged 80 and older was just 70,000. Over the coming four years, that growth will be more than 300,000 – four times the growth.
That’s why I’ve said we need to open a new Aged Care home every three days for the next twenty years.
And, right now, we’re not. Not by a long shot!
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