WA digs in heels on disability scheme

May 8th, 2013

Peter Nolan

Western Australia won’t sign up to the federal government’s national disability care scheme before the September election, Premier Colin Barnett has indicated.

Queensland signed up to the deal on Wednesday, leaving only WA and the Northern Territory to accept the program.

But Mr Barnett said there were problems with the scheme that needed to be resolved, reiterating his preference for a decentralised system.

WA would sign up to it eventually, he said, but there was still time to negotiate the terms with the federal government.

DisabilityCare Australia, formerly the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), will not be introduced until 2019, although money will start to be collected from states and territories from July next year.

“I don’t think a pre-election environment is a good time to be debating this,” Mr Barnett told Fairfax Radio.

“I think you’ll see a little bit more rational commonsense and more flexibility following the federal election.”

He again said the current level of disability care in WA was higher than in other parts of Australia and should not go backwards.

WA Disability Services Minister Helen Morton said the state government’s My Way scheme, introduced in July last year, was better than the federal government’s plan because it involved less paperwork and was personalised.

Under the My Way scheme, people with disabilities can choose their service provider and are supported by co-ordinators.

“We’re not prepared to give up the better approach we’ve got (for) control and choice, far in advance of what the NDIS is set to deliver at the moment,” Ms Morton told reporters in Perth.

“We are in front of that process.”

Ms Morton said the commonwealth scheme asked people with disabilities to wade through too much paperwork.

“People are fed up with that level of bureaucracy,” she said.

“We have gone beyond that, where we will engage at a personal level and support them through a future planning process.”