One economist warns that Australian policymakers will need to make tough decisions sooner or later as the latest budget papers reveal the soaring cost of ambitious social welfare programs like the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which is predicted to exceed the cost of the defence portfolio. “They’ve got this long-term problem with trying to…

Australian Minister for Government Services Bill Shorten, who oversees the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), has said that “bureaucratic glue” is preventing healthy patients from leaving public hospitals. At present, over 1,400 NDIS participants across Australia are waiting an average of 160 days to be discharged from hospitals. This results in Australian taxpayers having to pay…

Despite efforts by the previous federal government to bring costs under control, the budget for Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme has continued to spiral as the program spent A$3.29 billion (US$2.29 billion) in the last month alone. The NDIS, established under the Gillard Labor government in 2013, was designed to be a fully government-funded program…

The Australian government has paid $340 million (US$232 million) in disaster support to almost 415,000 flood-affected residents in New South Wales (NSW). The latest flood crisis has swept through many communities in the state, from the Blue Mountains to the south coast. Among the victims, some have encountered four consecutive floods in 18 months. The…

One of the biggest challenges facing Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is that it has become the primary go-to option for disabled individuals across the country, according to new NDIS Minister Bill Shorten, who said the system was only supposed to help those who were “profoundly impaired and severely disabled.” The Labor minister is…

Australian government minister Bill Shorten has vowed to put an end to the fraud that is hurting the federal government’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which results more than $1.5 billion (US$1.06 billion) in loss a year. The announcement comes after a report by The Herald Sun on Sunday revealed that criminal syndicates are targeting…

The New South Wales (NSW) Cancer Council’s “ditch the ham sandwich” campaign for students’ school lunches has been met with intense backlash from around the Australian state with critics slamming the advertising campaign as “politically correct messages” that had gone “too far.” The NSW Cancer Council’s leaflets on the “ditch the ham sandwich” campaign were sent…

The massive costs of Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)—tipped to hit $60 billion a year (US$42.7 billion) by 2029-30—will continue to escalate if changes are not introduced to arrest the ever-widening scope of services it tries to cover. Clinical psychiatrist Tanveer Ahmed has also warned that the program has distorted parts of the health…

Australia’s centre-left Labor Party is promising to increase staff numbers at the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and review the operations of the burgeoning scheme which currently services around 500,000 Australians. Bill Shorten, the shadow minister for the NDIS, announced the party’s six-point-plan to change the program, which has faced issues of waste, delayed service…

Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Linda Reynolds has called on the states and territories to take on more responsibility for funding the scheme, which is ballooning out of control. “It’s not sustainable,” Reynolds told The Australian. “If you have a look at any government budget, 12 percent (the current growth rate) or…