Disability Care and Support: Inquiry Report

The current disability support system is underfunded, unfair, fragmented, and inefficient. It gives people with a disability little choice, no certainty of access to appropriate supports and little scope to participate in the community. People with disabilities, their carers, service providers, workers in the industry and governments all want change. The Australian Government asked the Productivity Commission to look at the costs, cost effectiveness, benefits and feasibility of replacing the current arrangements with a properly funded and managed long-term disability scheme. This report outlines the Commission’s ideas for a new way of meeting the care and support needs of people with a disability.

The bottom line of this report is that a new national scheme for disability — like Medicare — is feasible, that it would produce very large benefits for Australians and that a realistic and clear implementation pathway is available. The Commission also recommends the establishment of a National Injury Insurance Scheme — run at the state and territory level — that would provide lifetime support for people acquiring a catastrophic injury from an accident. It would draw on existing arrangements in some states.