❓ Hon. Amber-Jade Sanderson questions the Minister for Disability Services regarding advance payments to NDIS providers in WA, arguing it disadvantages participants. The Minister defends the practice, citing support for smaller providers and ongoing trial evaluations.
AnsweredQoN 140Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
NATIONAL
DISABILITY INSURANCE SCHEME — PAYMENTS
140. Hon AMBER-JADE SANDERSON to the Minister for Disability Services:
I refer to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. In all
other states, people have the normal rights of a consumer to pay for a service
only after it has been delivered to their satisfaction. In WA, this right been
denied; providers are paid up-front and invoice queries are not under the
participants' control. Why is payment in advance being considered when
it is seldom used in the public sector and is not conducive to strong competitive
market development benefiting participants with competitive value?
DISABILITY INSURANCE SCHEME — PAYMENTS
140. Hon AMBER-JADE SANDERSON to the Minister for Disability Services:
I refer to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. In all
other states, people have the normal rights of a consumer to pay for a service
only after it has been delivered to their satisfaction. In WA, this right been
denied; providers are paid up-front and invoice queries are not under the
participants' control. Why is payment in advance being considered when
it is seldom used in the public sector and is not conducive to strong competitive
market development benefiting participants with competitive value?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for some notice of the question.
Western Australia has a strong history of facilitating
self-management whereby arrangements regarding payments and invoicing are made
between people with disability and their chosen service provider. WA has also
fostered a diverse service provider market to encourage innovation and to
maximise choice for people with disability. Paying in advance has enabled many
small and medium providers to continue to support people with disability when
the scale of their organisation means limited cash flows.
This state is committed to learning from the trials, and
payment mechanisms will be considered as part of designing the best model for
delivering the NDIS in WA. However, at this stage, the Western Australian NDIS
comparative trials are still ongoing and the evaluation of these trials has not
been completed. Designing the future of disability services in Western Australia
will involve drawing out the best features of both models, learning the lessons
from the independent evaluation and engaging with people who will participate
in the scheme.
Western Australia has a strong history of facilitating
self-management whereby arrangements regarding payments and invoicing are made
between people with disability and their chosen service provider. WA has also
fostered a diverse service provider market to encourage innovation and to
maximise choice for people with disability. Paying in advance has enabled many
small and medium providers to continue to support people with disability when
the scale of their organisation means limited cash flows.
This state is committed to learning from the trials, and
payment mechanisms will be considered as part of designing the best model for
delivering the NDIS in WA. However, at this stage, the Western Australian NDIS
comparative trials are still ongoing and the evaluation of these trials has not
been completed. Designing the future of disability services in Western Australia
will involve drawing out the best features of both models, learning the lessons
from the independent evaluation and engaging with people who will participate
in the scheme.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.