Historic NDIS roll out to change thousands of Tasmanians lives

More than 10,000 Tasmanians living with disability, and their families, stand to benefit when the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is fully rolled out in 2019.

The Commonwealth and Tasmanian governments have reached agreement on the full roll out of the scheme.

Federal Social Services Minister Christian Porter said the NDIS is receiving widespread community support.

“The NDIS is one of the largest social policy reforms in Australia’s history. Tasmanians living with disability, their families, their carers and their service providers will all benefit from it – and from the certainty today’s announcement provides,” Mr Porter said.

“This is a significant change for people with disability and the disability services sector, and that’s why we are introducing the scheme in stages to ensure that it is carefully managed.

“Tasmania’s experience with the trial for young people aged 15-24 years offers a successful base to launch the full roll-out.”

Tasmanian Human Services Minister Jacquie Petrusma said the staged roll-out would begin, as planned, from 1 July 2016, with all eligible people with disability in Tasmania aged between 12 and 28 years entering the scheme in the first year.

“After the second year, we will have extended the scheme to all eligible people aged between four and 34 years, and by the end of the third year, to all those aged from birth to 64 years,” Mrs Petrusma said.

“In each year of the roll-out, the number of Tasmanians in the NDIS will roughly double and will expand every six months, with about 10,600 people receiving individual support through the scheme by 1 July 2019.

“We are continuing to work in partnership with the disability sector throughout the roll-out, and we can assure Tasmanians living with disability that existing support services will be retained during the transition to ensure they are not disadvantaged.”

Mrs Petrusma said the NDIS will not only give a fairer go to Tasmanians living with disability, it is also expected to create more than 2500 new jobs in the disability sector in the next three years.

“Modelling also shows that for every full-time job created in the sector, a multiplier of a further 1.5 Full-Time Equivalent jobs would be created in the broader economy,” she said.

Mr Porter said four of Australia’s states and territories have now reached agreement with the Commonwealth on the full roll out of the NDIS: Tasmania, New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory.

“Constructive discussions with other jurisdictions are continuing and the Commonwealth is committed to finalising agreements as soon as possible,” he said.