Putting Australians First! (Unless You’re Disabled)
Just a friendly reminder that people with disabilities are not a burden on society.
The NDIS Problem
I have been sitting with a deeply uncomfortable feeling every time the NDIS gets brought up. My interaction with it has been in the context of being a GP for people with a variety of disabilities in a rural country town. The main frustration – if my patients manage to get through the mounds of paperwork and are approved – is the privatisation of the system to the point of harm. It is a common story in a country town to have people approved for NDIS packages who have their funding cut because they “didn’t need it”. The reason being that they couldn’t use it because the services either don’t exist where we live, or they exist but are not delivered by an approved provider. The latter is the more frustrating scenario and one I am seeing far too commonly with My Aged Care packages as well. However, the private companies “managing” these packages will always get their percentage, regardless of if any actual care is provided from the package.
The other challenge is that when a healthcare provider can charge a significantly higher service fee through the NDIS compared to private work, they often choose to become exclusively NDIS service providers and those limited services in rural areas often become completely inaccessible to anyone else. I also had a patient with down syndrome who was approaching end of life and completely unable to care for themselves. However, because they were under 65 years of age and NDIS funded, they did not qualify for access to the local aged care facility. They were faced with the choice between moving hours away from their community, or dying at home under the care of an incredibly supportive but under-staffed and under-skilled team of disability support workers.
Let me clear – when I am talking about skill here, I do not mean that disability support workers are not skilled. I mean that this person needed 24hr nursing care and, whilst the support workers were doing a fabulous job, it was not a job they were trained for nor appropriately paid for. We should not be relying on the good will of low paid disability support workers to provide 24-hour nursing care to someone approaching end of life when we have appropriate facilities to do this within their rural community. Especially when the barrier is essentially bureaucratic - the funding isn’t accepted because the facility isn’t a registered NDIS provider, and the patient is under 65 years of age so they cannot access aged care funding. This may initially sound reasonable in terms of requiring facilities to meet certain minimum requirements to be a NDIS facility, but the reality is that those living in rural communities are lucky to have a single aged care facility and are unlikely to have any reasonable alternatives registered as an approved NDIS aged care provider.
These points have been my frustrations with the NDIS. Inefficiency and a system that isn’t fit-for-purpose. This is what I thought the conversation was about whenever it turned to discussing the massive money drain that the NDIS seems to have turned into.
When I heard complaints about the application process it didn’t cross my mind that these were complaints about anything other than the obscene amount of paperwork that needs to be completed, repeated and is often lost or discredited by non-medical administrative staff who insist that a GP report is not adequate for evidence of a disability despite us generally being the medical specialist (yes, GP is a medical speciality) that knows the patient best. Not once did it occur to me that politicians or my colleagues were actually suggesting that NDIS participants didn’t deserve the funding they were being provided.
However, as more conversations cropped up among colleagues and politicians about the NDIS, I realised that we were not talking about the same thing. Australians are publicly and unashamedly debating whether we, as a society, should financially support people with disabilities with our tax-payer money. We are discussing a group of already marginalised people as if they are an inconvenience or a burden. That by supporting them to engage with a world that is not accessible to them – such as support workers providing transport and company to get a cup of coffee at the local café – we are wasting money.
Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce are saying that the government needs to “crack down on the definition of disability”. Barnaby Joyce said “Remember, every time we saw it, we saw someone in a wheelchair? I’ve got no problems with that,” on a Sky News interview. “That’s what it’s there for – All of these expansive psychosocial depressions? No. We all have something a little bit wrong with us. You can’t all go on the NDIS”.
If you want to get an idea of the kind of rhetoric that One Nation are spewing about the NDIS you can watch a bizarre and horrifying cartoon which is being funded through One Nation rum sales. Yes, you read that correctly - “buy a bottle of rum to support the show”.
The first thing that struck me was that even such a well-funded political party misspelled “labour” of Labor Party, but then I got focused on the message. It portrays a system where you can access the NDIS for a stubbed toe or “trouble concentrating” – a not-so-subtle dig at neurodivergent folk. It also makes comment on sex workers and theme parks - implying that it is a fraudulent use of taxpayer money to suggest these are essential services to be funded under the NDIS.
There is so much to unpack here but first let me first provide some additional context.
Context – The use of taxpayer’s money – One Nation
The Guardian covers this topic well with multiple articles outlining the concerns raised of how various politicians and political parties are using taxpayer money: “Under Australian electoral funding laws, a candidate or party that receives at least 4% of the primary vote is entitled to public funding. This was set at $3.38 a vote in the 2025 election – which meant that last year One Nation banked $6.08m from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).
In 2021 the state upper house MP Rod Roberts (former One Nation, now independent) and Mark Latham (former NSW leader of One Nation) raised concerns about the party’s financial governance while they were both on the state executive, using parliamentary privilege to accuse the party of “defrauding New South Wales electoral funds”. Latham claimed that only after he threatened to report the party to the police for misappropriation of funds did the Queensland branch repay about $100,000 to the NSW division.”
Multiple other One Nation candidates have spoken up after being unable to get One Nation to reimburse the tens of thousands of dollars they spent on their election campaigns and being left out of pocket.
One Nation’s operations manager and treasurer Alexander Jones pled guilty in 2023 to attempted electoral fraud after trying to deceive the Queensland Electoral Commission.
One Nation’s campaign manager for the last election was Sean Black, a convicted rapist who was sentenced to five years’ jail in 2017 for assaulting a woman. It was only after significant public backlash that Pauline Hanson finally terminated his position.
One Nation’s leader, Pauline Hanson, has faced regular criticism of her use of taxpayer money and failure to declare gifts including:
- Charging taxpayers almost $9,000 for a chartered plane to attend an event honouring the mining billionaire Gina Rinehart’s donation to a private agricultural college
- Close to $5,000 to attend Rinehart’s birthday party
- Multiple uses of Rinehart’s private jet including when her chief of staff, James Ashby, joined her to fly to Florida in October 2025, where they stayed at the mining magnate’s Palm Beach mansion to speak at the Conservative Politician Action Conference (CPAC) and attend Donald Trump’s Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago.
Under parliamentary rules for senators’ interests, a declaration must be made of any sponsored travel or hospitality received where the value of the sponsorship or hospitality exceeds $300 and are required to be lodged within 35 days. The form was correctly lodged by One Nation as an alteration on 30 December following the Guardian’s report on the use of her mate’s private plane.
During her CPAC speech Hanson described Trump as a “re-energised, strong, and patriotic leader who has the best interest of his people at heart,” praising his action on border security, migrant deportations, attempts to disrupt fentanyl trafficking, US tariffs on other countries and “restored peace in the Middle East”, which she described as key achievements of the Trump administration.
Personally, I would describe Trump as a fascist who has been found liable for battery and sexual abuse, and has been accused of similar acts by at least an additional 28 women. Trump has been described by Epstein – a convicted paedophile charged with international child sex-trafficking – as his “closest friend for over 10 years”. In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine of Epstein, “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
So to summarise: One Nation thinks it is appropriate to spend taxpayer money on hiring a convicted rapist as their campaign manager, to fly around the world on her billionaire mate’s private jet while claiming to be the voice of the every-day Australian, and that Trump’s America is aspirational. But people with disabilities should be ashamed of “rorting the system” for needing some assistance to go out for a coffee.
Context – The use of taxpayer’s money – Family reunion travel benefits
Federal MPs and senators claimed over $1.1 million in family reunion travel benefits in the last financial year. The issue became more prominent after Communication and Sport Minister Anika Wells was criticised for using these rules to spend $11,500 over the last few years to fly her family to sports events and a Thredbo skiing trip where she attended an event organised by Paralympics Australia while her family skied. These provisions are designed to help members balance work-family responsibilities, recognising the importance of facilitating regular family time.
Politicians are only required to meet a “dominant purpose” of parliamentary business to claim thousands in travel for them and their families. They are legally obliged to “act in good faith” when claiming these allowances and self-certify that they meet requirements. The Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA) only audits a sub-section of these allowances. For example, if concerns are raised about inappropriate use – like when Michelle Rowland (Attorney-General) claimed almost $22,000 for a family trip to Western Australia and was made to pay back $16,000 in business class flights for her family.
Labor Minister Don Farrell – the chair of the IPEA – has himself spent $90,000 in recent years to fly his wife and adult children around the country under the parliamentary family reunion benefit. He was not found to be in breach of the requirements and did not need to reimburse any money.
This funding is available to our politicians because we value the importance of family and remaining connected to our loved ones.
Context – The Dangers of Loneliness
In a similar vein, many politicians across the country were extremely vocal in their objection to the Covid lockdowns, primarily citing the severe negative impacts of social isolation and loneliness on the populations mental and physical health. A 2020 Productivity Commission Inquiry Report highlighted loneliness and social isolation as major drivers of suicide and mental illness which led to several states launching their own inquiries into the impact of loneliness.
At the 2021 inquiry into social isolation and loneliness in Queensland, One Nation MP Stephen Andrew was quoted saying “I have seen many studies linking these people’s experience of forced isolation and social restrictions to significant cognitive decline, loss of self-esteem, personal validation and happiness and feelings of extreme loneliness and despair. Human beings are social creatures. They crave to be around others face to face and to have daily interactions at work and socially. Confining them to their homes, depriving them of those social contacts at work, the pub or local church, and telling them not to hug or kiss their friends and families is doing untold psychological damage and harm and simply has to stop. Social interactions with others means mental stimulation, and the more frequent our social interactions are, the better our cognitive functions and sense of self-worth will be. How are young people supposed to meet partners, make new friends, develop a career path or build a life?”
ACT (2023-2024) and NSW (2024-2025) both followed suit with their own inquiries. All of which acknowleded the detrimental impact of loneliness on both individuals and our society as a whole. Each inquiry concluded with a variety of recommendations on how to increase social connectedness in Australia such as investing in “third spaces” – social environments separate from home and work where people gather to relax, connect, and foster community. If you can get physically get there.
The “Problem”
Let’s go back to the big problems as per our politicians – how NDIS funds are used on “luxuries” like sex work and theme parks.
The Guardian reports that NDIS Minister Bill Shorten banned NDIS funds being used to access sex workers in 2024 despite the federal court ruling in 2020 that the use of NDIS funding for sex worker services met the “reasonable and necessary” test for a woman in her 40s who lives with multiple sclerosis and wanted it included in her plan.
At the time Jordon Steele-John (Greens Senator and disability advocate) noted “It’s a bit of a double standard, really, the federal government is totally happy to provide public funds for sex-based supports such as Viagra and other types of medications that are available on prescription — as they should be — and there is a growing acceptance about the need to have open and honest conversations about sex and sexuality throughout the community, and yet when it comes to disability and sexuality, it is framed often by people in positions of power it is framed as something that is salacious and taboo.”
Meanwhile former Federal Labor MP and Union Boss Craig Thomson used union credit cards to spend tens of thousands of dollars on personal expenses, including brothel visits and travel with his wife. He was fined for that, and has recently been jailed for his role in a multi-million-dollar visa fraud scheme.
Not to mention what others get up to while they are being paid a government salary. Gareth Ward (Former NSW MP) was jailed for sexually assaulting a political staffer, Bruce Lehrmann was found to have raped his colleague Brittany Higgins in a minister’s office at Parliament House and Senator David Van was expelled from the Liberal Party following allegations of sexual assault and harassment made by fellow Senator Lidia Thorpe and former Senator Amanda Stoker. But at least they weren’t disabled and paying for a consensual interaction with a sex-worker.
I wonder if we imposed a strict celibacy rule for all members of parliament if they would admit that sex is a fundamental human experience that everyone should have the opportunity to experience if they wish (with consent of all parties of course).
Regardless, lets take sex-work off the table since it was already removed from the NDIS years ago, and focus on the other “big issue” – use of taxpayer money to fund support workers to take participants to have coffee with friends or go to theme parks.
The disturbing undertone here is that we, as a society, are happy if people with disabilities are hidden away, and that we don’t think they deserve to be able to engage in meaningful social and community participation. Under Labor’s NDIS cuts, Mark Butler said funding amounts would be "reset" to 2023 levels, about $500 a week, and prevented from further "runaway growth".
I spoke to an NDIS provider about how much $500 a week would buy you on the NDIS. She explained that the NDIS doesn’t cover the cost of the food or drinks you buy at a cafe - that’s a private cost. What they DO pay for, is the support worker to pick you up, take you there and support you to enjoy the outing. The max metro hourly rate is approximately $70/hr, you go out for 2-3 hours (and shifts are a standard 2 hr minimum) and overall it ends up around $140-$210 on a weekday. It is much more expensive on a weekend or public holiday due to penalty rates. And that doesn’t even include the actual transport or time spent to get to where you’re going.
In addition if the support worker has a significant distance to drive to get to you, or to get you to where you are going - as is often the case in rural communities - this is also billed to the participant’s NDIS plan at $1/km.
So let’s go through an example. The NDIS might allocate you 10 hours of social and community participation funding. If you live a 45 minute drive to cover the 50km distance to the place you want to go - that uses up 1.5hr of your time at around $70/hr for your support worker, as well as an additional $50 each way on top of the hourly rate for the km travelled. To put that into context in my rural community - if you wanted to go to K-Mart, that trip would cost you around $400.
You would imagine the politicians who have spent millions of taxpayer dollars on inquiries into the negative impacts of social isolation would be able to understand that these are not “luxuries”. These are essential services to allow human beings to connect with other human beings.
The other disturbing undertone is the capitalist idea that your value stems from your ability to contribute to society by working. That folks with disabilities are not contributing so why should our hard-earned taxes go towards funding anything for them. This awful ableist attitude is the result of capitalism. Capitalism ties a person’s perceived value to their economic utility, productivity, and income / ability to contribute to taxes. This intrinsically creates a system where people who have a disability and are unable to work, are seen as less valuable and ultimately less deserving of basic human rights.
That is seriously fucked up.
I imagine many people feel this way and may sit silently while others debate the topic thinking that they are not causing harm because they are keeping the inside thoughts inside – but this is still incredibly harmful. This little thought that should remain tucked away in the back of your mind – or better yet removed entirely – is starting to be spoken about openly and used as part of a political agenda. This is the kind of thought seed that grew into mass extermination of an estimated 300,000 disabled people during the holocaust because they were considered to be a burden on the Aryan race.
Your value does not come from your ability to work. Your value comes from being human. Disturbingly, this fact is not represented anywhere in the Australian constitution. Australia has ratified international treaties, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which begins by recognizing the “inherent dignity” of all humans. However, these treaties are not automatically legally enforceable in Australia unless the Federal Parliament passes specific domestic laws to adopt them. This means that our current set of rather scarce laws designed to protect people with disabilities from active discrimination wouldn’t take much to challenge or pare back like what has been done in Trump’s America much to the admiration of Pauline Hanson.
Even worse, the only thing preventing passive mass extermination or “social murder” relies on the rest of the Australian population giving a shit. This concept, originally coined by Friedrich Engels in his 1845 work The Condition of the Working Class in England, describes premature deaths caused by capitalist exploitation, specifically through hazardous living and working conditions, poverty, and neglect. He argued that when society knowingly places workers in conditions that inevitably lead to an early, unnatural death, it is a form of premeditated, systemic homicide.
While initial cuts to the NDIS are not a clear plan for premeditated systemic homicide – the attitude that got us here is the beginning of a slippery slope if we don’t work hard to get back on track.
The fact that our politicians support convicted rapists, alleged paedophiles and systemic isolation of our disabled population despite being more than aware of the harm it causes, is appalling.
Labor plans to boot 160,000 people off the NDIS in an attempt to save the budget $15 million over the next four years focusing in particular on spending on social and community participation.
Meanwhile they continue to refuse to properly tax oil and gas companies. Australia’s biggest fossil fuel companies often pay less tax than the typical Australian worker. In many cases, they barely pay any tax at all. Did you know Australia collects more tax from beer than from offshore gas exports? $2.7 billion vs $1.5 billion. Nurses and teaches pay more income tax than the total PRRT paid by the oil and gas industry. A 25% tax on gas exports could raise around $17 billion each year according to the Australia Institute.
This should not be where our priorities lie. Especially when we are tossing up between the profit of multi-billion-dollar corporations and basic human rights.
Just fucking tax the rich already.