The Morrison Government’s obsession with slashing the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is killing jobs and stranding Australians with disability.

A major and longstanding NSW disability service provider, Disability Services Australia (DSA), has today collapsed after the Morrison Government pulled the financial rug out from underneath them – and it won’t be the last.

Operating since 1957, DSA went into voluntary administration, with its workforce of up to 1,500 Australians now facing having to join the unemployment queues and up to 2,000 Australians with disability facing the prospect of losing services. 

DSA has been struggling during COVID for a range of reasons but there is no doubt the Morrison Government’s 10 per cent cuts to providers of Supported Independent Living have contributed to DSA becoming insolvent. 

This is what happens when there are savage Liberal cuts without any forward planning.

NDIS Minister Linda Reynolds wants less money in the NDIS and has presided over cuts to people with disability in Supported Independent Living.

The Government outlined plans to cut NDIS Supported Independent Living in 2020, which will now see more service providers like Disability Services Australia go out of business. 

Earlier this year a leaked document showed Minister Reynolds had overseen the creation of a razor gang, whose sole purpose is to cut the NDIS, including Supported Independent Living.

Supported Independent Living has transformed the lives of people living with disability, who are able to stay living independently in their home and accommodation.

The Morrison Government and NDIA must now detail how they will come to the aid of those thousands of Australians with disability facing a looming crisis.

Minister Reynolds’ approach of slash-first-plan-later is nothing short of a vandalism perpetrated on Australia’s disability safety net.