The National Disability Insurance Scheme marks its 10-year anniversary servicing more than half a million Australians, but advocates warn reforms must lock in what's working and fix what isn't to ensure it thrives for decades to come.
The future of the life-changing scheme has been under the spotlight as the federal government grapples with how to make it sustainable as cost pressures increase.
It's on track to be one of the budget's biggest expenses as projections show the NDIS will cost more than $50 billion by 2025/26, overtaking annual costs for Medicare.
NDIS Minister Bill Shorten has vowed to instigate serious reforms to ensure it continues to meet people's needs long-term and put Australians living with a disability at its centre.
But one of Australia's largest disability providers and charities, ARUMA, warned the government must work in partnership with the sector to make sure reforms are sustainable.
ARUMA Chief Executive Martin Laverty told AAP the pressure felt by the sector meant it would not be able to respond well if reforms were imposed today.
He said pressures included workforce shortages and the lack of disability services operating outside of the NDIS.
"A solution is taking a new approach to create training places to attract staff, defined pathways to make the career more attractive and we also need to look at the pay rates for the sector," he said.
"We have to tackle the reality that pay is the key driver.
"We must also find those services outside the NDIS and reinvigorate them."
Dr Laverty was a board director on the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), which oversees the scheme, for the first eight years of its operation.
He said there was a perception cost blow-outs were due to service providers but it was also driven by the number of people on the scheme being bigger than originally forecast.
"Reforms need to include clarity about who the NDIS is for and measures to fix participant experience," Dr Laverty said.
"Every NDIS participant has a story of meeting red tape while trying to access support."
In April, Mr Shorten outlined six key areas of systemic reform, including increasing the NDIA workforce, addressing spiralling costs, introducing long-term plans, reviewing supported independent living arrangements and targeting criminal syndicates rorting the system.
This week, he hosed down suggestions to use co-payments or means testing as a way to rein in soaring costs.
Mr Shorten said it was a simplistic approach to ask people with profound disabilities to contribute to the scheme and the government's focus was to ensure every dollar went to the people for whom it was designed.
Dr Laverty pointed out the NDIS was for every single Australian who may find permanent and significant disability entering their life.
"It's a human rights scheme and it exists to provide support for simple everyday living, the things people living without disability take for granted, but for whom those with a disability need support," he said.
Despite challenging reforms ahead, Dr Laverty remains optimistic about the partnership between the sector and the government to make the scheme work better.
"The NDIS is valued by Australians because it provides support for people who have a permanent and significant disability today," he said.
"The reforms needed will secure it for people who may have a permanent and significant disability tomorrow."
