NDIS watchdog to get more teeth

The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commissioner will get new beefed-up powers to ban unsuitable providers and workers from the NDIS.

NDIS minister Stuart Robert said the new laws, which will are set to be introduced into parliament, are designed to reinforce protections for NDIS participants.

“The NDIS Commissioner, who is responsible for regulating NDIS providers and enforcing the NDIS Code of Conduct, will be granted additional banning powers to prevent people who may pose a risk of harm to participants from entering or re-entering the NDIS,” Mr Robert  said in a statement.

The legislation will give NDIS Commissioner Graeme Head power to ban people from the NDIS even if they are not currently working in the scheme or if they have been fired for poor behaviour.

It also means the commissioner will be able to use information from outside the NDIS, such as a person’s conduct in aged or child care, to deem them ineligible to enter the NDIS.

Details of providers and workers who have been blacklisted will be publically available in the NDIS provider register.

“People with disability, their supporters and providers can use the Register to check that the people they are engaging to deliver NDIS services have not had a banning order against them,” Mr Robert said.

It comes after the shocking death of NDIS participant Anne Marie Smith prompted claims that the quality and safeguards commission was a toothless tiger.

Commissioner Head announced last week that former federal court judge Alan Robertson SC will lead an independent inquiry into the supports and services provided to Ms Smith, including the regulatory role of the NDIS commission.

South Australian police on May 15 announced a major crime investigation following Ms Smith’s death in they what they described as “disgusting and degrading conditions”.

Ms Smith had cerebral palsy and lived on her own with a full time carer provided by Integrity Care SA.

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