Suggesting NDIS cuts to pay for expensive submarines is the latest attack on disabled people

The vital services that hundreds of thousands of disabled people rely on every day are not rhetorical playthings in a culture war about public spending, but an important part of our social infrastructure.

The recent comments from Peter Dutton, the former defence minister and opposition leader, are just the latest in the relentless attacks on disabled people and the services they rely on. This is in direct contrast to pre-election commitments about fully funding the NDIS.

Australia is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Each federal budget shows that, with many billions of dollars spent to subsidise property owners and fossil fuel companies. In upcoming budgets, there will also be many more billions going to tax cuts for the rich.

Talking about cuts to any part of our essential services doesn’t make sense, given the wider budget context and the huge economic harm they will do. People talking about cuts to services are actually attacking the people that use those services – this time, disabled people.

The last few weeks have seen an intensification of the predicted pre-federal budget attacks on the NDIS, with a wide range of articles and interviews being published, and the conservative social media in full agreement. These pieces are often shared alongside disgusting slurs against disabled people.

The Australian has published a number of articles, raising concerns about the numbers of children now on the NDIS, linking that incorrectly to autism and rising costs of the scheme. They have mostly spoken to non-disabled people, including those who have called for the re-introduction of independent assessments.

On Saturday the Courier Mail published a piece that was shared in news outlets around the country, about a company under investigation by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, being reported as free holidays for disabled people and their families.

That the NDIS is singled out for attacks is in stark contrast to the breathless excitement about spending huge sums of money on a whole bunch of new submarines.

Defence is also prone to budget overruns, and being late on delivering projects. Reuters reported last year that “major Australian defence projects with approved budgets totalling more than A$70 billion ($45 billion) are overbudget and cumulatively decades late”. But none of this is usually talked about when new spending, for things such as fancy submarines, is announced.

All of this builds into a false narrative about the NDIS that leads to calls for so-called “sustainability”, which actually means cuts. This is making the case for significant changes to this world-leading scheme and fuelling existing prejudice against disabled people.

So what part of the NDIS do they want to cut? Is it the group homes that so many people with an intellectual disability live in? Is it the more than 270,000 jobs that have been created through the scheme? Is it mobility equipment? Is it speech therapy? None of those questions are ever asked when the NDIS is discussed and no answers are ever demanded.

There are problems with the NDIS, and parts of the scheme that don’t work well for disabled people, but we don’t get to have that important conversation because there is a singular focus on how much disabled people cost.

As I have said before, prior to the NDIS, these same costs were still there, except disabled people and their families were the only ones who paid them. The NDIS means that having a disability, particularly one that needs a fair bit of support, doesn’t automatically mean you live in poverty, begging charities for the basics. The NDIS is there for everyone, because disability can happen to anyone, and that is why we all contribute.

Imagine if we could fix the NDIS, making it work better for disabled people and their families, rather than always having to fight just for the scheme to exist.

There are big shifts coming this year for disabled people and the services we use. The NDIS review and the final report of the disability royal commission are both likely to recommend changes to how the scheme is delivered, particularly to stop violence and abuse against disabled people.

Cuts to the NDIS have to be off the table so we can make the investment and repair to make it work for all the disabled people who rely on this essential scheme now, and for those to come.

El Gibbs is a disabled person, and an award-winning writer with a focus on disability and social issues. Gibbs’s work has appeared in Meanjin, Overland, the Guardian, the ABC and Eureka Street and can be found at elgibbs.com.au