"Architect" of the NDIS Bruce Bonyhady says "robo-planning" isn't necessarily new but it takes old processes much, much further. "Robo-planning says you have to fit your goals into whatever money is provided to you... this fundamentally undermines the NDIS." Senate hearing.

"There is a suggestion these (assessment) tools have been put together scientifically. They are not. These are tools that need to be used for half a million people and they've gone to research that covers 100 people."

"There is nothing scientific in this. There is nothing objective," Bonyhady says of the assessment tools underpinning Independent Assessments.

Bonyhady says every person who has an IA will be given a score and their funding allocated based on that score. But there is "not a shred of evidence" as to the validity of the tools or even how the scores are calculated. "They are not fit for purpose."

"There will be an algorithm that sits behind the questions being asked," Bonyhady says of the assessments. Which is in effect how the NDIA will get the answers it wants without necessarily having to "instruct" the assessors.

It "defies any possible logic" to say that these tools are disability neutral, Bonyhady says. In fact "it is an extraordinary claim." The NDIA is "giving priority to administrative efficiency over the validity of the tools. This is an absolute false economy."

Bonyhady says it has NEVER been done anywhere in the world to use these tools to allocate resources. Never. NDIS agency are "deliberately structuring the tools" to be used by people who are not delegates of the CEO. This is a weakness now being used to create a legal block.

"The agency is deliberately structuring these tools in a way that cannot be scrutinised," Bonyhady says. Senator is now quoting one of my pieces in @SatPaper about the planning time changes.

From this piece here: https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2021/04/17/the-restructuring-the-ndis/161858160011479

Senator Carol Brown says it really seems that the NDIS is at a critical point; a "fork in the road" situation. Is this a fair description, she asks? "Absolutely," Bonyhady says. "Robo-planning will blow up the NDIS."

"The real driver of all of this is cost-cutting," Bonyhady says. But we really have to unpack what is happening with scheme sustainability. As recently as JULY last year, the quarterly report says scheme costs were "consistent with original forecasts." So what has happened?

"If the scheme was sustainable in July last year, it has gone off the rails since then. So, someone needs to be accountable for what has happened."

Sustainability is VERY different to cost, Bonyhady says. It is about what will happen to scheme in long term. "We have never seen the scheme sustainability report from the scheme actuary." I tried to FoI that, more than 2 years later still fighting for it!

Bonyhady says if people in the NDIS get good support but those left outside it get virtually nothing, then the scheme does not work. That used to be called "Tier 2" - the group of people who don't make it into NDIS but are still disabled and require support.

Bonyhady: "Robo-planning was never part of the original plan. I believe they have a very mistaken view about what is driving cost."

In the original PC report they estimated that admin costs would have been 10 per cent of the total scheme cost. The agency has been trying to operate within 7 per cent. "We are being penny-wise and pound foolish." The key is better resourced and trained NDIS planners.

Bonyhady welcomes "subtle but important" change in terminology from IA pilots to IA trials, he says of Linda Reynolds. But "my view is the agency and the minister need to go back to the drawing board forthwith. There is no point completing a flawed trial with flawed tools."

Bonyhady: "The power balance that currently exists between the agency and people with disability is totally counter to the original intention of the scheme."

The NDIA "massages and air-blows" the vast stores of data it has collected over eight years but has never really released in any complete format. Why won't they release it? Why so secret?

Senator Steele-John is up now asking questions. Govt says IAs were recommended in PC report, Bonyhady says not quite. Can you walk us through the differences?

Bonyhady: "What the PC recommended was that the agency should have a comprehensive tool-box and as part of that assessment tools should be tested." We have had three attempts at testing those tools, Bonyhady says. They haven't worked.

Bonyhady notes that David Tune "received a lot of assistance" from the Department of Social Services and NDIA in preparing his review of the NDIS Act. Lol.

Bonyhady says with robo-planning, noting these will not be reviewable by the tribunal, the "NDIA will, with the stroke of a pen, be able to... restrict the availability of the NDIS to smaller and smaller cohorts."

In fact, because it is a simple mathematical formula, they can change the entire budget envelope for the entire scheme using these methods. "We need much stronger governance and safeguards," Bonyhady says.

"This cannot be allowed to happen again," Bonyhady says of this entire outrageous process. Wants the role of the Joint Select Committee on the NDIS enshrined in the scheme's legislation.

Something been meaning to write but haven't had time. From a very good source in the National Disability Insurance Agency: "typical support packages" are pre-cursor to robo-planning. Planners have KPIs now which say they must come in UNDER the TSP $ value 90 per cent of the time.

This essentially means that there is already a completely artificial process happening regarding participant funding packages which, I reckon, runs totally counter to the existing NDIS Act. The scheme actuary, a contractor, has never released the "black box" that decides a TSP.

Bonyhady again speaking about the Financial Sustainability Report, which he says Senators should request. I've been fighting this on FoI for 2+ years. Say they can't release because it could injure "commonwealth-state relations."

"The distrust that now exists between the agency and the disability community is plumbing new lows. Until that trust is restored there is NO prospect of this scheme being sustainable. Because everyone looks with fear," Bonyhady says.

"We are at a point at which the NDIS can go on and achieve its original vision or it can be lost through robo-planning," Bonyhady says. That is the choice.

This is the end of Professor Bruce Bonyhady's testimony. He will take more questions on notice.