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Disability services need overhaul: report

The Productivity Commission has recommended a drastic overhaul to the way disability support is provided.

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Source: AAP


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The Productivity Commission has urged the federal government drastically change the way it provides long-term care to the disabled.

The commission has been examining Australia's disability support system since April last year and submitted its final report to the government on Sunday.

"The report proposes significant change to the way disability services are provided in Australia," Families Minister Jenny Macklin said in a statement on Monday.

It is understood to include the implementation of a no-fault national disability insurance scheme slated to start in 2015 following a one-year trial in Victoria, Fairfax reported.

The $6.3 billion a year scheme would provide long-term care and support to anyone who acquires a significant disability - one of the key recommendations in the commission's draft report, released in February.

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Ms Macklin did not comment further on the commission's final recommendations, although she acknowledged broad change was needed.

"Our disability services system is simply not providing the kind of care or support we want to see for some of our most vulnerable people, and reform is necessary," she said.

The commission initially received 610 submissions from stakeholders and another 452 after the draft report was released.


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