The NDIA has been accused of selective quoting to support controversial reforms. 

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and the Department of Social Services have made a joint submission to a parliamentary inquiry looking at controversial new independent assessments.

The plan to switch to independent assessment of eligibility for the NDIS is controversial because many believe it will lead to less coverage. 

Currently, participants in the disability insurance scheme provide reports from their own treating specialists to be assessed for the scheme. The new plan is for ‘independent assessments’ to be carried out with a government-contracted allied health professional. 

In their submission, the NDIA and the Department of Social Services said the assessment tools they are working on had been endorsed by leading academics including University of Sydney honorary senior research fellow Rosamond Madden

But Dr Madden has now written to the NDIA, calling on it to immediately stop selectively quoting her.

“I am writing to request that the NDIA immediately stop quoting me as being in support of your current approach to independent assessment,” she said in the letter.

“It cannot be inferred, because I thought there was merit in the framework paper, that I supported the tools paper or anything else that has been done in or since September.”

She said the government bodies had omitted a sentence stating that assessments must combine information gathered from scientific tests with the “expert knowledge of people living with disability and the families and professionals who know them”.

An NDIA spokesperson said; “The agency appreciates Dr Madden's ongoing contribution to the scheme, including her review of the assessment framework proposed for independent assessments”. 

NDIS Minister Linda Reynolds this week confirmed independent assessments would be used “in some form”.