The Sunday Read: the real cost of Labor’s NDIS cuts

Speaker 00:00

[gentle music] This is The Guardian.

Regret Armit· Host0:02

Hi, Regret Armit, coming to you from Gadigal Land. Costing too much and is growing too fast. Those are the words spoken by Labor's Health Minister, Mark Butler, when announcing that at least 160,000 people are expected to be removed from the National Disability Insurance Scheme in the next four years. Today, advocate and critical autism studies researcher Clem Bastow argues the inclusive world that disability advocates fought so hard for is being torn apart.

Clem Bastow· Guest0:43

At times of extreme dysregulation, I turn to the safest of safe foods, a particular frozen cheeseburger that has changed its recipe once since last century. I knew it was time to throw one in the microwave when the Federal Health Minister, Mark Butler, began wrapping up his address to the National Press Club on the topic of reforms to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. For those playing along at home, this need for a safe food is because my functional capacity is adversely affected by the abject terror that accompanies the idea of savage cuts to the NDIS. And on Wednesday, those fears turned out to be well-founded. In the pleasant