Peter Scutt | Contractors aren't rorters. They will save the NDIS

These people aren't rorting the NDIS. They're providing care and desperately needed services in a system on the verge of breaking, but not because of them or the people they support and certainly not because they choose to work for themselves.

For the sake of the financial sustainability of the NDIS, for the many support providers who choose to be self-employed and for outcomes for NDIS participants, the Albanese government needs to recognise that people have the right to work as independent contractors in the care economy and give certainty to those contractors and their clients by excluding any marketplace platforms from the forthcoming "employee like" legislation.

A marketplace platform is one on which an independent contractor can set their own pay rates, terms and conditions.

This bureaucratic nonsense will leave NDIS clients worse off and lessen workforce participation in a sector struggling with workforce shortages.

There are likely tens of thousands of independent contractors working in the NDIS. On Mable alone, there are 12,000 independent contractors delivering services every day to people with disability and older Australians.

Whether on our platform, through the likes of Facebook, Gumtree, community notice boards or by word-of-mouth referrals, independent contractors and other small businesses are essential to the future of the NDIS.

Aside from the fundamental fact they provide choice and control to people living with disabilities, they're delivering services that are, on average, more affordable due to their lower overheads.

On Mable, NDIS participants pay less, while support providers (who are generally independent contractors) earn more on average than employees at traditional providers.

A patronising assumption that independent contractors in disability care, some of whom can earn up to $120 per hour, lack agency and require "employee-like" protections puts the lower cost, higher quality care and support Australians rely on at risk.

With review and reform of the NDIS underway, the federal government's "employee-like" agenda is a blow to both sides of the market. It doesn't address the diverse needs of people living with disability or older people seeking to remain independent in their own homes.

Support providers are capable individuals who - like many small businesses across Australia - make their own choices about clients, services, pay rates, leave and superannuation.

The basis of this reform is that independent contractors that leverage a digital platform are different from those that do not. However, this distinction alone is not enough.

While the rest of the disability sector struggles to attract workers, Mable and its peers continue to grow.

Self-employment isn't for everybody, but if disability support providers wish to be self-employed, they should have that choice. In the same way, NDIS clients should have the choice to use the services of independent contractors.

We can all agree that safeguards for independent contractors are helpful, and Mable has long taken a leading role in incorporating safeguards into the operations of its marketplace platform.

This is part of our offering, but people choose whether to use Mable to engage support or whether to use Mable to offer support.

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If enacted, these reforms risk the sustainability and effectiveness of the NDIS. Firstly, it will force many clients to have fewer choices over their support, increasing service delivery costs and putting further pressure on the NDIS budget.

Secondly, it will decrease workforce participation and reduce support options, including in thin markets such as regional and culturally diverse communities, where often no services exist.

Thirdly, it will push more independent contractors to work off-platform, where there is less transparency, less efficiency, fewer safeguards for participants and independent contractors, and less opportunity for professional development. We desperately need policies supporting a successful NDIS, not ones undermining it.

There is extensive review and reform underway in the NDIS, informed by NDIS participants and older people. The review has identified that the workforce is a significant challenge.

These proposed employee-like reforms fundamentally impact the NDIS and its participants, and yet, I would suggest there has been little to no consultation with people with lived experience of disability nor with the self-employed support people they engage.

Unlike employees, independent contractors, especially those on digital marketplace platforms, can choose whether to enter into agreements with clients, set their own hours and terms of engagement and, most importantly, set their own prices.

For this reason, Mable strongly opposes any plan that attempts to redefine independent contractors as pseudo-employees for an ideological view that will result in small businesses being locked out of the care economy.