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  • NDIS not a ‘limitless Magic Pudding’ as reviewers suggest major changes
  • Baby-murdering nurse to die in prison after life sentence
  • This morning’s headlines at a glance
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NDIS not a ‘limitless Magic Pudding’ as reviewers suggest major changes

A rebooted Australian disability system should focus on delivering baseline services for all people with a disability and move away from individualised National Disability Insurance Scheme packages, particularly for young children, as cost blowouts threaten the scheme’s future.

Professor Bruce Bonyhady, an original architect of the NDIS who is now co-chairing the government-commissioned review of the $35.1 billion scheme, will say in a series of speeches today that the fundamental shift is crucial to curtailing the scheme’s spiralling costs and improving equity for Australians who are being left out.

Schools should provide a foundation level of support to children and individual support packages through the NDIS would then be built on top of that, the scheme’s reviewers say.

Bonyhady will warn that the NDIS is already in danger of overshooting the national cabinet’s 8 per cent growth target and cannot be seen as an unlimited resource.

Keep reading about the proposed changes here.

Baby-murdering nurse to die in prison after life sentence

In international news, nurse Lucy Letby, the most prolific child serial killer in modern British history, has been sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of release.

The UK government is under mounting pressure to beef up the independent inquiry into how Letby, 33, went undetected for so long after she was convicted of murdering seven infants and attempting to kill six others while a neonatal unit nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.

Following a 10-month trial, Letby was found to have deliberately injected newborns with air, force-fed others milk, or poisoned them with insulin.

Serial child killer Lucy Letby will spend the rest of her life in prison.Credit: Reuters

Justice James Goss imposed a whole-life order for each offence, the most severe punishment available in the UK criminal justice system for those who commit the most serious crimes, is a case which has horrified Britain.

Goss told Manchester crown court that Letby — who refused to attend the hearing — had shown “a malevolence bordering on sadism” in her actions and displayed no remorse.

He added: “You will spend the rest of your life in prison.”

Read more from our correspondent on this case here. 

This morning’s headlines at a glance

Good morning, and thanks for your company.

It’s Tuesday, August 22. I’m Caroline Schelle, and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.

Here’s what you need to know before we get started:

  • A rebooted Australian disability system should focus on delivering baseline services for all people with a disability and move away from individualised National Disability Insurance Scheme packages.
  • Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ intergenerational report will increase pressure on the government to embrace wide-ranging tax reform.
  • Despite record numbers of doctors, nurses and psychologists applying to join the health system in Australia, it remains riddled with workforce issues.
  • Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has deflected questions over his son Nathan’s membership of the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge and an internship he undertook at consulting firm PwC.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday says he complies “completely” with the parliamentary register of interests.Credit: Eddie Jim

  • A former Liberal premier says the plight must end for more than 1000 refugees and asylum seekers who are being refused settlement in Australia because they arrived by boat.
  • The Australian Defence Force would quickly begin using locally made surveillance drones under a push to make the military less dependent on Chinese technology.
  • Former chief scientist Alan Finkel says it would take decades to develop a local nuclear energy industry, as he and other experts reject the Coalition’s push to switch focus from renewables to nuclear energy.
  • Overseas, Tropical Storm Hilary caused severe damage through central California, with dangerous floodwaters heading into the state’s mountains and deserts.
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