Coalition frontbenchers have welcomed Labor’s plan to rein in spending on the National Disability Insurance Scheme but warned rorters remain its biggest problem.
The Albanese government is reportedly set to trim the ballooning scheme as it scrambles to find savings to cushion economic shocks from the Iran conflict.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Monday the sector’s peak body had told NDIS providers to expect major changes when the federal budget is handed down next month and urged them to embrace public debate over the scheme’s future.
Responding to the news, opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston said she has “always been very prepared to work with the government to make sure that we have got an NDIS that is what it was originally designed to be”.
“The government hasn’t always been prepared to work with us,” she told Sydney talkback station 2GB, adding “when you do reforms and you want Australians to come along on the journey with you, you have to consult with them”.
“You have to keep them informed, And we have always said that we need to be having conversations, or the government needs to be having conversations, with Australians about what the NDIS looks like, instead of doing everything behind closed doors.”
Fellow Liberal senator Maria Kovacic, who sits on the joint parliamentary committee on the NDIS, said there are “two elements” that need action.
“Number one is obviously we have to get rid of all rorting and all criminal elements out of the NDIS and, sadly, they do exist,” she told Sky News.
“Number two is that we must ensure that the system is sustainable for those people that rely on it and need it to live their everyday lives with dignity. That is critical as well.”
She lamented that “we’ve been speaking about this for a very long time and, once again, the government has been dragged kicking and screaming to actually act on this when so much taxpayer money has been wasted”.
Senator Kovacic would not be drawn on whether too much is being spent on the NDIS, stressing instead that fraudsters are the issue.
“I think what’s happened is that the exploitation of the program itself,” she said.
“So those bad faith actors have been able to infiltrate the system and have been able to abuse it and rort it.
“Those individuals that we’ve spoken to who actually need the system to survive are actually struggling to access services under the system and it’s harder and harder for them to do what they need to do and get the services that they need.”
The comments tally with what the peak body for disability providers told members.
The NDIS costs taxpayers $50bn per year and is expected grow to $100bn within a decade.
Health Minister Mark Butler said last week that government was eyeing ways to trim the scheme ahead of the Budget, declaring it “off track” and lacking “disciplined design features of a good social program”.
