Budget 2024: Labor to Spend $468 Million to Get NDIS ‘Back on Track’

A man wearing a shawl over his head walks into a Centrelink, Medicare, NDIS office in Albany, Western Australia, on Sept. 26, 2023. Susan Mortimer/The Epoch Times

The centre-left Labor government has vowed to get the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) “back on track” by splashing a further $468.7 million (US$310 million) on the scheme, the 2024-25 budget paper revealed.

The funding includes $268.1 million to “better protect NDIS participants and prevent fraud” and $200.6 million to “design and consult” based on the key recommendations of the independent NDIS review.

It will include an investment of $45 million to establish an NDIS Evidence Advisory Committee, an independent body that investigates what therapies are reasonable in the scheme. In response to concerns about providers taking advantage of the scheme and its customers, the government will channel millions more dollars towards revising NDIS pricing,

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten previously said that some “greedy” providers have been exploiting the government disability support scheme by charging people more for the same services and equipment when they are receiving the support package.

He likened the “shockingly widespread” tactic to the so-called “wedding tax” that some businesses slap on goods and services for couples getting married.

It was revealed in April that more than 100 cases of alleged fraud in the NDIS have gone before the courts following thousands of tip-offs.

According to the 2024-25 federal budget documents released on May 14, federal and state government spending on the disability scheme blew out by 21 percent in 2023-24 to $44.3 billion, which is $2.4 billion higher than the forecast in the previous budget.

Meanwhile, NDIS payments to the scheme are projected to increase by $15.9 billion over four years from 2024-25 to 2027-28. A plan to overhaul the scheme is expected to only reduce the blowout to $14.4 billion over the next four years.

The government are undertaking reforms to “moderate this additional growth” and “return the NDIS to its original intent,” the budget noted.

The announcement came after the latest annual financial sustainability report forecasted that by 2030, the NDIS will cost $90 billion per year for 850,000 participants.

This is double the government’s current spending on defence and three times the spending on Medicare and aged care.

The budget will also invest $227.6 million to replace the existing Disability Employment Services program with a new specialised disability employment program by July 1.

Another $23.3 million will be used to establish a new Disability Employment Centre of Excellence to “share innovation and best-practice. ”

According to research by the Melbourne-based think tank Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), recipients of NDIS make up an overwhelming 86 percent of the growth to the total number of Australians on welfare since 2018.

The NDIS was introduced by the Gillard Labor government in 2013 before going into full operation by 2020.

AAP contribute to this article.