Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Cox. We are taking action to return the NDIS to its original purpose. We're doing this because it is a life-changing piece of policy. It is an enormous human rights achievement. It provides people with disability with genuine choice and control over their own lives. It is not just worth saving; we must save it. Right now, it costs more than anticipated, it is growing too fast and there is too much fraud. The fundamental barrier we face is the design of the scheme itself. There are structural flaws that mean that measures that we have introduced to control spending are not working as intended. The scheme actuary has recently advised the government that spending has blown out by $13 billion over the next four years. This would mean that it would not achieve the eight per cent growth target until the end of the decade instead of this year. Decisions in the courts and the Administrative Review Tribunal have also restricted the NDIA's ability to implement reforms to ensure that the NDIS operates in the way that it was meant to.

So we are going to secure the future of the NDIS by fighting fraud and stopping rorts, by slowing rapid cost increases, by instituting clearer eligibility requirements and by delivering quality services and supports to participants. Under this plan, the NDIS will continue to grow every year. But, instead of costing the budget $70 billion in 2030, taxpayers will spend $55 billion. Over the forward estimates, spending will grow at two per cent on average before returning to five per cent growth from 2030-31. It will still be the largest social program in Australia outside of the age pension, the most comprehensive suite of supports for people with disability anywhere in the world. That is something worth saving. (Time expired)