Rogue NDIS providers could be hit with $15m fines under new laws

Unscrupulous NDIS providers who permit the abuse of patients or rort the system could be hit with fines of up to $15 million and fast tracked police investigations.

EXCLUSIVE

Unscrupulous NDIS providers who permit the abuse of patients or rort the system could be hit with fines of up to $15 million and fast tracked police investigations.

Outgoing NDIS Minister Bill Shorten will propose new laws on Monday to protect some of Australia’s most vulnerable people.

The legislation would allow the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission to directly refer allegations to police for criminal probes if appropriate.

The NDIS watchdog would also have more powers to track down fraudsters who rip off the $44 billion scheme, which had been seen as a cash cow for criminals.

Mr Shorten, who will take up a role of Vice Chancellor at the University of Canberra in February, said he was determined to make the National Disability Insurance Scheme as safe as possible.

NDIS and Government Services Minister Bill Shorten during Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

He said the bill would increase the transparency and accountability of NDIS providers and expand banning powers, which currently only relate to providers, so they can be applied to individuals who are operating in all areas of the NDIS system.

“It will deliver strong measures to deter aggressive commercial practice by providers that exploit NDIS participants and erodes scheme sustainability,” Mr Shorten said.

The current maximum fine for NDIS providers found to have allowed a patient or worker to be hurt or injured is $400,000.

The increase to $15 million was expected to be a signal to providers to clean up their act or face the risk of bankruptcy.

Separately, the NDIS watchdog has already launched a civil case in the Federal Court against Debra and Rebecca Goldfinch, who ran Irabina Autism Services in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs.

Debra Goldfinch. Picture: Supplied

Rebecca Goldfinch. Picture: Supplied

Video footage emerged of a boy with autism at the service being pinned down for seven minutes in a prone position by six workers because he had failed to sit still.

Irabina has closed and been put into liquidation, but now the mother and daughter team face potential court imposed financial penalties if the case against them is proven. There is no suggestion that the Goldfinches were accused of any criminal activity or that any referral has been made to police.

Justice Horan granted leave for the case against Irabina to proceed at a hearing this month, with the matter returning to the Federal Court on December 6.

Both Debra and Rebecca Goldfinch did not return calls or text messages seeking comment about the case last week.

It comes as today the names of more than 100 workers who have been banned from the NDIS for life for a range of conduct.

Shocking cases of abuse and neglect have been exposed, including how care worker Monika Paniczko claimed that she had COVID-19 spitting in the mouth of her client Lee-Ann Mackey.

She then cruelly claimed in a moment captured on video that Ms Mackey, who has cerebral palsy, that she now had the life-threatening illness.

Paniczko won an appeal against a conviction over the incident and was placed on a diversion order.

The banned list also included NDIS workers who stole jewellery from patients, filed $140,000 in false invoices, and possession of illicit child abuse material.

Originally published as Rogue NDIS providers could be hit with $15m fines under new laws