Bill Shorten’s NDIS reforms blow up in his face

A taskforce hand-picked by Bill Shorten to clean up the “wild west” of NDIS unregistered providers has rejected the measure he said would stop wasteful spending.

Bill Shorten’s plan for sweeping reforms to the $42 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme have blown up in his face, with his own special taskforce rejecting the measure which he said would stop wasteful spending.

Mr Shorten commissioned the taskforce to provide advice on how to clean up the “wild west” of more than 150,000 unregistered NDIS businesses, which are currently earning taxpayer’s money without effective scrutiny or accountability.

This followed the major NDIS Review, released in December, which recommended all businesses operating within the scheme “should be enrolled or registered”.

The taskforce has advised Mr Shorten “the proposal to introduce mandatory registration of all providers, as put forward by the NDIS Review, caused significant distress to the disability community”.

“The taskforce proposes that not all providers... should be registered” the new report reads, before warning there would be “significant, unintended consequences of this approach, including that it would monitor the decisions of NDIS participants when spending their funding”.

Bill Shorten’s plan for sweeping reforms to the $42 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme has been rejected by his own special taskforce.

The taskforce also states NDIS recipients who were eligible for “self-directed supports” would be able to freely continue dealing with unregistered providers.

There are currently more than 150,000 businesses in the NDIS who are not officially registered in the scheme.

By design, that means they don’t have to:

1. Complete an audit

2. Screen their staff for criminal history

3. Prove to the government that their services are actually improving the lives of people with a disability.

The conclusions of the taskforce undermine Mr Shorten’s recent public commentary - including an interview last month where he said “87 per cent of NDIS service providers are unregistered. When we talk about registering them, I get screams from some people saying that diminishes choice and control. It doesn’t”.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten is accused of losing control of the NDIS reforms. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

At a recent press conference, Mr Shorten claimed: “It’s not acceptable to be able to have an unregistered provider just working without any accountability”.

He also said in March: “Unregistered providers operate with little to no visibility of what they provide or even if they deliver the services they charge for. There are also too many whose backgrounds are unknown”.

Mr Shorten was approached for comment.

The NDIS Provider and Worker Registration Taskforce report was leaked to The Daily Telegraph by a whistleblower, who warned some of the findings risk derailing critical reforms required to save the vital program.

“The NDIS Review was clear about the need for a mandatory regulatory system for all providers. Suddenly this taskforce comes along and suggests more loopholes. How many more horror stories of fraud, abuse, neglect and extreme waste do we need to see before there’s a change?” the whistleblower said.

This masthead has recently exposed a range of unregistered providers operating away from proper scrutiny, offering taxpayer-funded activities including fishing camps, ski holidays, video game nights, “Lego therapy” and “hug therapy”.

The NDIS remains one of the fastest-growing items in the federal budget and without serious intervention risks costing $90 billion by the end of the decade.

Any proposed reforms to the scheme have been met with enormous opposition from the disability lobby, who claim it risks leaving vulnerable Australians without the supports they have relied on for more than a decade.

Opposition NDIS spokesperson Michael Sukkar said: “Bill Shorten has lost control of these reforms, with a chaotic and shambolic process he is now trying to hide. He should release the findings immediately. He then needs to make clear what the government’s position is on these contradictory recommendations.”

The taskforce was made up of chair Natalie Wade, Michael Borowick, Vicki O’Halloran and Professor Allan Fels.

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