Bill Shorten says taskforce will be launched ‘within weeks’ to crackdown on NDIS fraud

With reports “crooks” are skimming billions of dollars off a national scheme, a new taskforce will be launched to crack down on fraud.

Bill Shorten says the government will look to launch a multi-agency taskforce into National Disability Insurance Scheme fraud “within weeks” to crack down on the widespread “scourge”.

The NDIS and Government Services Minister said it confronting that potentially billions of dollars of taxpayer funds were being misused at the hands of “crooks”.

It follows calls by the chief of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, Michael Phelan, to establish a new taskforce to tackle the problem.

He told Nine Newspapers that as much as 20 per cent of the $30bn annual cost of the NDIS was potentially being misused, costing vulnerable Australians their access to critical funds.

Mr Shorten said he had warned the previous government “for years” about his concerns of fund misuse, and government agencies needed to work together to “combat the scourge of fraud” – especially in the face of estimates the scheme will grow to $60bn by 2030.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said the defrauding of the system was coming in ‘two or three different ways’. Picture: Alison Wynd

“It’s coming in two or three different ways this fraud,” Mr Shorten told ABC Radio.

“Michael Phelan was talking about Middle Eastern organised crime gangs, through coercion and other criminal tactics, who are accessing the accounts and putting in invoices.

“So that’s one way, but I suspect there’s also ghosting, where false invoices and false clients might be being made up – I want to find out if that’s true.

“Then there’s another way, which is just the padding of bills by people who might not be connected to organised crime but are just robbing the scheme.

“I also worry that the fraud or overpayment is occurring through a lack of scrutiny of the invoices.”

Mr Shorten said Australians had reasonable expectations that there was “due diligence” done to ensure the system was operating smoothing.

“What’s ironic is the former government, I think decided that chasing fraud was too hard, so instead they decided to make it harder for genuine people to get on the scheme or they would cut packages of people on the scheme unfairly,” he said.

“I want to prioritise not the front door of the scheme but the back door.

“I’m not satisfied that the existing level of resources is what it should be.”

The NDIS is expected to grow to a cost of $60bn by 2030. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Mr Shorten said he would be holding urgent talks with the National Disability Insurance Agency on Monday to ensure resources were “what they should be”.

He said if better resources were needed, the government would need to find them.

The Nine Newspapers and 60 Minutes investigation found members of Sydney’s notorious Hamzy crime network had allegedly infiltrated the NDIS.

Mr Phelan described the fraud as involving “fair dinkum, serious and organised crime crooks”.

He alleged money being skimmed from the NDIS was being used to purchase narcotics from overseas and to fund broader illegal activity.