Liberal senator Jane Hume eyes more spending cuts to the NDIS

With the Coalition attacking Labor for increased spending, finance spokesman Jane Hume has eyed further cuts to stop the ballooning disability scheme.

The Coalition has flagged potential cuts to the National Disability Insurance Scheme as it stakes its election campaign on slashing public sector workers by at least 36,000 jobs and reducing government spending.

On Sunday, Coalition’s finance spokeswoman Jane Hume said she believed spending growth on goods and services should not outpace GDP growth, currently at 1.3 per cent, and eyed the NDIS as a program that has “run out of control”.

“We think that there’s more that can be done,” she said.

“We would hope that when Labor goes into Opposition, that they would work with us to try and reign in … those runaway programs that have gotten out of control under this government.”

According to most recent Treasury figures, Australia’s Commonwealth spending is measured at 26.6 per cent to GDP, with that figure expected to remain consistent when Labor hands down its fourth budget on Tuesday.

Senator Hume’s comments follow a bipartisan push to pass wide-ranging reforms to curb the expanding scheme in 2024, which Labor at the time claimed would reduce spending by $14bn over four years.

Senator Jane Hume eyed further cuts to curb the growth of the NDIS. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman

Jim Chalmers said the proposed cuts would severely impact the 692,000 participants on the scheme.

The Treasurer said this was proof the Coalition had “secret plans for cuts”.

“That means huge cuts to the NDIS, and that would send a shiver up the spine of a lot of people who rely on the program now we are way too late in the parliamentary term for these characters to still be making it up as they go along,” he told Sky.

“Now, if Jane ham is saying that she wants growth in NDIS spending to be between two and three per cent instead of eight per cent, then they need to come clean on what that means for Australians with a disability.”

Senator Hume also reiterated the Coalition plans to slash public service jobs, which she believed could be returned to Covid-era numbers just before the former prime minister Scott Morrison lost government in 2022.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said reducing growth of the NDIS to 2 to 3 per cent would have severely impact NDIS participants. Picture: NewsWire/ Glenn Campbell

“We think we can bring the number of public servants to where it was at the end of Covid. That was at the beginning of this Labor government when the public sector started expanding.”

She said despite this increase in workers, efficiency within in the sector was not improving.

Senator Hume also reiterated cuts would not be made to frontline services.

“Let’s face it, the services haven’t improved, but the cost and size of the public service has expanded and bloated exponentially.”

Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor said reductions would be made to “back office areas,” and said he believed Tuesday’s budget would reveal further increases in public service jobs.

“What we’ve been clear about is we want to get back to where we were when we were last in government. That shouldn’t be in areas of frontline services. It should be in the back office areas,” he told the ABC.

“The public service has not been able to deliver the outcomes we want to see in areas like health. We need a productive, effective public service and we have some amazing people in our public service. But a bigger team is not always a better team.”