Bill Shorten says ‘not the end of the world’ if eight per cent growth target missed

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten says it’s ‘not the end of the world’ if the government doesn’t meet its goal of reigning in the scheme’s annual growth to 8pc.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

National Disability Insurance Scheme Minister Bill Shorten says it’s “not the end of the world” if the government doesn’t meet its goal of reining in the scheme’s annual growth to 8 per cent, prompting criticism from the ­Coalition and experts over the target being set in the May budget.

The comments come amid calls for means testing and co-payments to be considered as part of the NDIS review, with the government slamming the idea as “a lazy reform”.

Labor has been at pains to ­assure the disability sector the newly announced NDIS growth figure was a “target not a cap”, but implemented the forecast into the budget to deliver a predicted saving of $74bn over a decade.

Mr Shorten said on Wednesday that while the government was confident it could “moderate the trajectory of the scheme”, which is growing about 14 per cent a year, the target might not necessarily be met.

“We’ve set a target, it’s not a cap. In other words, if we don’t get the target of the growth we want, it’s not the end of the world,” he told Sky News. “But we’re going to try … Not to try is actually ­giving up on the scheme.”

Opposition NDIS spokesman Michael Sukkar slammed Mr Shorten’s comments, which he said essentially “blew up” the government’s budget projections.

Mr Sukkar said that, before the election, Mr Shorten had been critical of the Coalition for turning the focus onto the sustainability of the scheme and looking for cost savings.

“Now, sustainability of the scheme is all Bill Shorten can talk about, creating uncertainty for 600,000 participants and their families,” he said.

Mr Shorten said the NDIS was “here to stay” and the government was committed to ­ensuring every dollar went to people “for whom the scheme was originally designed”.

A former strategist for the ­National Disability Insurance Agency and People Economics director, Hassan Noura, said the government was trying to persuade constituents it was addressing the exploding cost of the NDIS while assuring the disability sector there would be no cuts.

“The government needs to be more courageous and stop ­sitting on fence to tell everyone what they want to hear,” he said.

“Given a lot of future budget repair came down to this (8 per cent) target, if they’re now saying it’s OK to miss it, is the long-term budget position then much worse than what they revealed two months ago? If so, we need revised estimates.”

While Mr Shorten immediately dismissed the idea of means testing and co-payments for the NDIS, raised by health-tech company Kismet in The Australian on Wednesday, Mr Noura said the idea was worthy of consideration.

“I don’t see any harm in the idea, it could potentially have some positive benefits for equity and also for targeting public spending towards those who most need it,” he said.

“Fraud and efficiency are good things to tackle but they’re a drop in the ocean. They alone won’t have a material impact on the cost trajectory of scheme.”

Former NDIS board director and Aruma chief executive ­Martin Laverty said co-payments were not appropriate for the scheme but agreed major structural reform was required.

“To address the bigger issue of volume-driven cost blowout, the NDIS review and the government’s response has to determine who is the scheme for and what are they entitled to,” he said.

Kismet co-founder Mark Woodland said all options needed to be on the table to address the sustainability of the scheme and lashed the response of Mr Shorten to the idea of co-payments. “Right now, every idea should be on the table to bring spending under control. The government should not be so dismissive,” he said.