Bill Shorten to ‘blitz’ NDIS appeal jam

The Albanese government will look to fast-track the resolution of thousands of disability funding legal appeals through a new alternative dispute resolution process.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Albanese government will look to fast-track the resolution of thousands of disability funding legal appeals through a new alternative dispute resolution process aimed at cutting the backlog.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said the number of appeals stuck in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal was unacceptable, appointing Graeme Innes, the former disability discrimination commissioner, to chair a new independent oversight committee to review the disputes.

The minister told an online forum run by disability advocacy group Every Australian Counts that he would look to the new system to “blitz the thousands of cases at the AAT”.

But those with existing cases who opt in to the new voluntary dispute resolution process would not lose their place in the legal queue in the AAT, Mr Shorten said, with the two processes proposed to run in parallel.

“Participating in a review of their matter doesn’t mean they have to accept what the review says, this is an entirely voluntary extra effort to try and cut the bullshit and just get on with the issues,” he told about 80 advocates.

“After the election … there were 4501 active cases in the AAT. That’s what we inherited. I committed before the election to tackle this glaring problem. I pledged that we would have an alternative dispute mechanism to make the appeals process better for people with disability.”

Mr Shorten said he acknowledged there had been efforts by the National Disability Insurance Agency that administers the $30bn-a-year scheme to reduce the backlog of cases before the AAT.

“The caseload has reduced by about 10 per cent and there are just under 4000 active cases,” he said. “(But) in recent years the scheme was being managed not by sensible planning decisions or internal review but rather by reference to the AAT … a dumb, terrible way to manage the scheme.”

Mr Shorten said the overuse of external lawyers hired by the NDIA to run cases in the AAT had created a “David-and-Goliath struggle” between the agency and people with disability.

“As minister I want the process to change so participants are treated with (more) respect than they currently are.”

The oversight committee will appoint expert reviewers to look at existing AAT cases, starting with an initial 15 or 20 matters.