Delay in NDIS vote will cost $1 billion: Shorten

Senators have delayed a vote on saving money in the National Disability Insurance Scheme, sparking claims the hold-up will cost taxpayers $1 billion at a time when some of them will be on a study tour in the United States and Brazil.

The Greens and Liberals joined forces in parliament on Monday to postpone the vote on the overhaul until at least August, in the latest upset to a reform plan that has worried NDIS recipients and angered state premiers.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten has vowed to scale back the strong growth in spending on the NDIS by cutting fraud and imposing tougher checks on programs.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten blamed the senators for adding $1 billion to the cost of the scheme, saying savings would be delayed while some headed overseas for “cocktails in Copacabana” when they should be doing their jobs in parliament.

His claims triggered a rebuke from Senate NDIS committee members who said they needed to hear from participants in the scheme at two more public hearings and consider potential amendments to the draft law.

Shorten has vowed to scale back the strong growth in spending on the NDIS by cutting fraud and imposing tougher checks on programs, in some cases giving officials greater power to intervene when recipients breached agreed spending limits.

The federal budget assumed savings of about $57 billion over a decade because the government has set an 8 per cent growth target for the scheme, replacing forecasts of 14 per cent growth and requiring changes such as those in the NDIS Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track) bill.

“Delaying this critical legislation will be of significant detriment to the NDIS and most importantly the Australians who need it,” Shorten said in a statement.

One factor frustrating the government was the signal last week that the bill could gain Coalition support, given there was no minority report from the Liberals or Nationals to identify amendments.

This changed on Monday when Greens senator Jordon Steele-John and Liberal senators including Hollie Hughes and Maria Kovacic said the committee needed more time and would report on August 5.

The new timing means the bill cannot be passed until the next sitting of parliament, beginning on August 12, when Shorten is trying to get the changes through the Senate this week or next.

“Senior Liberals have said numerous times that the Liberal Party supports the government’s critical NDIS reforms and they don’t want any taxpayer money wasted,” Shorten said.

“Since December 2023, I have travelled around Australia to hear the views of people with disability, NDIS providers, disability support workers and their unions about the NDIS review.

“As a part of this listening tour, I hosted nine town hall meetings on the review’s findings and recommendations, which were attended by more than 5200 attendees in person and online.”

Those on the overseas study tour include Greens and Liberal senators who have agreed to the delay on the bill. While the study tour also includes Labor senators, they have not agreed to the vote’s postponement.

A Greens spokesperson said the overseas delegation did not stop the committee from holding hearings, given that only some members would be away and other senators could sit in on hearings.

Liberal senator Linda Reynolds, a former NDIS minister, is not a member of the committee but backed its decision to take more time on the draft legislation because she said it did not reflect the changes needed in a lengthy government review of the scheme.

“It’s the worst piece of legislation I have seen in 10 years in this place,” she said.

“It was prepared in secret, it does not implement the review and, even worse, I believe it threatens to blow up the scheme.”

Kovacic said Shorten was wrong to throw a “tantrum” over the issue because the government could have acted sooner on the cost issues in the scheme.

“These are massive reforms of the NDIS and it’s disappointing that the minister is choosing to deflect responsibility for the timing of his poorly formed bill on the Senate,” she said.

“The role of the Senate is to inquire and scrutinise, and that’s what the committee is doing.”

Kovacic said the minister’s response was a “cheap distraction” from the news last month that his office had hired a speechwriter at a cost of about $620,000 over two years.

Disability advocates have warned against the changes in the draft law and urged the Senate to delay the bill until the government responds to the royal commission into disability, which delivered its final report last September.

“Senators must not pass this legislation in its current form,” People with Disability Australia president Marayke Jonkers said.

“We are always willing to work with the government of the day and co-design, but we need detail, not just reassurances, on things like methods for assessing needs and funding plans.”

State leaders last month called for more time to consider the changes in the bill because it could require more state spending on people who might not qualify for the NDIS, such as those who might need support in public schools.

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