Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell has grilled NDIS Minister Bill Shorten on the recent announcement the cost of the National Disability Insurance Scheme is expected to blow out by an extra $8.8 billion over the next four years.
“The real challenge here is the long-term neglect of the NDIS by the previous government,” Mr Shorten told Sky News Australia.
“There’s about 550,000 people who make claims on the NDIS.
“If we want to break down these 550,000 people – 10 per cent of the participants attract about 50 per cent of the funds.”
Mr Shorten said they are seeing an increase in children seeking support for early intervention.
He said the scheme was set up for the most “profoundly and severely impaired Australians”.
“I think what’s driving the growth in the scheme and the costs in the scheme is much more complicated than just whether or not a child’s been diagnosed with autism,” Mr Shorten said.
“I think there’s like – it’s a basket of challenges, and I don’t think the previous government really other than trying to make it harder to get on the scheme, really rolled up their sleeves.
“So, there are issues within the scheme, in my opinion.”
However, Mr Shorten did continue to note, “beyond the challenges within the scheme, I think there’s another conversation to be had that the NDIS, when we proposed setting it up, was never intended to be the only lifeboat in the ocean”.
“We didn’t want it to be the only thing going for services for people with disabilities in Australia – so for people who are much more mildly – live with much more milder disabilities – we need to make sure that the states and other government departments aren’t retreating from their obligations, washing their hands of everything and saying ‘that’s an NDIS matter’,” he said.
