Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers has defended billions of dollars of savings for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), contesting that growing costs need to be moderated – according to a new report from Yahoo News.
The federal government’s recent 2023-24 budget earmarked $74 billion worth of savings for the NDIS over the next 10 years, with the growth of the scheme due to be capped by 8% a year from 2026.
Yahoo News revealed that while advocates had expressed concern about the size of the budget cuts, Dr Chalmers has argued that the figures are based on the counsel of both agencies and the disability sector.
“Our overwhelming priority when it comes to the NDIS is to make sure that people who the scheme was designed to serve get the right services and programs to help them,” he told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.
“It still will be growing very quick, the quickest growing (item) in the budget,” he said, “but we need to moderate some of these costs, so in the near term, that’s about cracking down on fraud and money going where it’s not supposed to be going.”
The NDIS is expected to cost almost $42 billion in the 2023/24 financial year. Budget papers project this to rise to almost $56 billion by 2026/27. Discussing the expected $74 billion in savings, Dr Chalmers said $15 billion is set to come from cracking down on fraud within the NDIS, with other savings from the growth cap.
“We’re not talking about winding back growth in the scheme, we’re talking about moderating it,” Dr Chalmers said. “That reflects the best balance and our best understanding of what we need to do to fund the services that people need and deserve while winding back on areas where that spending has been unnecessary.”
The treasurer also noted that the National Disability Insurance Agency, Treasury and the expenditure review committee had been involved in examining costs for the scheme going forward. Meanwhile, the government is conducting a review of the NDIS - with the findings set to be handed down by September.
He added that there will be large amounts of information for people within the disability community about the growth caps and savings for the scheme.
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