Health Minister Mark Butler defends major NDIS overhaul

Health Minister Mark Butler has defended the NDIS shake-up, arguing the scheme had “gone off track” and needed to be reined in.

New legislation targeting “scheme inflation” and rorting is due to be put before parliament to crack down on eligibility requirements.

There are about 760,000 people on the scheme, but this figure would be reduced to 600,000 under the overhaul.

With about 160,000 people to be cut from the scheme, it will cost taxpayers about $50bn per year in 2030 instead of a projected $70bn.

Under the existing design, the cost was expected to grow by $100bn per year within a decade.

Speaking to Today on Thursday, Mr Butler said while about 160,000 people were expected to be booted from the scheme, the figure could change.

“It might end up being a number that’s a little bit different to that because we haven’t designed the tool yet,” he said.

“But I tried to give people a sense of where we think the scheme should be to return it to its original intent.”

Mr Butler said without significant reform, almost one million Australians would end up on the scheme.

“I mean, it was expected by the end of this decade that maybe 550,000 people would be on the scheme to keep true to its original purpose,” he said.

“The way we’re going, almost a million people will be on the scheme, and that’s just – first of all – not sustainable but also not the appropriate type of support for people who have those lower to more moderate support.”

Speaking to Sunrise on Thursday, Mr Butler defended the overhaul but said it was something he wished didn’t need to happen.

“The truth is, if we don’t reset this, its future is at risk and it won’t be there in years to come,” he said.

Mr Butler said the decision to crack down on the disability scheme was an important step to “secure its future”.

He also said the overhaul would not be “duckshoved” to state governments, explaining the federal and state and territory governments should be working in tandem.

“This great achievement has gone off track and I think they expect governments to work together,” he said.

“We’re not trying to duckshove this to states. We recognise this needs to be done in partnership with them and with the disability community.”

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie told Today the “heart of the problem” with the disability scheme was its design and said previous calls for reform by the Coalition were labelled as “heartless” and “callous”.

“How dare we try and do something about a scheme which we knew was going to blow out and run away, as it has because of the design problems,” she said.

On Wednesday evening, Mr Butler told 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson the government would approach the scheme’s issues in a “risk-based way”.

“We’ve been moving through the sector, starting to register those organisations that have most intimate personal involvements with participants,” he said on Wednesday evening.

Under the government’s changes, independent living providers must be registered by July 1 and implement a digital payments system to prevent rorters.

Mr Butler said 90 per cent of claims were made with “no evidence behind them”.

“It is sort of extraordinary and it’s pretty easy to fix – put in place a digital payment system so that we have a line of sight of everyone who is receiving every dollar from the NDIS,” he said.