The Coalition says it will ensure the country’s disability insurance scheme (NDIS) will remain “fit for purpose and sustainable for future generations” after Labor accused the opposition of looking to gut the growing $47bn program.
The shadow public service minister, Jane Hume, said the National Disability Insurance Scheme had “run out of control” on Sunday, adding more “can be done” to curb the scheme’s exponential growth beyond Labor’s promised changes.
Under the Albanese government, national cabinet agreed to an 8% annual growth rate target by July 2026 to prevent the program’s cost from skyrocketing ahead of economic growth.
Hume suggested all government spending could be tied to GDP growth, for example, though she stopped short of suggesting the ceiling be applied to the NDIS.
Michael Sukkar, the opposition’s NDIS spokesperson, walked back Hume’s comments on Monday, dismissing claims the opposition would cut NDIS as “lies”.
“The Coalition is not cutting the NDIS, this was just a false accusation from a desperate government,” he said.
On the eve of the federal budget, the new NDIS minister, Amanda Rishworth, invited the opposition to publicly reveal its plans for the scheme, if elected.
“The Liberal party can’t be trusted with the NDIS,” Rishworth said.
“The Liberals, Jane Hume and Peter Dutton need to come clean about what cuts they plan to make, who would no longer be able to access the scheme and who would miss out on supports.”
The latest projections from the government’s scheme actuary show the NDIS’s growth rate is expected to reach 12% for 2024-25 financial year, before hitting 8.4% and 6.7% in the subsequent years.
Rishworth said the scheme’s growth rate sat at about 10%, referencing the disability insurance scheme agency’s figures, suggesting it could reach the target set by national cabinet next June.
As a share of GDP, the cost of the NDIS will represent about 1.7% for 2024-25 and is forecast to rise to 2.1% by 2033-34.
Sukkar doubted Labor was steering the scheme toward its 8% target.
“The government is missing their own stated growth cap to the NDIS of 8%. The government, in agreement with the states, put the 8% cap in place, not the opposition. They are missing the targets they set for themselves,” he said.
“The Coalition is focused on ensuring the NDIS remains fit for purpose and sustainable for future generations to come.”
The political argument around the scheme’s financial footing has some in the sector concerned the disability community is once again being used as a “political football”.
Jeff Smith, the Disability Advocacy Network Australia’s chief executive, said while the scheme was on a pathway to sustainability, there were still a number of gaps in the system outside the NDIS.
“The NDIS is an essential public service – not a political football to be punted around at the expense of people with disability,” Smith said.
“As the NDIS review identified, sustainability is important, but it is equally crucial we build an equitable system that doesn’t leave people with disability behind.”
Steph Travers, a board member of People with Disability Australia, said people with disability were scared the NDIS was back in the political spotlight.
“Floating the idea of cuts then failing to provide any detail on what you’d actually do is unacceptable,” she siad.
“We need clear commitments from all parties that there will be no politics played with the NDIS, no further cuts to access, underfunding or changes to the NDIS growth target.”
The 2024-25 federal budget papers showed Labor had planned to claw back $27.9bn in savings from the NDIS until 2027-28.
The NDIS actuary in December 2023 estimated payments to the scheme would increase by $15.9bn from 2023-24 to 2027-28 but Labor’s amendments would reduce that figure by $14.4bn over the next four years, bringing the increase down to just $1.5bn.
