The newly-minted NDIS Minister says he’s astonished system rorts have been allowed to go on unchecked under the Coalition. 

Frauds are estimated to syphon around five per cent of the NDIS budget away from Australians with a genuine need for the service, costing taxpayers $1.45 billion annually.

Since inheriting the portfolio this month, Bill Shorten has been vocal about a need to cut the fat from the system.

“We’ve got to call out the rorts,” he told Sofie Formica. “Where you have government payment systems, it will attract crooks like flies to a honeypot.”

He blamed the Coalition for leaving investigation teams chronically underfunded and understaffed, unable to effectively clamp down on fraudulent activity.

“The people who are in the family daycare rorts are looking at other government payment systems like this, where they can either take people’s personal identity or set up a little syndicate of people who rip off the system.

“We’ve got to have stronger fraud detection systems than we currently have.

“I’m a bit amazed that the previous government put this in the ‘too hard’ basket, frankly.”

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