New NDIS minister Bill Shorten vows to address scheme-related fraud

“I’ve started to read disturbing reports from criminal intelligence analysts that the same people in organised crime who were taking money out of the family day care scheme are now moving across into NDIS, obtaining people’s personal information, false invoices, overpaying of bills, ghost payments,” Shorten told ABC Insiders. “I think there [are] very few things more despicable in life than crooks taking money due to go to disabled people.”

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The statement also came after CTARS, the cloud-based client management system used by NDIS service providers, fell victim to a security breach, compromising a “large volume” of sensitive data.

With cyberattacks proliferating in Australia, Shorten said Labor wants to restore trust and see “all options on the table to make sure we protect taxpayer money.”

“We have to create trust, talk to the people using the services, talk to the people delivering the services, and say this scheme can’t subsidise everyone in Australia,” he said, as reported by Sky News. “It is aimed at the most profoundly impaired and severely disabled Australians. Leave aside the waste, the incompetence, the overpayment of consultants, and fraud.

“I’m not saying there should be fewer participants, but one of the contributing factors that people are doing whatever they can to get into [the] scheme is that it is a wasteland outside of it.”

Aside from battling cyberattacks, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) must address NDIS participants’ financial crisis due to funding cuts, with some patients forced to stay months longer than needed in hospitals and others fighting for their homes.