Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. I'll certainly go back and check any specific matters, but, in terms of criminal activity and the NDIS, it's Labor who's now turned the real focus onto tackling it.

The NDIS, when it works well, works tremendously well, and under Labor it's here to stay. But we do want to make sure that every dollar gets through to the people for whom the scheme was designed. One of the issues and challenges with the scheme is that, when there is government money, sometimes people—opportunists, criminals and others—become attracted to trying to siphon that money off for their own good rather than the best interests of participants. I certainly had the view in opposition—and it's been confirmed in government—that there is an element in the Australian community who are basically taking money from participants—robbing people on the scheme—and sometimes not only in an unethical manner but, indeed, in a criminal manner.

It is the case, however, that under Labor we've had to invest in crime detection. It was Labor who set up what we call the Fraud Fusion Taskforce in the October MYEFO budget of last year. What we've done is to invest roughly $140 million. That's allowed greater cooperation between the AFP, the Australian tax office, our own NDIA and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission to start working together. I'm very pleased at the work of the Fraud Fusion Taskforce, but I do have to say, for the record, it didn't exist before Labor got elected.

I had the view in opposition—it's been confirmed in government—that under the coalition the backdoor of the scheme was open to rorts, shonks and cheats. I'll give you one proof point of this.

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