Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I think colleagues would appreciate that the NDIS is a multibillion-dollar project—at full rollout it will be a $22 billion-a-year scheme. One of the things that the NDIS does not do is directly employ people who are engaged in the work of providing care and support. That is something which is funded through the individual packages that NDIS participants have. They direct that funding to the support staff of their choice. The NDIS is also aiming to not have a terribly large direct workforce of its own. As Senator Hinch would appreciate, they undertake planning activities and other functions to make the scheme work, so there has been a need to engage consultants across a range of activities—and recognising that the NDIS is, in effect, a start-up, that it is bringing together responsibilities which have rested with the states and with the Commonwealth. It is a massive venture. It is a massive exercise. Given this is something, as I say, that is a start-up, there has been the need to engage consultancy services across a range of areas of the organisation's activity.