Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other Labor ministers, over the last few weeks and months, have in effect publicly admitted they don’t know what to do to stop the $billions of frauds and theft at the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and big changes are coming in the May 2026 budget.
For example, on the 23rd of March 2026, almost 4 years after the Labor Party came to power in May 2022, the SMH reported:
Labor wants an inquiry to hear fresh evidence of fraud in the $50 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme as it builds a case for stricter rules and tighter spending on the scheme in the May budget.
NDIS Minister Jenny McAllister made the rare move of writing to one of parliament’s joint committees on Monday with a request that it investigate the extent of fraud and non-compliance in the scheme – as well as ways to fix it.
McAllister’s request follows a string of charges laid against people who have defrauded the NDIS, with three people prosecuted in Melbourne last week for different examples of fraud.
One man was sentenced to three years’ jail for abusing his position as an employee at a disability services company, giving the details of 90 NDIS participants to another dodgy provider and sharing in $190,000 that they gained by making fraudulent claims.
A 55-year-old Melbourne woman was sentenced to two years and six months’ jail, after agencies determined she was the main offender in a syndicate that defrauded taxpayers about $800,000. She misused NDIS funds to purchase a home. (Click here to read more)
The fact that “Labor wants an inquiry to hear fresh evidence of fraud in the $50 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme” and “a request that it investigate the extent of fraud and non-compliance in the scheme – as well as ways to fix it.”
It raises the question of what the Labor government has been doing for the past 4 years, given they campaigned at the 2022 federal election that they would fix the corruption and waste at the NDIS and why are they acting now?
Labor spoke publicly about the problems with the NDIS in August last year, so why wait until now for another inquiry and ask for solutions?
I published an article on the 25th of October 2025 titled “Labor’s multi-billion-$$$ NDIS fraud exposed by Labor’s Health Minister Mark Butler” which starts off:
The Labor Party and the Liberal Party / National Party coalition have overseen tens of billions of dollars being stolen from the NDIS, and we know it continues today, with some frank admissions by the Health Minister Mark Butler which raises the question of what the Labor Party has been doing since they came to power in 2022.
and:
On the 20th of August 2025, Mark Butler was interviewed on the ABC’s 7:30 Report and was asked by the host:
SARAH FERGUSON: I just want to come back to the very difficult issue of fraud in the NDIS. The stories have obviously been, frankly, repulsive, about people taking advantage of this generous system. Are you winning the battle with those shonks and fraudsters taking advantage of the NDIS?
MARK BUTLER: We had to start from scratch. The National Audit Office said before 2024, so the scheme had been running for over a decade, there was effectively no real control on fraud and non-compliance within the NDIS. So, we’ve had to build it up from scratch. Bill Shorten, to his credit, started that work, and already we’ve had hundreds of investigations, search warrants and we are starting to crack down. But we’ve got 260,000 service providers in this scheme, only 16,000 of whom are registered. We’ve precious little line of sight about who they are, what they’re doing, what their qualifications are. We need more work on fraud, and we’ve committed to that again today. But we also, frankly, need a more robust system of provider registration. The sort of which you see in aged care, in veterans’ care, in the health system, and frankly, should exist in the NDIS as well. (Click here to read more)
The key part is “The National Audit Office said before 2024” “there was effectively no real control on fraud and non-compliance within the NDIS”.
So, why did it take the Labor Party from when they won the election in May 2022 until 2024 to do anything about “control on fraud and non-compliance”?
It had to be a deliberate decision by the Labor Party to ignore the fraud at the NDIS, from May 2022 until 2024, given everyone knew about it for years.
and:
The fraud and theft in the NDIS being worth $billions every year has been known for a long time. For example, previous articles I have published are:
On the 21st of August 2022, I published an article titled “Bill Shorten, Labor’s version of Angus Taylor, is doing nothing about the estimated $6 billion being stolen from the NDIS. Why?” which starts off:
Bill Shorten, Minister for the NDIS, has failed to take any action regarding the $billions being stolen from the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) every year even though he says he has known it has been going on for a long time – so much so he continually warned the previous government about the fraud and theft.
Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission CEO Michael Phelan estimates the fraud and theft could be up to 20% of the $30 billion annual cost, which puts the total amount stolen from the public purse at $6 billion. (Click here to read more)
Three years later and not much has changed from what I wrote in August 2022 about the NDIS fraud and theft.
I published another article in June 2023 titled “Bill Shorten and the NDIS is set to become Australia’s biggest fraud scam with tens of $billions stolen” and another article in July 2024 titled “Bill Shorten managed NDIS has fraudulent spending of at least $5.5 billion a year on sex toys, gambling and cannabis etc“. (Click here to read the full article)
The Labor government is obviously leaking their NDIS plans to the SMH over recent weeks to soften the blow.
The SMH reported on the 6th of April, “Labor will make slowing growth in the $50 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme a centrepiece of its budget savings”
and “Australia’s peak body for disability services has started priming NDIS providers to expect significant changes next month, but it is encouraging the sector to embrace public debate over the future of a scheme it says has enough funding but is riddled with integrity failures.”
Their argument will help bolster Health Minister Mark Butler’s case as he mulls structural overhauls of NDIS eligibility or how the scheme funds services in his efforts to significantly curtail the scheme’s growth trajectory within the next few years. (Click here to read more)
Then on the 10th of April the SMH reported:
Health Minister Mark Butler has refused to rule out introducing means testing for the National Disability Insurance Scheme as pressure grows on Labor to deliver a federal budget that contains significant reforms to the cost of the system.
Butler’s comments come as the scheme is expected to cost more than $50 billion for the first time this financial year and, on the current trajectory, will cost more than $100 billion annually within the next decade.
It is one of the five most expensive items in the federal budget, prompting questions about the scheme’s rapid growth. The national cabinet agreed several weeks ago to slow the growth rate of the scheme from about 10 per cent per annum to 5-6 per cent per year, a potential saving of billions of dollars each year. (Click here to read more)
Anthony Albanese admitted last week that the NDIS has major problems and that change is coming in the budget.
The SMH reported (12/4/26):
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared the government must overhaul the NDIS to maintain its viability and ensure public support for the scheme.
In some of his strongest comments yet about the National Disability Insurance Scheme, introduced by former Labor PM Julia Gillard in 2013, Albanese opened the door to wholesale changes to the initiative in the May budget.
“The NDIS was there to assist people who have a permanent incapacity to fully participate in society – that’s something we need to value and cherish,” he said. “It’s undermined if four out of 10 kids in a class are on the NDIS.
“That wasn’t why it has that public support, and we need to make sure that we maintain public support by ensuring it’s sustainable.” (Click here to read more)
What’s motivating the government to take action on the NDIS now after doing almost nothing for 4 years is unknown, but it is probably driven by the fact it is a political bomb waiting to go off if they don’t fix it.
Maybe it’s the out-of-control growth of the NDIS and its impact on the budget and inflation that has motivated the government to act, or maybe it is because other political parties are starting to raise it as a political issue.
To be fair, Labor’s Health Minister Mark Butler spoke publicly about the problems in August 2025, which obviously flagged they were planning on doing something, but to leave it to now, a few weeks before the budget, is a bad joke.
Labor should have had a Royal Commission into the NDIS when they came to power in 2022, and it’s still not too late given the Labor Party has in effect admitted they don’t have the answers to the problems nor know what all the problems are.
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Categories: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
The NDIS system needs to be wound back & redesigned completely.
Well it’s Australia any scheme that has good intentions works elsewhere in the world will get defrauded scammed and ripped off it’s the Australian way.
The common feature with the NDIS, child care and aged care (all of which have dire problems) is the neoliberal for-profit model. Can anyone explain to me how inflating profits so that shareholders can win benefits the community? What a rort. Put them all back in public hands.
So true, it cannot be done as a matter of fact under that system. There has to be a constant drive to lower cost and maximise profit. Particpants are stuck with whatever provision they happen upon nearly always unaware of alternatives until the point of total breakdown where they haphazard to the next provider. The provider generally has no incentive to deliver just to maximise profit. This is the situation for the non-fraudulent/ compliant providers. In Denmark all these services are provided by the state and are not a matter of public discussion.
Overcharging and unnecessary servicing is the problem. You will only recoup so much concentrating on fraud. Bring in a system of set pricing like Veterans Affairs and you may be able to keep costs down.
True. Overcharging and unnecessary servicing are features, not bugs. You can and should prosecute scammers, but the system is the real problem.
NDIS Should be for those with permanent disabilities.
1. In wheelchairs permanently
2. Brain injuries unable to function on daily basis
3. Need walking aids to walk to get around
4. Limbs lost unable to look after themselves or live independently
5. Vision impaired needs help to live independently.
6. Once a person turns 67 yrs goes onto Aged Care Package
7. Better assessments from OT and Specialist reports.
You left out Autism. Autism has 3 levels. The first level is high functioning where though Autistic they can communicates well and is able to learn and do very well in education. They can still suffer high anxiety. Level 2 is not so high functioning, but still able to communicate and possibly become independent, but also suffer high anxiety. Level 3 is the lowest level for those who are Autistic. They find it difficult to communicate and many are non-verbal. It’s possible few at level 3 will ever be able to be independent and will require Support all their lives. Most at level 3 have a great deal of anxiety and need medication to cope. Some who are Autistic and it may not matter which level can become violent and need medication to help calm them. Changes in routine and loud noises like a thunder storm just to name a couple of things, can bring on anxiety.
Up until this particular Labor Government, I have always had faith in Labor to deliver a decent and well thought out plan implementations. Labor introduced Medicare which has worked extremely well over the years. Labor also introduced the Superannuation Scheme which has also worked out well. Helping many to save for their old age or even enough that may be a deposit on a home. The NDIS ‘IS’ a brilliant scheme which many who are disabled either physically or neurologically challenged has given them a better quality of life, when before they barely existed on a daily basis.
I watched how the Sheer Incompetent Coalition when in government for almost 10 years bastardise the NDIS.
Now, somehow this Labor government hasn’t the ability to filter out the fraudulent providers and get the NDIS back on track for the original purpose it was implemented.
Every Participant goes through extremely thorough, exhaustive and strict requirements to apply for their funding of the NDIS. Letters from Doctors and Specialists are required together with submissions from all Providers e.g. Speech therapists, Occupational therapists, Psychologists, and Exercise Physiologist. All necessary for facing the future and with hope of independence. All these Clinicians become part of the life for so many who are disabled. And the younger the Participant is is very important to help build on their independence going forward. Young teens who are disabled or neurologically challenged and who have grown up with all the therapies still face a daunting future and need Support Workers to keep on helping them learn to live independent lives.
So getting back to the Government. I have to wonder if the Providers go through the same strict requirements as the Participants. Over the last 10 or so years, so many Companies providing assistance in varying forms of assistance for the disabled and neurologically challenged have sprung up all over Australia. Most are obviously in the major Cities. Some companies claim they are not for profit, but the majority are for-profit and can inflate prices because it’s the NDIS and it’s that area where the Government should concentrate. Stop those on the band wagon of over charging.
I am a grandparent who has watched her grandson come from almost non-verbal most of his life to an 18 year old who has some communication. He still doesn’t comprehend many things, but together with medication for his anxiety, his therapists and support workers his life is improving as he strives to become somewhat independent. It costs a great deal of money for this one individual to try and live as normal as possible. He deserves that right to live as normal as possible and that applies to every single disabled and neurologically challenged child and adult.
Hi Anne M, in a very similar situation to yourself. Seeing the rorts in the system is obscene. No one that provides services under the banner NDIS are not for profit. If they say they are, they are blatant liars. Take into account the fees charged for example Snr Occupational therapists per hour [taking into account sick pay annual leave super etc] approx $55 per hour base salary. Why then do the providers charge them out to the client at $130 + per hour. Then there is all the administrative costs on top. I agree there is a dire need for a scheme to support our most vulnerable but there also needs to be caps on charges for services & it needs to be realistic & not a means of price gouging. At least 160,0000 providers, only 16,000 of whom are registered, how the hell can that happen in this day & age. Definitely a very broken system that desperately needs a total overhaul & new team to oversee to rules & regulations & long term running.
Hi there, my daughter & her husband run their own NDIS business for many years…last week I stayed over at their house for a few nights & around 8pm one night my daughter showed me her phone & she had 27 texts/messages to sort out…the next morning after getting 2 young ones off to school & seeing her husband off she got onto the previous day’s work load…she spends much of her time on the phone when not out with clients, some she has had for well over 10 years & at one stage in the morning she came out from their little office area & told me about the 3 way phone call she just had that was around 90minutes…one woman keeps repeating herself & at $180 per hour & the other person on about $120 per hour…so that was probably a $500 phone call…just saying
The Federal Government needs to get serious on this:
— make NDIS fraud a serious criminal offence with mandatory jail terms.
— impose mandatory reimbursement of funds which cannot be escaped by coroporate or private bankruptcy proceedings.
— for any offenders impose national bans against them receiving any federal program funds of any kind for a minimum of ten years.
— require service providers to undergo full audits on demand by the Federal government.
— require service providers to agree in writing to those terms and conditions when the legislation is passed or get out of business immediately.
Where did we get this idiotic idea that stealing government money is not criminal.
One thing not mentioned so far is that many NDIS service providers are not registered. These appear to be the majority of unscrupulous operatives and need to be forced to comply with with regulations or eliminated.
It is covered above where Mark Butler is quoted. It says “But we’ve got 260,000 service providers in this scheme, only 16,000 of whom are registered.”
WOW..!! I think this government is either on ‘crack’, smoking weed or requiring NDIS assistance themselves. They ALL certainly have “special needs”..!!
Thank you, Shane. That comes to only 6.15% of 260,000 being registered!
Me thinks we might have a bit of a national crisis on our hands there!
Whose minding the bleeding store?
Here in Melbourne where I live we have four & sometimes 5 sudos taking a dude in a wheel chair for a walk around the suburb every day, they also live in a NDIS new home 24/7. Their are thousands of these NDIS homes in Aus.
Before they attempt do anything regarding NDIS, first need to remove NG benefits and close all the other loopholes – CGT, shadow ‘superannuation funding’ for lower paid spouses into super scheme that invest in property and remove opportunity for private builders to raid the scheme for personal benefits.
I spoke with a builder out in Narree Warren 3 years ago who would not build anything other than NDIS properties, and they can continue to make revenue from that being the prime investor and management provider.
No wonder this country is in so much sh!t. How the hell can you run a scheme worth billions $$$ & say there are over 260, 000 providers but only 16,000 are registered. Obvious to blind Freddie that it is run by complete assholes who no doubt are on the receiving end of substantial kickbacks. It should never have got off the ground without the most stringent of checks & balances into ALL providers & the fees they charge. The Aged Care packages were going down the same path & it is yet to be seen if the changes are being adhered too. Still a lot of ‘grey’ areas.
They don’t need to cut budget, they need to insert a national interest clause in every contract and set up a team of forensic systems auditors with actual power to expose rorts and shut down, name and shame the shonky operators providing services to both NDIS and Veterans Affairs.
Adelaide to Berri is over 245 km … An OT who lives in Berri works for a company through NDIS. Every local patient she sees is charged on the NDIS account for the travelling from Adelaide to Berri return ,, She sometimes sees many patients on the same day … Keeping in mind she is living locally & not making those trips.. These payments foe traveling is disgusting & robbing both NDIS & the clients … Any wonder it is failing .. The other problem is that many patients cannot undestand her ..
“we’ve got 260,000 service providers in this scheme, only 16,000 of whom are registered. We’ve precious little line of sight about who they are, what they’re doing, what their qualifications are…”
Registered?
They’re NOT registered?
NINETY FOUR PERCENT OF THE PROVIDERS ARE NOT REGISTERED?
And you have NO IDEA WHAT THEY’RE DOING?
I like to say no MP is smarter than anyone you walk past in the street, but seriously? Mark Butler pretending he’s a clueless, innocent bystander in this matter that just happened around them organically takes the cake.
Where is the basic procedure, a system of the simplest checks and balances?
Either these providers should be registered in the government’s system in order to provide services in the first place, OR they need to be registered with an independent body as proof of being a service provider. One would think BOTH. There’s not even a system let alone any evidence required? So whose fault is it there is fraud? FFS. This makes my head hurt it is so infuriating.
I guess they’re doing something now because like the unions and/or medical funds, the NDIS is no longer a feasibly ongoing rort for Labor because you can almost guarantee at least part of that money is being funneled and/or kicked back.
As usual it will be the people who genuinely need it most who will be damaged in the ‘crackdown’ to make Labor look like they’re doing *something* when they’ve done NOTHING.
It wasn’t just a deliberate decision by the Labor Party to ignore the fraud at the NDIS, it was a deliberate construct. That old chestnut ‘the system is working exactly as it was designed.’
I’d say heads need to roll but I have lost all faith after the NACC Robodebt ‘investigation’ that anyone will ever be held accountable for anything they do.
My 50 year old son has been doing so well now on the NDIS, I’m nearly 80 years, and it all became too much mentally caring for him. I honestly believe the government is full of BS, they just want to stop it because they have to make a saving somewhere. There is a chap near him who can’t do anything at all for himself, he has someone everyday to assist him.
Kind Regards,
Carol Smith
I understand your concerns, Carolyn. The solution is staring the government in the face. But I’m afraid the criminal fat cats are going to win this one.