COMMITTEES

Senator LIDDLE (South Australia—Deputy Opposition Whip in the Senate) (15:40): At the request of Senator Kovacic, the Deputy Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, I present the report of the committee's inquiry into the integrity of the NDIS, together with accompanying documents. I move: That the Senate take note of the report.

I rise today to speak on the tabling of this report. While the coalition members of this committee wish to thank the participants, families and advocates who shared their often harrowing stories, we must be blunt about the findings before us. The NDIS is a life-changing social reform, but its integrity is not a technical afterthought; it is a fundamental condition of its purpose, because for every dollar that is lost to maladministration, misuse, fraud, integrity leakage—whatever you want to call it—is a dollar that doesn't go to a person who needs it most.

The National Disability Insurance Agency has admitted to a broad integrity leakage of between 8.2 and 8.3 per cent, a figure that equates to approximately $3.7 billion every single year lost to errors, noncompliance and criminal fraud. It's a national shame. The chair's report, while documenting the scale of the crisis, fails to deliver the structural solutions required to protect the scheme's future.

It can go much further than it does. We heard chilling evidence from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission that the scheme is being targeted by higher end organised crime groups, some based offshore, who view the NDIS as merely one component of their much bigger, broader business model. These syndicates don't just commit paperwork errors; they use intimidation and threats of physical violence to coerce vulnerable participants and their families into collusive arrangements, effectively recycling the proceeds of disability fraud into other criminal activities.

We must reject the report's framing that this is the work of a limited number of bad actors. Organised networks that chop and change companies to evade detection and exploit cognitively impaired Australians are a systemic threat, not a residual one. The most glaring structural failure remains the unregistered provider market, which now accounts for a staggering 94 per cent of all active providers.

This has created a vast shadow market, operating with almost no accountability to NDIS standard practices. We received evidence of cleanskin registered businesses being sold as commodities to individuals who have never undergone a single screening check. While criminals exploit the back end of the system, our rural, regional and remote communities are being abandoned at the front end in so-called thin markets.

The combination of a flawed pricing model and the government's abrupt 50 per cent cut to travel reimbursement is forcing legitimate high-quality clinicians to withdraw from service. I actually gave an example that was given in the inquiry about Groote Eylandt, and I wrote to two Labor ministers saying this is a matter of urgency. People on Groote Eylandt who have MJD, which is a progressive condition that means they lose their mobility and independence—it's a devastating condition—need a response soon.

They might be out of sight to most of us, but the conditions that they live with every day require urgent, consistent and appropriate responses. I still haven't received a response, and that was weeks and weeks ago. It's not just me waiting.

Those people in that community are waiting for a response. There is great concern, first and foremost, for the very people these providers service. Most providers do the right thing.

They really care for the people they're providing services to, but there needs to be more focus on those that aren't. It's interesting that, in the last couple of weeks, we've seen a big flurry of media reporting on providers to the NDIS that have been charged or are currently in the process, somewhere, of criminal proceedings. We need a better system, not to respond at the end but to intervene early, to make sure every taxpayer dollar in the NDIS goes to a person who needs it most, not to fraudsters.

I talked about the unregistered market. We must close that unregistered market. Integrity must be built into the front of the scheme so we know exactly who is claiming taxpayer money before those funds move elsewhere, move to where they're not being used for the purpose of the scheme.

We have to protect whistleblowers against injustice and harmonise NDIS protections with the Corporations Act to ensure that those with the courage to speak up are supported by the law and not punished by it. Australians with disability and the taxpayers who fund this scheme expect those who exploit the vulnerable to be confronted and held accountable, not merely monitored as an efficiency target.

The coalition will continue to fight for a scheme where every dollar reaches the person it was meant to support and where people living with a disability have access to personalised, responsive and appropriate care and support regardless of the postcode that they live in. We can do better. We must do better.

As the Prime Minister has said, we must not leave Australians behind, and that includes these Australians. I commend the additional comments to the Senate.