‘Fire in the belly’: Bill Shorten says he wants to remain in parliament until after next election

New figures reveal the federal government’s Fraud Fusion Taskforce has 39 fraud investigations in progress and there are at least 13 matters involving NDIS fraud before the courts. The investigations have resulted in $250 million being put under review.

Three companies based in Sydney’s west and south-west – Hopeful Ability Care Pty Ltd, Fine Care Pty Ltd and Allied Health Cleaning Services Pty Ltd – were issued this month with suspension notices banning them from providing any NDIS services for 30 days.

Three people associated with the companies have been banned from the scheme for two years.

The companies were found to have made falsified and inappropriate claims for payment under the NDIS “which had serious adverse effect on NDIS participants”.

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Shorten said he was “very concerned” that service providers were overcharging and that the problem was widespread.

“It’s paid on volume, not on outcome,” he said.

“We’ve got to go back to the concept of the scheme, which was to give people who have significant functional impairment assistance so that they can live an ordinary life.

“But what we’re getting is a whole range of issues, from not evidence-based therapy to overcharging to then you get the fraud … I don’t think there’s been sufficient scrutiny of invoices.”

While cracking down on fraud, Shorten said an independent review of the NDIS – to be handed to the government by October – would also focus on how to make it less traumatic for people when applying to get on the scheme.

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But he also said the creation of the NDIS had resulted in a number of other funding providers, including the states and schools, not pulling their weight.

“It’s become the only lifeboat in the ocean,” Shorten said.

“The states have retreated, in my opinion, from providing disability services. This scheme was never meant to be for every Australian with a disability.

“A lot of states folded their mental health programs into the NDIS. But the NDIS isn’t to cover everyone with a psychosocial illness; it’s only the most severe.”

At present, the NDIS is funded with a 63-37 per cent split between the Commonwealth and the states. But with the state’s contribution set to decline to about 12 per cent in a decade unless a new funding agreement is reached, Shorten spoke of the “need to be honest about some of the problems and some of the expenses”.

As a parliamentary secretary for disabilities under the Rudd government, Shorten was instrumental in promoting the idea of a national disability insurance scheme.

He said it was an “unusual and rare privilege” to be involved in the establishment of the scheme 15 years ago and now having the role of getting it back on track.

While acknowledging the cost of the scheme was growing faster than predicted, he said the benefits of the scheme also needed to be highlighted.

“I start from the view that the NDIS is as important an Australian institution as Medicare or superannuation,” he said.

“We’ve got to make sure the NDIS is delivering the original vision, but in a way which doesn’t see the growth being excessive.”

Shorten accused the International Monetary Fund of being out of touch after it urged the government last year to consider means-testing the scheme’s participants to rein in expenses.

“I think it was the observation that you can make when you sit in New York – not talk to someone whose life has been changed for the best in the outer suburbs of Melbourne or Sydney,” he said.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.