A Shorten Labor Government will establish a National Disability Insurance Scheme Future Fund – guaranteeing that every dollar budgeted for the NDIS, goes to the NDIS.

Labor’s NDIS Future Fund will be a locked box – a budgeted guarantee to Australians with disability that the NDIS will be properly and fully funded.
 
This is part of Labor’s Plan to get the NDIS back on track, and protect it from the Liberals’ cuts and chaos.
 
Under Scott Morrison and the Liberals, the NDIS has been starved of resources so it isn’t delivering for people with disability like it was designed to.
 
This year’s budget projects an underspend on the NDIS of $1.6 billion because of the Liberals’ delays and caps. 
 
When money budgeted for the NDIS isn’t going to the NDIS, it’s a cut.
 
And even worse – the Liberals are using the NDIS to prop up their tax handouts to the top end of town.
 
The Liberals have delayed the NDIS rollout, implemented a cap on staff, kept the price of services too low, and failed to invest in the workforce.
 
This has meant that the money Labor budgeted for the NDIS isn’t being spent on services for people with disability.
 
Instead, it’s being spent by the Liberals on tax handouts to the top end of town.
 
That’s money that should be spent on services people with disability have been assessed as needing.
 
Because of the Liberals’ delays, the caps and the lack of services, more than 77,000 Australians with disability are missing out on the NDIS, and the average recipient is being short-changed by $13,000 a year.
 
And instead of putting their underspend into making sure Australians with disability get the support they need, the Liberals are using it to prop up tax handouts to the top end of town.
 
That’s why Labor will put the money budgeted for the NDIS into a locked box so it can only be spent on people with disability – an NDIS Reserve Fund to stop any future cuts.
 
Labor will ensure the NDIS has the resources it needs to improve the lives of people with disability now and into the future.
 
The NDIS Reserve Fund will be managed by the Future Fund, who will protect the 2019-20 underspend and any future underspend so it can’t be cut from the NDIS.
 
This builds on Labor’s existing plans to get the NDIS back on track, by:

• Lifting the staffing cap at the NDIA to reduce waiting times and help more eligible Australians get into the scheme faster.

• Improving the planning process with better trained planners and a new culture that puts people with disability back at the centre of the NDIS.

• Improving services, particularly in regional and remote areas and building a skilled, high quality, disability workforce that can meet the growing demand of the NDIS.

• Focussing on people with complex needs, including children, CALD and Indigenous Australians.

 
Labor’s Plan to get the NDIS back on track can be found here.
 
This election is a choice between giving people with disability the security they need knowing that the NDIS will be properly funded and protected from future cuts, or giving bigger tax handouts to the top end of town under the Liberals.
 
Only Labor will protect the NDIS from the Liberals’ cuts.