The federal minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), Bill Shorten, has said he is deeply concerned about allegations criminal gangs are stealing millions of dollars from the government’s disability scheme.
The allegations were made by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission Chief Michael Phelan to the Sydney Morning Herald on Aug. 14. Phelan is calling for the creation of a specialised multi-agency taskforce to tackle organised crime gangs using coercion and other criminal tactics such as accessing the accounts to steal an estimated 20 percent of the NDIS’s annual national $30 billion cost.
Speaking to ABC Radio National on Aug. 15, Shorten said that he had been worried about the issue for the last couple of years while he held the shadow ministry for the Scheme, although he noted his estimates of the rorting were much smaller at around five percent….