Funding for the National Disability Insurance Scheme looks set to be a frontline issue in the federal election campaign, as Scott Morrison warned voters not to believe Labor fearmongering about the budget bottom line.
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The government has faced criticism from the disability sector and Labor after federal budget papers revealed slower than expected uptake of NDIS services had delivered an immediate $1.6 billon boost to the government's balance sheet.
Labor said the government's forecast surplus had been built on the back of Australians with a disability while the Prime Minister strongly rejected suggestions the underspend represented maladministration in the demand-driven program.
On the final sitting day of Parliament before the election campaign gets under way, Mr Morrison insisted the NDIS remained on a steady footing and continued to enjoy strong bipartisan support.
The estimated annual spend for the NDIS was $5.3 billion, well below the expected $7.2 billion listed in the 2018-19 portfolio budget statement.
Speaking in Googong outside Canberra, Mr Morrison said estimated expected demand would not be met until July 2020.
"If these estimates are proved to be too conservative and the demand is greater for the NDIS, those bills will be fully met," he said.
"This is the biggest social program we have seen put together in this country since Medicare and of course it's going to have its challenges.
"The demand is ramping up significantly and as that demand continues to ramp up, every single package will be supported, every single cent will be delivered.
"There is absolutely not a cent being withheld from one program, one package. Every single package that is needed in the NDIS and every improvement that could be made in the NDIS to see more packages supported, every single dollar of that will come."
In Parliament he lashed Labor over its criticism, saying it was "shameful"
for MPs to seek to exploit fear and anxiety about disability services.
Labor's families and social services spokeswoman Linda Burney said Australians with a disability and their families had been short-changed by the Coalition this week.
"I have travelled the length and breadth of this country. I have met people and their families with disability, I’ve seen the distress, I’ve heard the stories and I can assure you there are massive problems with this program," she said.
Ms Burney slammed arbitrary staffing caps at the National Disability Insurance Agency, responsible for administering the scheme, and said poor resourcing had left it unable to meet its mandate.
"We are seeing families who are desperate to get through the bureaucracy and the red tape, finding it absolutely impossible and giving up.
"People with disability should not be made to prop up the budget of the Morrison government in terms of a surplus. It is just immoral."
Disability advocates are planning a May 3 national day of action, seeking to protest funding for the scheme at the height of the election campaign.
The National Disability and Carer Alliance is among groups seeking to pressure all sides of politics for increased funding.
