The same document shows that almost 60 per cent of those overall savings would come from the cutting of participant community participation<\/a> and therapy budgets ($13.2 billion over four years) and tightening access to the scheme through a new functional capacity test ($9.3 billion).<\/p>\n Alongside overall sustainability, the government has repeatedly referenced fraud as one justification for its generational overhaul of the now-$50 billion scheme, with a separate Senate inquiry hearing last month that about $3.7 billion of NDIS funding was lost to “integrity leakage”<\/a> last financial year.<\/p>\n Senator Steele-John asked Senator McAllister about the Treasury modelling this morning, saying it appeared the government’s changes to the scheme had more of a focus on “cutting people’s support” than holding the “mongrel” providers who were exploiting participants to account.<\/p>\n “Many people will look at the dollar figures and wonder why they themselves, as participants in the scheme, are bearing the overwhelming weight of the cuts that you are making in a piece of legislation that you’ve overwhelmingly framed as an anti-fraud measure,” he said.<\/p>\n “I think there is a fundamental disconnect here between the government’s language, which is often around tackling fraud, and what the numbers say here in the budget papers.” Jordon Steele-John says there is a “fundamental disconnect” between how the government is selling its changes versus what it is actually doing. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n Senator McAllister repeatedly pushed back in a series of tense exchanges, saying it was misleading to pick one line item from the ten in total contained in the Treasury modelling as the only one that was anti-fraud.<\/p>\n “The package as a whole will have a very significant impact on fraud,” she said.<\/p>\n She accused Senator Steele-John of conflating the fiscal impact of the overhaul to the “overall policy impact”, and that all savings from stopping fraud could not be truly captured on a balance sheet.<\/p>\n “You are correct that for the most part, there are not significant savings to government,” she said.<\/p>\n “There are some savings to government when we intervene [on fraud], but mostly what occurs is \u2026 it generally returns money to people with disability who need it, not to consolidated revenue.”<\/p>\n Senator McAlliser said the government’s overhaul of the scheme first and foremost sought to ensure the scheme was sustainable.<\/p>\n “The whole package is about making the NDIS stronger and better so it is here for the long term. It’s not a choice between runaway cost growth or dealing with fraud \u2014 we actually have to do both.”<\/p>\n The government was also questioned about a new power in legislation before parliament<\/a> that would enable the minister to cut funding across categories of supports, a device independent senator David Pocock labelled a “blunt instrument”.<\/p>\n![\"Jordon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/70d638622ba25720e9e2f63f36dbb281.jpeg\")
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