NDIS: The popular scheme which became a political football

That solidarity remains: there is a near-universal agreement that the NDIS is not just necessary, but a world-leading social security scheme that Australians should be proud of.

But consensus on the scheme's importance hasn't stopped it from being turned into a political battleground.

Far from it.

As part of its We need to talk about the NDIS series, ACM has spoken to the minister in charge of the scheme, the Coalition frontbencher trying to hold him to account and the Greens senator whose lived experience fuels his desire to protect the NDIS all costs.

Having lobbied for and then helped design the NDIS in the Rudd and Gillard years, former Labor leader Bill Shorten is now responsible for confronting the challenges that emerged under the Coalition - including the scheme's size and surging costs.

In opposition, Mr Shorten accused the Coalition of fear-mongering as repeated budget blowouts prompted it to sound the alarm about the scheme's long-term future.

Mr Shorten now accepts there is an issue, telling ACM he wants to "decrease the growth trajectory" which has the NDIS on the path to costing $50 billion a year in 2025-26.

Tackling fraud and rorts, reducing waste and improving the efficiency of agency decision-making are Mr Shorten's main priorities for getting costs under control, as he distances himself from drastic and controversial changes - such as restricting eligibility.

One area of possible change that could be on the table is the process for determining the "reasonable and necessary" supports and services that can be funded through the scheme.

The issue will be examined as part of the independent review of the scheme - but Mr Shorten's "early thinking" is that the process can be improved.

"[I think] there needs to be consistency in interpretation, transparency in interpretation," he said.

The "reasonable and necessary" debate flared earlier this month amid another media storm about NDIS funds being used for sex therapy.

The Federal Court in 2020 ruled that it was permitted, but politicians - including Mr Shorten - continue to question if taxpayers should be footing the bill for such services.

NDIA chief executive Rebecca Falkingham told a Senate estimates hearing earlier this month that the independent review panel was going to have a "thorough look" at the issue.

Mr Shorten stressed claims for "exotic" services were extremely rare, but he wants clear guidelines for how to deal with them.

"Participants on the scheme, the workforce and their families don't need to be tarred with this image of salacious, sensationalist reportage," he said.

As debate rages about the future of the NDIS, Greens disability spokesman Jordon Steele-John has sent a clear message to the government.

"We need to be making it easier to get on the scheme, easier to stay on the scheme, easier to get what you need," he told ACM.

"The Greens will oppose any measure that takes us to a place where it is more difficult to get on the scheme because that is what the community expects."

Senator Steele-John said it made no sense to be adding "arbitrary" clauses to the test used to determine if a support or service was reasonable and necessary.

The Greens' stance means Labor would need the support of the Coalition if it wanted to pass controversial changes to the scheme through the Federal Parliament.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton said in his budget reply speech that the Coalition would be "prepared to support sensible government proposals to strengthen the NDIS and ensure its sustainability".

Senator Senator-Steele has also told ACM that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese must create a standalone disabilities minister.

Under the current arrangement, Mr Shorten is in charge of the NDIS while Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth has responsibility for broader disabilities policy.

Senator Steele-John said the absence of a standalone disabilities minister was to blame for "terrible" decisions, including a pilot program connecting NDIS participants to disability employment services.

"You've got this lack of coordination and lack of direction, which is setting disabled people up to fail," he said.

The NDIS might have been Labor's creation, but it was the Coalition that managed its early years.

The former government tried but failed to pass sweeping changes to the scheme, including the introduction of mandatory independent assessments of participants.

Former NDIS minister Linda Reynolds this week defended the proposal, insisting it would have made the scheme fairer and "more controllable".

Coalition NDIS spokesman Michael Sukkar was non-committal when asked about his position on independent assessments, saying the opposition would set out their policies before the next federal election.

Mr Sukkar signalled he was supportive of making the process for determining participant funding less subjective.

"I think there needs to be more objective criteria that enables some form of uniformity that people understand what they're going to get, and don't feel that if they don't advocate their case strongly enough that they might miss out," he told ACM.

Mr Sukkar savaged Mr Shorten, accusing him of duping voters by promising them a "utopian" version of the NDIS in which participant budgets wouldn't be cut and the scheme had no sustainability problems.

"In opposition, Bill Shorten wanted to create an impression that every irritation, and every injustice that ever occurred in the NDIS could be very easily fixed by him with a magic wand in government," he said.

"I suspect he knew that was never the case, but was very happy to create an impression in people's minds that he could manage all those things.

"How upfront is he going to be with participants and their families? Or is he going to keep the charade going?"

Mr Sukkar repeated Mr Dutton's offer to support Labor to pass legislation to "bulletproof the scheme".

Read more from the ACM series examining the future of the scheme: