Bill Shorten pledges to boost public service workforce to make the Natioanl Disability Insurance Agency an 'agency of choice' in APS

It forms part of a six policy plan to "reboot" the struggling scheme, described by Mr Shorten at a National Press Club address on Tuesday.

The NDIS was launched in 2013 to provide funding for people with disabilities and link them up with services in their community.

Though it had been "life changing" for many, and saved the country from a socio-economic catastrophe, Mr Shorten said it wasn't delivering the outcomes Australians expected from it in 2023.

Reports of insufficient staffing and poor culture have surrounded the National Disability Insurance Agency.

Before the scheme was established in 2013, the productivity commission estimated 10,000 people would be needed to run it.

The Coalition capped the number of public servants employed by the National Disability Insurance Agency at 3000 in 2014, relying on private contractors to fill the labour gap.

Staff numbers at agency have grown since but remained well below 10,000.

Mr Shorten said the government needed to increase the number of public servants at the agency, and attract people who have experience as carers in their personal lives as well as young people.

He did not say how many more staff the agency could gain.

"We've got to make it clear that disability is not just cleaning people," he said.

"I'd like the NDIA to be an agency of choice in the public service.

"I'd like disability to be a career of choice for young people, for people returning to work after a period of separation from work, for people with disability, and of course, for carers who might, through, their family experience be geniuses at actually disability work generally."

Mr Shorten also spoke out against what he called the Coalition government's "derogatory approach" to the public service during its time in power.

"When I think about NDIA staff, it's the same as I think about Services Australia staff, these are individuals dealing with families trying to work out their future. So I think it's a fantastic vocation."

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The NDIS minister said lifting staffing caps would in turn reduce reliance on contractors, and subsequently improve staffing "churn" at the agency.

"We shouldn't rely on temporary labor all the time. Sometimes you need temporary labor, you know, surges in demand, of course you do," he said.

"But we have a massive churn in non-NDIA jobs in the disability sectors."

"I don't blame people; if you don't have a permanent job, and you can't see what's happening to you 2,3,4 years down the track, you'll go to a job where you are appreciated, even if might not be the one you vocationally want."

"So I think that the philosophy behind investing in our public service makes perfect sense, and we're going to do that," Mr Shorten said.

Improvements within the agency would flow through to participants in the scheme, Mr Shorten said.

"What I really want is for people to have to deal with the same person twice, and then maybe even three times, and then maybe they don't feel like they've got to explain their story again and again and again, which is fatiguing," he said.

Other policies that will form part of the plan unveiled by Mr Shorten on Tuesday include tackling "spiraling costs" and unethical practices.

Mr Shorten said the government has already begun work on getting the scheme "back on track" by creating a fraud taskforce, with 38 investigations underway, involving more than $300 million in payments.

The taskforce had received more than 1700 tip-offs last month alone, he said.

An independent review of the scheme is under way, due to report its findings in October.

"I expect the independent panel to provide recommendations on ways to maximise participant outcomes for every dollar spent," he said.

"Participants are valued clients, not human ATMs."

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