Bill Shorten will promise a ‘locked box’ to ensure underspent funds are not redirected away from NDIS

Labor will unveil a National Disability Insurance Scheme Future Fund, promising a “locked box” to ensure all funds budgeted to the scheme are directed to the NDIS.

Campaigning at a national day of action for the NDIS ahead of a second leaders’ debate in Brisbane on Friday night, Bill Shorten will flag the new funding arrangement – a reserve fund to ensure underspent NDIS funds are not redirected to other programs.

“Because of the Liberals’ delays, the caps and the lack of services, more than 77,000 Australians with disability are missing out on the NDIS, and the average recipient is being short-changed by $13,000 a year,” Shorten said in a statement ahead of Friday’s campaign event.

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Labor has attacked the Morrison government for projecting an NDIS underspend in the April budget of $1.6bn, claiming it is being used to prop up other priorities, including tax handouts. A slower than expected uptake of plans under the NDIS delivered an immediate boost to the budget bottom line in April.

The inaugural chair of the agency the manages the NDIS, Bruce Bonyhady, has argued the underspend “strikes at one of the fundamental principles of the scheme, which is that it is about equality and being fair to people with disabilities as quickly as possible”.

Shorten said putting the money budgeted for the NDIS into a locked box so it can only be spent on people with disability was an important reform to reset the scheme. Labor is proposing the reserve fund for the disability scheme will be managed by the Future Fund.

The Morrison government has defended the underspend, saying it reflects teething problems in the NDIS, a sweeping national reform – not any lack of commitment to providing the services.

But disability advocates have argued that the slower than expected uptake is not due to lower demand, as some government figures have argued, but problems with people accessing the scheme.

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With advocates on the warpath, the Coalition announced before the election it would increase the service fees to NDIS providers such as therapists, physiotherapists and others – a reform welcomed by the sector on the basis it would help expand access to those services by making them more viable for people to provide.

Labor has already committed to lifting the staffing cap at the authority administering the NDIS to help reduce waiting times, and overhauling planning processes.

After a day on the hustings on Friday, Morrison and Shorten will meet in Brisbane for the second leaders’ debate of the election. Labor will hold its official campaign launch in Brisbane on Sunday.