Taxpayers will be $1 billion worse off, a cabinet minister has warned, after Greens and opposition MPs teamed up to delay the federal government's disability support overhaul.
The changes are aimed at reining National Disability Insurance Scheme costs, which are expected to swell to more than $50 billion in 2025/26 - higher than the annual bill for Medicare.
Under the legislation, the Labor government would save $14 billion over the next four years by reducing the number of new participants and changing eligibility criteria.
But the Greens and coalition say more consultation is needed and have voted to delay the bill until August.
NDIS Minister Bill Shorten accused the opposition of failing to understand the value of taxpayer money during a cost-of-living crisis.
"I'm horrified," he told ABC radio on Tuesday.
"The people opposing the bill aren't going to change their mind in the next eight weeks.
"The truth of the matter is that this is going to cost a billion dollars to taxpayers - about $15 million a day."
The Greens have accused the government of attempting to siphon money out of the system without consulting the disability community.
"If there are changes that need to be made, those changes should be co-designed with disabled people, and any savings reinvested," Greens leader Adam Bandt told ABC Radio.
"What's appalling is Labor getting to a budget surplus off the back of cuts to services to disabled people."
But the government has undertaken a 12-month review in consultation with 10,000 people alongside nine public meetings with another 5000 people across the nation.
"The Liberals are disingenuously saying they want more time for consultation," Mr Shorten said.
"They haven't made submissions into the review, they've already had one Senate investigation where they said the bill could be passed and they didn't offer any amendments.
"It's just a lazy delay for two days of public hearings to tell us nothing we didn't already know."
