Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the interjections from the good member for Banks. I rise to speak on the appropriation bills Nos 3 and 4. What is most significant about these bills is what is not in them. Last year I had the privilege of attending the National Disability Awards ceremony in the Great Hall of our federal parliament. It was a truly inspirational night to celebrate the achievements of those who fight daily to overcome disabilities and to recognise the struggles of their carers. During the night the Prime Minister waltzed in and gave a speech. These are some of her words:

…in the final analysis, the disability support system in Australia needs more than tweaking at the edges. It is a system that no longer adequately serves our community. A system that has been characterised as:

Unfair.

Underfunded.

Fragmented.

Inefficient.

Not the kind of system we would wish for ourselves or those who are dear to us.

…   …   …

Certainly your pleas fell on stony ground for many thankless years.

That happened, I think, because disability confronts us with our own worst fears and how easily fate could separate us from our easy, comfortable certainties.

…   …   …

… too many generations of parents have gone to their graves not knowing what the future held for their child with disability as they grew to middle age.

So I say this as your Prime Minister tonight: Not another generation will face that agonising choice.

…   …   …

Let there be no mistake. The decision I announced in August is a not just a preliminary hint or an aspiration.

It is the green light for a National Disability Insurance Scheme in this country.

…   …   …

The time for words is over. The time for action has come. We will get this thing done.

…   …   …

… the NDIS … will be a defining achievement of this term of government …

Naturally such an ironclad commitment to make the National Disability Insurance Scheme the defining achievement of this term of government was met with rousing applause. The Prime Minister left the stage to the cheers of hundreds of disabled Australians and their carers, not only those gathered in the room that night but also those thousands listening in their lounges.

The Productivity Commission has put the price tag of the National Disability Insurance Scheme at $6.5 billion. Given the Prime Minister's unambiguous words:

… The time for action has come. We will get this thing done.

…   …   …

… the NDIS … will be a defining achievement of this term of government …

I am sure that everyone who was listening to the Prime Minister's words that night would have left with the impression that the funds for the NDIS had been secured. But less than two weeks later, when the forward estimates were released, it was revealed there was not one single cent, not one solitary brass razoo, that had been set aside to cover the cost of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

It is one thing to mislead the Australian public on the carbon tax. It is one thing to mislead them on maintaining the health insurance rebate or to promise cash for clunkers or to promise the East Timor solution et cetera. It is one thing to shaft the good member for Denison, to mislead him on pokies reform and then leave him hanging out to dry when he is no longer needed. But to stand up at the National Disability Awards night, in front of a room full of disabled people and their carers, and to promise in regard to the $6½ billion NDIS that 'the time for action has come', the 'NDIS will be a defining achievement of this term of government' and 'we will get this done' when not a single cent has been allocated in the forward estimates makes the Prime Minister's statement nothing more than a cruel hoax upon the most vulnerable members of our society. This was a most shameful deception, 100 times worse than the broken promise on a carbon tax. Shame, Prime Minister, shame.

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