Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Disability Reform) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Greenway very much for her question and for her dedication to this issue in her electorate. This budget does deliver a fairer deal, particularly for people with disability and also for their families and carers. It provides the hope for those Australians who know that, at some time in the future, they too may be affected by disability. They may be affected or their loved ones may be affected. In this budget we want to end the cruel lottery that has faced so many people with disability over such a long period of time—the cruel lottery that has said, 'The level of care or support that you receive depends on where you live or how you got your disability.'

This budget is all about making sure that we do have a fairer nation. As Dr Ken Baker, from National Disability Services, has said today:

This Budget is the first to make disability support its centrepiece.

We have made the choice and it is a choice. As the Prime Minister and the Treasurer have made clear, both yesterday and today, budgets are about choices and a choice that the government have made is to put disability care at the centre of our concerns.

We have also made the choice to create a strong and stable funding stream right out into the future so that people with a disability, their carers and their families can see that the commitment this government is making for their care and support is funded well into the future—in fact, for 10 years to come.

In just a few weeks, on 1 July, the government will launch DisabilityCare Australia. It is a very, very exciting time. The first stage of the National Disability Insurance Scheme will see 26,000 people, in different launch sites around the country, start to come into DisabilityCare Australia, start to receive the care and support that people really need. That is why it was so disappointing to see the Leader of the Opposition say today that there was no hope in this budget. There is hope at the centre of this budget: hope for people with a disability, hope for their carers and families that they have never had before.

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