Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, I present the committee's progress report on the implementation and administration of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. I ask leave of the House to make a short statement in connection with the report.

Leave granted.

It is an honour to be representing the Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS in presenting my first report as the committee's chair. I want to thank the outgoing chair, Mal Brough, for his careful stewardship of the committee and his involvement, along with all of the committee members—a bipartisan, multiparty effort, I should say—to gather evidence from the field and to convey our learnings in this report. I particularly want to acknowledge Jenny Macklin, the mother of the NDIS, for her wisdom and wise counsel and full engagement in this discussion, and also commend the committee secretariat, led by Mark Fitt, a dedicated, hardworking team for their ongoing efforts and contribution.

This report deals with one of the most significant social reforms for a generation. Just as the Snowy Mountains scheme was an extraordinary, complex and nation-changing venture for its generation, the NDIS is a crucial and transformational endeavour of profound importance for our time. The National Disability Insurance Scheme's purpose is to help and support more than 460,000 Australians with disability to live meaningful, fulfilling and independent lives. It is about removing barriers that impede clients achieving their goals and their aspirations.

The way the NDIS seeks to do this is by taking a whole-of-life approach to disability care and support. Importantly, it also seeks to make the lives of carers easier, by recognising their selfless commitment to the wellbeing of their loved ones and by aiming to ensure necessary support is available and can be counted on, drawing from a suite of service options and providers; through a client-centred and client-led care-planning model that offers choice in the support options available and the providers to deliver that; and, linkages to enable an informed assessment of what is reasonable and necessary support to facilitate the enablers of the kind of life that we all, as humans, hope for; to be able to enjoy and sustain positive relationships, a sense of belonging, individual autonomy, active involvement in decision-making, active engagement in our community, using one's unique strengths in ways that provide a challenge and making a contribution.

These are the drivers of the vision of the NDIS. It is the quintessential embodiment of a new kind of human service and support delivery system, envisaged by the Harper review as the way forward to empower, to delight and to best meet the needs of clients and their aspirations, and also to enable and embed quality, innovation, efficiency, responsiveness, as the drivers of success for service providers and to underwrite ongoing excellence.

Our role, as a committee, is to oversee the implementation of the scheme to ensure that it has the best chance of success.

The report we are tabling today looks at the learnings from the early rollout of the scheme and outlines the committee's future work priorities and recommendations. The report draws on government's and agency's actions following last year's report; progress at the original four trial sites that began in July 2013; the three new trial sites that commenced on 1 July 2014; some specific challenges that are facing participants and issues that arise from the providers' perspective as well; and also systemic issues and what we need to learn from and embrace to ensure future success. Trial visits have been part of the committee's work, as have public hearings, many submissions and pieces of correspondence to the committee.

The good news is that the report has identified that the NDIS is working and changing people's lives for the better. The feedback and performance indicators include very encouraging satisfaction ratings and highlight how welcome, valued and transformational the NDIS is proving to be for participants and carers.

But it has also identified a number of challenges that still face the scheme that need to be addressed and to be drawn from as insights as the rollout continues. We will need a conciliatory and coordinated effort between federal and state governments and with the board, the agency itself, service providers, advocates and key peak organisations, including hearing from and embracing the insights from those the scheme is designed to assist. This will involve ongoing, steady consideration and ongoing attention.

I will not go through a full, comprehensive list, but a couple of things that have emerged are the transition of people from state support to the NDIS, an area that requires ongoing attention; the development and readiness of service providers to support the pace of the scheme's rollout; the capacity of the disability sector workforce to support the pace of the scheme's rollout; the interface of the NDIS with mainstream services; issues around housing and accommodation and how to make sure that is available; resolving transport issues; and also assisting Indigenous people and people generally living in more remote and rural areas to make sure that the full benefits of the scheme are enjoyed.

There are also issues about the linkage to mainstream services and the tier 2 supports that are quite pressing. Finalisation of this, we think, should be a matter of some urgency, as we encourage all states to sign on through bilateral agreements. The committee welcomed New South Wales and Victoria having agreed to new bilateral plans for the transition period to the full scheme, and we encourage the other states and territories to engage and finalise their agreements as quickly as possible.

There is a clear message, though, in the report that, even where challenges exist in areas of limited choice and delivery to thin markets, if you will, particularly in remote and rural areas, the committee rejects any notion of simply transferring bulk funding to states and territories to beef up government controlled 'business as usual' service response as some kind of default option. We reject that, and we urge the states and territories to recognise that clear message from the report.

As I am someone who is new to the committee but has always been interested in and invested in this cause, three key things have emerged for me as I have worked through the report and listened carefully to committee members and the broader community. How do we ensure that we have informed, knowledgeable and competent participants able to fully engage in navigating the opportunities, choices and ambitions enabled by the NDIS? There are many moving parts, and for some this can be quite overwhelming. Making sure that that can be handled and navigated well is a key issue.

What is the best response where choice of support and providers is far from abundant to ensure that the scheme's objectives can still be achieved for participants in these communities?

And, as the scheme rollout continues, how will we ensure that commensurate capacity is built and sustained, in terms of participant know-how; new provider formation; the existing provider adaptation and transition to the new funding and delivery paradigm; the agency's leadership, its management systems, quality assurance and the like; and the workforce supply and capacity? These are all key issues that we think need ongoing attention.

Just in conclusion: the message from the report is that we have cause to be optimistic. There are many, many good things happening with the rollout of the NDIS. It also makes a clear statement through its dozen recommendations: the increased rollout is not something that will be achieved well on autopilot. This is not a set-and-forget enterprise. It is going to require the best of all of us and of all the governments at whatever level that are involved, the agencies, the industry itself, the advocates, the participants and above all the clients that we seek to delight.

I commend this report and reassure those with a great interest that we have more work to do. In the coming year we will focus on accommodation, mental health, Indigenous issues and workforce capability. There is much to do. The committee is energised. We are focused on our important work. I commend this report to the parliament.

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