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

It gives me great pleasure to rise this evening to speak on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Savings Fund Special Account Bill 2016. Mr Deputy Speaker, you are right: I declare a special interest in this debate. Twenty-one years ago, next month, my son Trent was born. He was born with Down syndrome. A couple of years later, he was diagnosed also with Down syndrome—a double whammy. We will celebrate his birthday next month. Although he is 21 years of age, he has the mental age of a 2½-year-old. He will be unable to understand the concept of what turning 21 is. He will be unable to understand the concept of what it means to blow out a set of candles. But we will celebrate, because he will understand what the cake tastes like.

I have seen firsthand the difficulties of families with disabled children, because I have experienced it myself. But I have been lucky, because it is the wives who experience it most. Many of us get to carry on with our jobs and get up and go to work, whereas our wives are stuck looking after our disabled children. I commend my wife for the brilliant way that she has looked after and raised my son for 21 years.

The importance of the national disability fund means as much to anyone in this parliament as it does to me, but we must ensure that we can fund it on a sustainable model. We cannot do it through borrowing more money. The government does not have a money tree that this can be financed from. The only way that we can finance this is by the wealth created in our nation. That is one of the reasons why I came to parliament: to ensure that we give the entrepreneurs of this country every opportunity to get out there and make a rich and prosperous country that can afford a national disability insurance scheme.

I would like to address claims by Labor members in this debate that the NDIS was fully funded by Labor. They are nothing more than a cynical attempt to rewrite history. Let's go over some of the facts. It is estimated that in 2019-20, which is a little over two years away, the NDIS is going to cost the government $22 billion—that is, $22,000 million for one year. That amount will increase year after year and is likely to be greater than the taxation revenue that we can possibly get. Of that $22 billion, about 52 per cent—$1.1 billion—will come from the Commonwealth and the rest from the states.

Let's start where Labor say this funding comes from. Firstly, I go back to the then Treasurer's speech on 8 May 2012:

The four years of surpluses I announce tonight are a powerful endorsement of the strength of our economy …

…   …   …

This budget delivers a surplus this coming year, on time, as promised, and surpluses each year after that, strengthening over time …

…   …   …

The surplus years are here.

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