Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The previous Labor government's 2013-14 budget clearly set out how the NDIS would be funded for 10 years, far exceeding the transition period to the fully functioning scheme. The Labor government put forward a suite of savings and revenue measures which paid for the NDIS well beyond the transition phase. It surprises me that coalition members seem to have forgotten this fact. It might jog their memory to know that, at the time, they voted in support of every one of these measures, bar one.

This is a new parliament, and there are new members on both sides, including me and my colleagues who join me here now—the member for Dobell, the member for Longman and the member for Oxley—so I think it is worthwhile stepping through some of the measures Labor put in place to fully fund the NDIS, just to jog those memories. The Medicare levy went to two per cent. There was a phase-out of the net medical expenses tax offset. There were reforms to retirement income schemes. There were reforms to the private health insurance rebate. There were contributions from state and territory governments. And there were a bunch of other long-term savings measures, including changes to fringe benefits and changes to tobacco excise. All these sensible and measured changes added up to funding the NDIS.

I read in The Australian Financial Reviewavings Labor now claims it made to help fund the NDIS went into consolidated revenue and were never set aside to fund the NDIS.' This statement is staggering. To claim that savings measures could not be related to the NDIS because they flowed into consolidated revenue is absurd and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of government revenue and section 81 of the Constitution.

This is only made worse by the fact that the 2013-14 budget, brought down by the previous Labor government, actually specified the opposite of the minister's claim. I draw the House's attention to the second paragraph on page 1-20 of Budget Paper 1:

The long-term savings made in this budget total $77 billion by 2020-21. These savings fully offset the expenditure needed for DisabilityCare Australia and the National Plan for School Improvement. Between 2013-14 and 2023-24 the long-term savings provide $121 billion.

Indeed, the minister's own department has said that the NDIS is fully funded in their submission to the Senate inquiry looking into this bill. The idea that Labor has rewritten history, with respect to funding the NDIS, is completely false. It is a fabrication designed to distract from this government's NDIS bungles and their desperate desire to rip money out of the social services budget. And what better way to do that than an imaginary need for a separate funding account to strip money from other welfare programs to put into that account when the NDIS was already funded without the need to reduce welfare spending. There should be no doubt that this whole exercise is nonsense. It is completely unnecessary, and it raises serious questions about this government's intentions.

Respected and independent service providers and advocates have said so themselves. It is a shame that the member for Fisher is not in here because he will know now, from my speech, that it has been rejected by peak bodies. Peter Davidson from the Australian Council of Social Services has said:

It is not obvious why this new fund is needed. Its purpose, apart from the generic one of funding the NDIS, is not clear and we don't believe it should be supported in its present form.

Alan Blackwood from Young People in Nursing Homes National Alliance has said:

The Alliance does not support the Savings Fund as constructed in the bill…the notion of a funding shortfall portrayed in the bill and Ministers speech is actually concerning and perplexing.

These are all the experts, the peak bodies. And Stephanie Gotlib from Children and Young People with Disability Australia has said:

It is believed that the creation of this Special Account … places essential disability services and supports as non-core business of the Australian Government, with their full funding being dependent on other budget savings measures identified by the Government of the day.

How has this government found itself in a position where NDIS funding on the ground becomes dependent on other budget-line items? This is a significant departure from ordinary practice. The question must be asked: why should this essential service for Australians with a disability be funded any differently from other expenditure programs of the federal government? The answer is simple: it should not. And the effort with which this government has pushed should be a cause for concern.

The NDIS program is close to my heart. In fact, I think it is one of the greatest examples of government providing dignity and protection to its citizens. That is why I will defend it to the end. I know firsthand the difference the NDIS can make to the lives of people with a disability and their families. Raising a child with special needs is the toughest job on earth, and there would not be a single parent out there who would say they do not need all the help they can get when it comes to their child with special needs, especially when it comes to allowing them the ability to receive life-changing early intervention. Through the NDIS, children who were previously ineligible for assistance under the patchwork model, which was broken-down, underfunded and chaotic, are finally able to be helped. This makes a real difference to their lives, and I know this, personally—having campaigned for it, having stood up for it, having gone to rallies and having made sure this becomes a reality for every single person in this country.

The NDIS provides independence to people who have only ever known reliance, and that means something. It means something to the beneficiaries of the scheme, it means something to their families, it means something to carers and it means something our community as a whole. This is all because of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which is a legacy of the last Labor government. Of course, that is not to say the NDIS is without creases that need to be ironed out. But, fundamentally, the NDIS is a once-in-a-generation reform package that must be defended, and shifty moves like this one must be called out for what they are: a concerted effort to undermine our social safety net and attack the essential services that assist the most vulnerable people in our society. And the government has form in this regard.

We are still hearing and seeing the impact of this government chasing innocent people for fake Centrelink debts, and, to date, they have shown that they just do not care. We have seen this week their plans to force unemployed young people to live off nothing, for five weeks, in what can only be described as a big-stick punishment for anyone who does not have rich parents. Seriously, how does this government expect these people to survive? The shiftiness of this special savings fund bill is evident as well in the government's plans to cut family tax benefits and cut paid parental leave.

Everywhere we look we see this government undermining the support being given to the most vulnerable Australians. Three-time Paralympic gold medallist Kurt Fearnley was spot-on when he called out this shameful government for pitting Australians with a disability against other vulnerable Australians. He said, 'To say the NDIS isn't important and we need to directly grab money from X to pay for it, it hurts our community and the country as a whole.' And that is so true. He went on to say that he wished the government would fight for the NDIS with as much vigour as they are fighting for their $50 billion big-business tax cut that is going to hand $7 billion straight to each of the four big banks. And that is all you need to know about this government and this disgusting bill.

They are creating a problem that does not exist so they can use the NDIS as a battering ram against other crucial elements of our social safety net, and that is simply not on. This government should wake up to itself and concentrate on making the NDIS a success rather than taking every opportunity to undermine its future. That is what Australians voted for, and that is what they expect.

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