Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

In speaking on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Savings Fund Special Account Bill 2016, I say from the outset I support and endorse the remarks of the member for Jagajaga when she spoke on this bill on 15 February and I speak in support of the amendments that she moved on the day.

For the past four years since this government has been in government and indeed even before that, it was clear to me that the government was never truly committed to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. It publicly said it was but, if you look at the actions of the government and when it was in opposition, there was no genuine commitment to the scheme from my observations. Despite the government's claim of support for the scheme and empathy for people with a disability, the NDIS is only being rolled out today because of Labor, just as it has always been Labor that has led social reform in Australia. It is because of the Leader of the Opposition and because of the member for Jagajaga that the NDIS is becoming a reality for Australians across the country.

Only people with a serious disability and their caring family members would fully understand the 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, 52-weeks-of-the-year, year-in-and-year-out disadvantage, difficulties, sacrifices and hardships that they endure. If that is not enough, there are ongoing lifetime financial costs including medication, medical devices, loss of income, home modifications, transport costs and so on—costs which to date they have had little support to try and meet. In a prosperous country that Australia is, there is no justification for fellow Australians continuing to endure such disadvantage and such hardship. The NDIS was needed, it was long overdue, and a Labor government made it a reality.

Now the Turnbull government wants to reneg on delivering the NDIS in full with its spin lines that Labor did not fully fund the program. That is a dishonest claim from a government that has lost control of its budget, lost control of its finances and is looking for a way out. We know that the budget deficit for the 2016-17 year is heading towards $37 billion in the red. Even more despicable is that the Turnbull government now wants to trade support for one group of vulnerable Australians—that is, people with a disability—against other vulnerable Australians including pensioners, the unemployed and students. Claims that Labor had not fully funded the NDIS have been clearly shown to be false by the member for Jagajaga. Labor had clearly defined a ten-year funding proposal for the NDIS which included a 0.5 per cent increase in the Medicare levy, reforms to retirement incomes, private health insurance rebate reforms, the phase out of the net medical expense tax offset and other long-term savings proposals as well. In addition to that, we know that the state and territory governments will also contribute almost half the cost towards the scheme.

But if government members believe the minister's claim that the scheme was not fully funded then I remind them that they have now been in government for almost four years. If the government was committed to the NDIS and it really believed its funding spin, it has had four years to find the funds. This legislation, which simply establishes a NDIS savings special fund, is just another attempt by the Turnbull government to delay the full funding and roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Another special account is not required because the reality is a special account already exists. It was set up by Labor. It is called the DisabilityCare Australia Fund, which is where increased Medicare levy funds go.

Sadly the victims of the Turnbull government's dishonesty and spin are again the most vulnerable Australians, people with a disability, who are being used as pawns and left with uncertainty. It is true that the NDIS has transformed the lives of those people who can now access the NDIS, and I have heard some truly amazing stories in respect of that. However, others are still waiting. For them, every week that access is delayed is another week of hardship that they endure.

Rather than play politics with the lives of vulnerable Australians, the government could fix its budget mess by adopting Labor budget savings measures. It could adopt Labor's negative gearing policy, which alone would save the government around $32 billion over the next 10 years. And it could drop its unnecessary $50 billion company tax cuts, which hand out tens of billions of dollars to already very profitable big businesses. That is what most Australians would expect the government to do. But blinded by its ideology, the Turnbull government is prepared to sacrifice struggling families in order to keep big business and billionaires on side. The government's claim that the $50 billion company tax cuts will create more jobs and growth simply does not withstand scrutiny. Many of those very companies that will benefit from the $50 billion in tax cuts are already making billions of dollars in profits each year and they are all continuing to cut jobs. Inequality in this country is widening and the big corporates are getting wealthier while, for struggling Australians, life gets tougher.

As the Leader of the Opposition highlighted today in question time, today's national accounts confirm that corporate profits had their biggest increase in 40 years while wages and salaries had their largest fall in over 20 years.

A report by the Australia Institute released very recently highlights that Australia's richest 10 people—the richest 10 people, not the richest 10 per cent of Australians—own as much in financial assets as the bottom 20 per cent of Australians. Those 10 richest Australians own as much as nearly four million Australians own at the lowest end. Using another comparison, Australia's top 20 per cent own 62 per cent of the wealth, whilst the bottom 20 per cent own just 0.9 per cent.

Those figures paint a very clear picture. Where are the trickle-down economics by which this government justifies its $50 billion tax cuts to big business? If they were there, the gap would be narrowing, not widening, but the figures tell a different story. That is why the $50 billion in tax cuts to big business cannot be justified when the government is asking people such as those with a disability to forgo the funding they need because the government needs it to fund its cuts for big business, a sector that does not need them.

In question time two weeks ago, the Prime Minister was twice asked about funding the NDIS. After some six minutes of hysterical ranting, the Prime Minister failed to reassure families that NDIS funding would be delivered in full and on time. Any person waiting for NDIS support does not want to hear the Prime Minister playing a blame game with the issue, talking about budget shortfalls or talking about the NDIS not being fully funded. They just want reassurance that the NDIS will be funded in full and on time. They do not want to hear threats that the NDIS funding is contingent on cuts to other family payments, as outlined in the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Omnibus Savings and Child Care Reform) Bill that was debated in the House only yesterday.

On 16 February, the minister advised the House that, by the end of June 2016, 63,482 people were on the NDIS. By the end of 2019-20, all eligible people—that is, around 460,000—will be on the NDIS, at an annual cost of $22 billion, of which the Commonwealth government will have to find $11.1 billion. The minister claims that, based on known income streams, the $11.1 billion figure will leave a $4.1 billion shortfall. That is down from a previous figure of $4.4 billion. In any case, the minister claims there will be a $4 billion plus shortfall, hence the government's attempts to tie NDIS funding to welfare cuts, as it has been endeavouring to do ever since it has been in office—in other words, make one group of Australians pay for another group's needs.

It seems, though, that the government is running into difficulties getting some of its proposals through. It is running into difficulties because Australians understand unfairness when they see it, as do members in this place. That is why members of the Labor Party and crossbench members in this House are opposing some of those measures. They understand that it is simply not fair to make one vulnerable group of Australians pay for another group's needs. Where does that leave the rollout of the NDIS if the government's proposed cuts to pensions, family payments, unemployment payments and student payments do not get through?

That brings me to this bill. It is not the government's bookkeeping diversions that will provide certainty to people waiting to get on the NDIS; it is a commitment to the funding required. Of course, we know the government could also fund the scheme by adopting some of the policies that Labor has put forward that I referred to earlier. But it refuses to do that, again for its own blind, ideological reasons. The government knows full well that some of the measures that it continues to fund are unfair and unjust when contrasted with the needs of people with a disability.

The government claims that there is a $4.1 billion shortfall in the funding of the NDIS. In addition to playing one group of vulnerable Australians off against another in order to find the funds, it is of equal concern that it is just as likely that the government will play one group of people with a disability off against another. That truly concerns me, because what it really means is not only that the program will not be rolled out as expected and as proposed by Labor but also that the government, in order to fund one category of recipients, may well do that by cutting funding to another.

There is still uncertainty about the inclusion of some categories of need in the scheme, and, if they are included, under what conditions that will be. For example, childhood hearing services are currently being transitioned into the NDIS. However, there is uncertainty about the funding framework and the services that will be available. There are fears that hearing-impaired children may be even worse off under the NDIS compared with the funding support that they are currently eligible for. The unresolved issues relate to eligibility criteria, scope of services, duration of services, referral arrangements and the funding itself.

Mr Deputy Speaker Georganas, as you would know well as deputy chair of the standing committee on health, which is currently running an inquiry on hearing issues, early diagnosis and treatment of hearing impairment is crucial to a child's future. Any attempt to cut NDIS costs by diluting the hearing services required by children will come at the expense of those children and their families. Children's hearing services would not be the only area of disability funding that is still unresolved and leaving people with uncertainty. Indeed, I wonder what other sneaky measures the government is considering in order to try and find funds for the National Disability Insurance Scheme rollout. We will watch with interest what happens in the months and years ahead.

As the member for Jagajaga quite rightly pointed out, this is simply another stunt by the government so it can pretend that, if there is a problem with the rollout of the NDIS, it is all Labor's fault because it was not fully funded. Nothing could be further from the truth. Labor funded it not only to the year 2020, which is when the minister claims the full rollout for 460,000 people will be in place; Labor fully funded it for a 10-year period. Setting up another account is not what is required. What is required is a commitment from this government.

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