Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

I am delighted that the National Disability Insurance Scheme is coming to the Illawarra on 1 July 2017. It was introduced into the Southern Highlands area of my electorate much earlier but in the Illawarra it will be providing services to people with disabilities and their families from 1 July this year. That is a good thing. When Labor developed the NDIS, we envisaged a game-changing approach to receiving the services and equipment needed by people living with a disability to enable them to live their lives to their absolute fullest.

The NDIS was designed to enable people living with disability to participate more in society—at school, work and the community. They shouldn't need to go from charity to charity for the essential, life-changing equipment that they need or for the basic care to fulfil functions that the rest of us take for granted. This is the NDIS people are excited about coming to the Illawarra, and I hope that it is real.

I have mentioned the fact that it is already in the Southern Highlands part of my electorate. I would like to give a shout out to Bruce Munford from Moss Vale. He is a bit of a character and he is a client of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. He is a bit of local celebrity. I went into bat for Bruce a few months ago after initial concerns that he had with his plan under the NDIS. I am very pleased to say that that has now been resolved after NDIS staff listened to the concerns that we raised with them and sorted them out very quickly. In that process Bruce spoke out about the challenges that he faces with multiple sclerosis, and the assistance he needs to fulfil tasks we all take for granted every day just to get by. His condition will steadily and inevitably get worse. Without the NDIS, Bruce believes he would be left to bang on the doors of charity for assistance. He thought he might have to live in an institution and not be able to live with his wife in the house he has lived in for many years in the close company and his family.

The NDIS has given him more flexibility, more autonomy and more transparency with the services that he needs, but he is constantly worried, and for good reason, that the government is trying to avoid providing a properly funded service—that they are trying to reduce their own responsibilities under the scheme. I'm going to use Bruce's exact words here:

I'm worried the Government are increasingly divesting themselves from the original plan for NDIS that Julia Gillard and Labor Government laid out.

Bruce, once again, has hit the nail on the head.

If the government will not listen to us and if the government will not listen to disability groups, then perhaps they will listen to the people the NDIS was originally designed to benefit. While there are a lot of positive things we can say about the NDIS, I am sad to say this bill is part of a clumsy package of legislation which is designed to hold the National Disability Insurance Scheme to ransom for a range of other egregious cuts that the Australian people have already rejected, not once but in some cases twice. We are not going to let them get away with it. We think that the whole show is a bit of a smokescreen and it is not necessary. I will go on to explain why it is unnecessary.

I want to start, however, by making something very clear: the National Disability Insurance Scheme is fully funded. The NDIS, which was designed, funded and introduced by Labor, is being introduced and delivered on time and within budget. This bill is nothing more than a distraction for the cuts that have been debated at great length in other bills that were before the house earlier today. Australians are simply not going to stand for it. In the 2013-14 budget, Labor clearly set out how the NDIS was going to be funded for 10 years—well past the transition to the full scheme and well beyond the forward estimates. This included reforms to the private health insurance and the very expensive private health insurance rebate, and some of those savings were diverted towards the funds for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. There were also reforms to retirement incomes and the phase-out of the net medical expenses tax offset, as well as a whole range of other long-term savings proposals. In addition to this, the Medicare levy was also increased by 0.5 percentage points to 2 per cent. Normally a measure like that would be controversial, but I am quite certain of the fact that there was bipartisan support across the House and throughout the community at large; and this is evidence of the deep-seated community support for the scheme to which the additional Medicare levy went to fund.

These measures, combined with the contributions from state and territory governments, covered the cost of the NDIS for ten years. At the risk of labouring the point, I will say again: the NDIS is fully funded. The government knows this. And why do we know? Because they voted for almost every single one of those savings measures.

The minister's own department proved the NDIS is fully funded.

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