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

I am reminded by the honourable member that they never contradicted the fact that it was not. I thank the member for Blair for reminding me of that. This The Department of Social Services has outlined the funding sources for the NDIS, including $4.4 million from consolidated revenue. That is trivial in the overall scheme of things, but the point I make is that the department has confirmed it and the government has never contradicted what the department has said. The government continues to refer to this as a 'shortfall', but consolidated revenue is used to fund government expenditure. That is what it is there for; that is what it is consolidated for. That is what the majority of government programs are funded from and how they are funded, and this has already been confirmed by the department. So why the amnesia from the government? Why the backflip? We can draw no conclusion other than it is some ruse or some political stunt, perhaps to fill the agenda papers of parliament because the government does not really have much else on the agenda for us to deal with. So we are going to oppose the bill. I should have said that at the outset: we are going to oppose the bill.

Labor also objects to the way that this matter has been brought before the House. As I said before, it is an attempt by the government to hold the parliament to ransom and hold the NDIS to ransom for a range of other egregious savings measures. There is already a special account. I also want to make this point: the bill would establish a special account, but we say we do not need a special account and I will explain why. Labor already set one up. We already set up a special account: the DisabilityCare Australia Fund. This fund is credited with the additional revenue stream from the increase in the Medicare levy. This means that, if this bill succeeds, we will have two special accounts: the one set up under Labor and the one that the government is attempting to establish. We say it is not necessary. The coalition government's priorities and motives therefore must be questioned. Again, we say this bill is nothing more than a political stunt to mislead the public.

If the government will not listen to the very sound and reasoned arguments of Labor members and some of the Independents, perhaps they will listen to the disability groups who have been very outspoken on their views about this provision. I quote Peter Davidson from the Australian Council of Social Services. He 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.

That is very polite language from Peter Davidson of ACOSS, but it is very clear in that comment that they cannot see the purpose and they are suspicious. Those thoughts are echoed by Alan Blackwood who represents the Young People in Nursing Homes National Alliance. He 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—

his second reading speech—

is actually concerning and—

what is more—

perplexing.

Those are the words of Alan Blackwood from the Young People in Nursing Homes National Alliance.

Stephanie Gotlib is from Children and Young People with Disability Australia, an organisation that also objects. She 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.

The force of those three submissions is simply this: why are people with disability being treated differently, and why we are constructing a program for people with disability in a completely different way to the way we deal with other programs in both the Human Services and the Health portfolios and a whole range of other government programs? Why are we treating people with disability differently? That is a very good question to which the government has no answer.

Labor referred this bill to a Senate inquiry so we can better understand what the government is attempting to achieve in establishing an account. As was clear from the inquiry, it is nothing more than a thinly veiled attack on the people who rely on the scheme to provide services. We are not going to accept it. The government has not made a case for the establishment of the fund. As the disability groups, advocates and people who gave evidence to the Senate inquiry made clear, there is no case for it, but there is ample reason for Australians and the Australian Labor Party to be incredibly suspicious about what the government's true position is. We reject the bill.

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