Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition and I spoke about this matter last week when I heard that he had raised the call for a royal commission. I was grateful for him explaining the circumstances of his call. As the minister will describe in more detail in a moment, we are setting in place the quality assurance framework so that when the NDIS is fully rolled out—this new institution will begin at the beginning of the next year—it will ensure that the quality of NDIS services is maintained and that matters of this kind do not occur.

I explained to the Leader of the Opposition, as we discussed it, that I believe these incidents that have been reported have occurred almost entirely in institutions under the jurisdiction of state and territory governments. Accordingly, I will be raising this at the COAG meeting next week when I meet with state and territory chief ministers. I can assure the honourable member that we are committed to the NDIS. I call on him again to fund it and to ensure that the NDIS is fully funded. We have set out the means to do it and the time has come not to be focused on the rhetoric or the politics but to pay for it. We need to pay for the NDIS. We have the means to do so, and we ask the Leader of the Opposition and his party to support it.

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