Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

It is, of course, the case that everyone in this House would agree that violence, abuse, and the neglect of vulnerable people—particularly those with a disability—is utterly abhorrent and completely unacceptable. There may be differences of view as to how to approach that problem, but understanding the problem is the best guide to realising what is the best approach. At present, the governance in terms of quality, probity, assurance and standards of service in organisations where difficulties have essentially arisen is the responsibility of the states. We have a not particularly good system where there is a current arrangement that is heavily dependent on a patchwork of systems. They are operated across various states and they vary from state to state, and the level of consistency changes.

The agreement between all the states and territories as the best path forward is to establish an oversight on behalf of the Commonwealth. That will become the NDIS quality and safeguards commission. This very budget placed $209 million into the federal budget to fund that commission. The legislation for that commission will be coming to parliament this week. That will be a very significant structural reform to this area and the solution is action, not more inquiry.

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