Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This budget promises a surplus that is subsidised by short-changing people with disability, through a massive underspend in the NDIS. So, each time the Prime Minister boasts about his budget surplus, my community need to know that $1.6 billion of that is because people with a disability are being forced to wait longer for support. My office has already helped almost 300 NDIS participants and their families, struggling with delays and setbacks. This underspend will cause more delays to more families in my community.

This budget fails to reverse cuts to TAFE and apprenticeships. In the past six years, the Liberals have cut $3 billion from TAFEs and skills and cut 150,000 apprenticeship places. Locally, in Dobell, between 2013-16, this has seen a 33 per cent drop in the number of apprentices and trainees. This means 1,027 fewer apprentices and trainees on job sites, taking up a trade, learning skills and boosting our local economy.

This budget does nothing to help the 128,000 older Australians already waiting for a home care package. This budget does not deliver one new home care package that the government has not already announced. On the Central Coast, the number of people on the waitlist who have no package increased from 1,178 in September to 1,286 by the end of December 2018. Most of these people are high-needs and waiting for level 3 or 4 packages.

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