Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Hansard source

Listening to the rhetoric of this government and the substance of this motion one is given a clear demonstration of how out of touch the Liberals are—dismissing criticisms and then trying to give the impression that the NDIS is perfect. The member for Bowman speaks of delays and fewer participants than projected. Member for Bowman, the reality is that the Liberals have ripped $1.6 billion out of the system, leaving people with disability and those who care for them without the proper support they need. The Liberals are deliberately underfunding the NDIS so that they can prop up their budget position, and they are doing it at the expense of Australians with disability and their families and their carers. The effect of this underspend is that NDIS participants are, on average, $20,000 worse off.

Through the Liberals' maladministration and lack of any leadership, people are falling through the cracks as the NDIS is rolled out. This is the consistent feedback of NDIS participants, providers, carers and state and territory governments. The very poor implementation of this scheme is clear from the state of the agency responsible for its implementation—without a CEO and with a mass exodus of its senior leadership in the past months; with a staffing cap that means longer waiting times and less access to services for NDIS participants; and with a substantial lack of proper representation and understanding at the staff and board level of lived experience of disability.

We have seen countless examples across the country of the real world impact that the Liberals' cuts and neglect have had, including families who can only get a response from the NDIA or the Liberal government when they start a community campaign, exposing the neglect—like Angus and his mum in Queensland who relied on a wheelbarrow for transport on the family farm because he couldn't get access to a suitable wheelchair; or Kayla, a university student in Penrith, west of Sydney, who was born with spinal muscular atrophy, who has started a GoFundMe page to get a car so she can travel independently; or Tim, in Tasmania, who lived with severe epilepsy and who died while waiting for the NDIA to deliver vital medical equipment; or a wheelchair-bound man with progressive spastic paraplegia, initially told he 'wasn't disabled enough'; or the countless people with disability who end up in hospital because they don't have suitable NDIS plans; or the inconsistent and inadequate transport arrangements, like the cap on subsidies in Tasmania that will leave people with disabilities isolated. That shows how little regard the Liberal government have for people with disability, their families and their carers.

Unlike the Liberals, the Labor Party will stand up for people with disability and their families and their loved ones. We will make sure the government's neglect is exposed, and we will hold them to account and make sure Australians with disabilities get the care and support they need and deserve. Labor welcomes the increases, which are part of 25 recommendations from a July 2018 independent price review. It is heartening to hear that funding in existing participants' plan will be adjusted to reflect those price increases, but I'm far from confident that those adjustments will be expeditious. One participant who contacted my office on 12 July said that she had said not received that adjustment to her account and she and wasn't optimistic, given that she had waited four months for a call from the NDIA to complete an access request for her three-year-old daughter with a disability.

The past 12 months of the NDIS rollout have been marred by delays and roadblocks for participants and their carers. It is telling that 'participants' were referred to only once by the member for Bowman in his motion and 'carers' did not get a single mention. This government built its surplus from the anguish and despair of those attempting to secure support through the NDIS—support they deserve and urgently need. The government's price increases answer the needs of service providers but they do nothing to resolve the lack of crisis response facilities, long waiting lists and overly complex processes.

The government have many questions to answer. What will they do to address the delays and backlogs? Will they lift the staffing cap? What is their plan to improve employment outcomes for people with disability? What is their plan to ensure there are enough qualified workers in the sector? What is their plan to fix the plagued IT system?

When will they appoint a new CEO? Will it be someone with knowledge or lived experience of disability? The tenure of half of the NDIS board expires in October. What is their plan for having a more representative board? How will this government make it easier for those with intellectual disabilities to access the scheme?

Participant planning and reviewing processes must be improved. This is urgent. Transport arrangements must be improved. Employment supports must be improved. Support for people with complex needs and people living in remote areas must be improved. This government's key objective must be to give all people with disability equal access to the NDIS. To do so, it is time to focus on participation and service delivery, not on providers and prices.

See this speech in context