Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Moncrieff for her question and her commitment to the 1,044 participants in her electorate. This morning many of us, from both sides of the aisle—in fact 30 of us—all attended the Power of Speech breakfast, including the two paediatricians in the House, the member for Macarthur and the member for Higgins, who both spoke, and spoke beautifully. We had the privilege of listening to six little children share their experiences of growing up profoundly deaf. All six children—and they were gorgeous—Annie, Aretha, Eamon, Gaurvi, Hannah and Zia, have cochlear implants, and they all delivered a wonderful two-minute speech about their lives, their hopes and their dreams.

This morning's event, My Hearing Future, is what the NDIS is all about. It's about futures—in this case, supporting children in need, not just with the cochlear implant but with the early intervention supports that we all know make such a huge difference. It's why one of the government's first actions, post election, was to put in place the early childhood early intervention remediation strategy, because of the massive surge of children coming through the scheme. Where 4½ thousand children were waiting longer than 50 days to get their plan, it's now down to 1,600 children. By Christmas it will be zero. These kids' stories are just six of the stories of the 500,000 participants that will come into the scheme over the next five years—a scheme that is fully funded, that is uncapped and that is secure now and into the future.

We all know we can only do that with a strong, stable budget. There's no other way to have an uncapped scheme. We must have a strong economy. We must have strong jobs growth. It's why we're thrilled to see what the Treasurer and the Prime Minister have delivered in 36 months of consecutive jobs growth. Because of this budget position, the government has been able to make enormous improvements. A number of months ago we added 800 extra Public Service resources because of the significant work program ahead of us. We've already recruited 300 of them. In terms of backlog in the NDIS, it is now zero, which is extraordinary. In terms of the Disability Reform Council, we've solved interface issues in mental health, in justice and in transport. We've sorted out interface issues with voluntary out-of-home care, and with the interfaces with the health system and of course with discharge.

Importantly, we've announced the new CEO of the NDIA, Martin Hoffman, who is an extraordinary executive and an extraordinary individual. He'll continue to work with the government, especially as we move the Participant Service Guarantee to support a very positive participant experience going forward. The bottom line is: the budget position has allowed us to get on with delivering this world-first scheme, and it's something that the entire parliament can be proud of.

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