Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) on 20 January 2020 the final report from the review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 was handed down by Mr David Tune AO PSM; and

(b) the report made 29 recommendations that have been endorsed by the disability sector, including people with disability, service providers and carers; and

(2) calls on the Government to act on the recommendations of the review as soon as possible.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme is a very worthy undertaking. It is an excellent idea, and it's one which Labor remains fundamentally very committed to. But, after $4.6 billion has been taken from the NDIS to prop up this government's dodgy budget, with reports that 1,200 people have died waiting for their NDIS packages, and with ridiculous staff caps which pretend that somehow you can increase the scheme fourfold but keep the number of staff at a certain number, it is true to say that the National Disability Insurance Scheme is not working as it should be.

I acknowledge the new CEO, Mr Martin Hoffman, and maybe he will be a breath of fresh air in the organisation, but that doesn't change the fact that there is a pathology within the organisation. This is not the fault of the staff who work in the organisation—they work hard, and I have the privilege to know plenty of them—but in the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the agency there is a pathology or a sickness which exists regardless of the government's inattention.

The fact of the matter is that since the election, and while I have been re-immersing myself in how the NDIS and the world of disability are going, everything that happens in the NDIS seems to be about protecting the corporate backside of the organisation but has very little to do with empathy. Everything seems to be about capping some costs but not looking at the correct areas in which to cap costs. There is a pathology in the organisation in the NDIS which needs to be dealt with.

The government's excuse for the last seven years is that it's required brute force to get the expansion of the scheme from trial to a scheme which now covers over 300,000 people and is heading towards half a million. The expression that's been used is that it has required brute force to get it to this size, and now, the brute force having been used, sensitivity will emerge in the conduct of the scheme. But, seven years on, it is highly unsatisfactory to have a scheme which, when it works well, works very well but, when it works poorly, works very poorly.

The response of the government has been to do a review. In fact, there have been 21 reviews of the scheme in the last six or seven years. This motion today, though, recommends that the government address the Tune review, the latest provided to the government. The Tune review makes many recommendations which I think are worthy of support, but at the core of the reform required for the NDIS is empathy. There is a requirement, I believe, on the NDIS and the NDIA to start putting people back into the scheme. What is required here, rather than unrealistic deadlines set for participants, is that realistic deadlines now be set for the organisation to make decisions. It is not right that the government can say to the people, 'Well, you've got a certain time period and you have to jump through certain hoops,' yet, when the shoe is on the other foot and the participant requires the scheme to be responsive in time, nothing happens.

So we are most supportive of many of the recommendations of the Tune review being implemented—in particular, but not exclusively, the proposition that there should be a participant service guarantee. The idea is that the agency and the insurance scheme work for the people and not the other way round. There are specific proposals which I think are worthy of being implemented by the government now, not later, including extending the time frame for participants to provide information to support an access decision from 28 days to 90 days. A participant's first plan should be put in place within 10 weeks of an access decision, which should be reduced to eight weeks from 1 July 2021. A plan implementation meeting should be offered and scheduled no more than four weeks after the approval of a plan. A scheduled plan review should commence no later than eight weeks before the scheduled plan review date. We need to ensure that there is certainty and accountability on time lines, as to the provision of assistive technology and the consideration of specialist reports. The internal review process should be completed within 90 days, reducing to 60 days from 1 July 2021.

Labor is very committed to the NDIS, but we need to ensure that the organisation demonstrates empathy to the people who are participants in the scheme. We think this is possible. This doesn't require an election to change. Instead, what we need is the NDIA and the NDIS to respond to the needs of the participants, their families and carers.

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