Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The Tune review into the NDIS was an important moment for people with disabilities in this country. The original aim of the NDIS was to enhance the lives of people with disabilities, to give them choice and control over what they need to live their lives to the fullest. For some, it has delivered. But for many, it hasn't yet lived up to this aim.

To give one devastating example: in January it was revealed that since 2016 more than 1,200 Australians have died waiting for their NDIS packages. Clearly, this is not acceptable. The Tune review was an opportunity for people who access, supply or encounter the NDIS to voice their views on how to improve this system, which so substantially impacts upon their lives. This is important to me, because it is important to so many of my constituents. The NDIS is one of the issues people speak to me about most often, and my office has told me that since I was elected we've received an average of eight calls per week. Many people contact my office to express frustration at issues they've been dealing with for months, and sometimes for years. These systemic problems require urgent remedy. There are around 2,100 NDIS in the Ovens-Murray NDIS district, which covers almost all of my electorate of Indi. This represents 1.6 per cent of the population of Indi, which is higher than the national average of 1.1 per cent.

It's also important to me because I believe it should be important to all Australians. We all have a stake in a properly functioning NDIS, not only because we all might need it one day but because a society should be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable—and I believe Australia is a big society. I was proud to make a submission to the Tune review—apparently, and surprisingly, the only MP who did—on behalf of the many people whose stories I have heard in my time as the member for Indi. The things I heard from people, which became the eight recommendations I made to the Tune review, made a lot of sense to those people who told them to me.

They were things like requiring all plans to be approved by the participant before being agreed. Currently, it's the NDIA planners, and not the participants themselves, who are ultimately responsible for determining which supports are reasonable and necessary for an individual NDIS participant. The participant can put their requests forward, but has no say over the final decision about required supports. Many participants feel that enabling the NDIA to make an exclusive determination of the supports they need denies them the self-determination to make choices about how they can function to the best possible level. One constituent told me:

My son is in a second-hand wheelchair that was suitable when he was 13. He is now 21 and the chair is having serious detrimental effects on his body. His request for a new chair was refused and he was offered a service instead. His request for a motorised chair was also refused. He cannot walk.

I also recommended improved training for NDIA planners. The level of staffing and staff qualifications are regularly raised with my office as ongoing problems. Concerns have been raised about the ability of staff to deal with the complex and emotional nature of cases in a respectful, sensitive and compassionate way. One mother of a child with Down's syndrome was asked if her son would grow out of his condition. I'm sure the NDIA planners are hardworking people, no doubt stretched because of the staffing cap at the NDIA, but we need a better standard from staff that are making huge decisions about other people's lives. We must lift that cap to get enough people to do the job and we must give those people the right training to make sure they can do their job properly.

I'm pleased that the Tune review picked up on many of my recommendations. The participants' service guarantee, set down to be legislated by July, will empower participants to sign off on their own plans. This is a good step and celebrated by the people who told me it was so necessary. But the government must act on all of the recommendations of the Tune review and not stop there. It must lift the NDIA staffing cap and ensure those staff are properly trained to do the job. The NDIS is something all Australians should be proud of not just as a symbol but as a functioning real-life commitment to the type of nation we want to be. The Tune review lays out a path towards this better Australia that I know we all want to become, and the government must move swiftly to take us there.

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