Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome this private member's motion from the member for Maribyrnong because it is such an important issue. All of us are dealing with NDIS cases in our electorate offices every single day. When this program was first put to the parliament—Mr Deputy Speaker, you were there and you would remember the joy and the great hope we had that this would give people with disabilities the dignity that they deserve, give them the services we all take for granted every single day of our lives and give them perhaps some form of level playing field when it came to applying for jobs, caring for themselves and living their lives the best they can.

But, unfortunately, that's not the case. Every single day of the week, we are contacted by constituents continuously telling us how frustrated they are about the delays and about the lack of transparency when they are asking questions about their plans. They need more support and they want more information. They feel that the NDIS is far too complex and difficult to navigate. These are the things that we hear every day. They also feel that they are not recognised as the experts in their own disability—after all, they are the experts when it comes to their disability.

So the NDIA needs to work out plans that are best for those people and listen to the people who are seeking the services. We heard earlier that there have been 21 whole reviews, and we know that is because it is not working properly. Of course it won't work properly: when you pull $4.6 million out of its budget, how can it work properly? There was $4.6 billion ripped out of the guts of the NDIA to prop up the so-called future surplus of this government. So we ripped out $4.6 million from some of the most vulnerable people in our society—people who need the services more than anyone else. As I said, the NDIS was meant to give people with disability the assistance that is required, which we all take for granted. This is what it was meant to do. Here we have a government that just rips out $4.6 billion and hopes no-one notices. And it wasn't a good decision. At the same time, the government continues to keep programs that are costing billions of dollars for those who are in very different classes of the population such as multinationals that have shelf companies all around the place—''We won't touch them, but we'll rip $4.6 billion out of the most vulnerable budget that exists.'

I have many examples of people contacting me and saying that they're waiting for days and months on end. For example, and just for a bit of background: Susan from my electorate contacted me. Her family is experiencing grave difficulties in acquiring a review for her son's plan. Whilst the family has the opportunity to discuss his needs at the annual review, that is a long way off—a long way off! Their circumstances are changing continually. They're speaking to coordinators and being told one thing and then they're being advised of something else. This child has severe autism and needs assistance. They know the assistance they're getting is nowhere near what's required.

In another case, the family did their own independent review with their clinicians and therapists of how much would be required to look after their child with autism. It was in the vicinity of $70,000 a year. The NDIS was funding less than $15,000 for this particular child. That is a shortfall which is massive—it's nowhere near the services required for this particular person.

I remember very clearly that I had a disability forum in my electorate back very early on in 2007, when Bill Shorten was the shadow minister for disability services. That was before anyone had even spoken about the NDIS, and people at that forum were telling us about an insurance scheme that could actually solve some of their issues for care. So we had great hope for this wonderful program—and it is a wonderful program. It is one of those programs that will assist people, but it won't do it when you rip out $4.6 billion from it. (Time expired)

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