Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Improving Supports for At Risk Participants) Bill 2021. This government rarely pulls the right rein on disability. When there is a disability emergency they are painfully slow to react, and then when there are reforms that require close consultation with disability groups they are suddenly in a mad rush. We see these erratic competing tendencies in this current bill. It has its origins in the tragic demise of an Adelaide woman, the late Ann-Marie Smith. Ms Smith, Annie to her friends, died of neglect on 6 April last year.

Following her death Labor called for an investigation into system failures which contributed to her losing her life. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission appointed former Federal Court judge Alan Robertson to that review. The Robertson review was completed on 31 August this year. It made 10 recommendations, of which the government now seeks to legislate five. Today is 23 August 2021. Those paying attention will realise that that means that more than a year has passed since Annie Smith's death; it was 31 August last year. Over 51 weeks have passed since the government received the recommendations of the Robertson review, and the Morrison government has had all that time to grapple with the necessary changes. Yet now we are rushing on this bill without having performed any formal consultation with disability stakeholders in the sector at all. The government has had time to go through two NDIS ministers but not to consult with people with disability about this bill. We remember that the member for Fadden—he of the home internet bills, of Rolex watches, of robodebt, of the COVIDSafe app and of the imaginary hackers that brought down MyGov—failed up and got promoted by his good friend the Prime Minister. Senator Linda Reynolds was in some hot water of her own and moved into the NDIS from Defence. It's a shame that neither of them take the Australian disability community seriously enough to ask them properly for their views on this bill.

Labor is supporting this bill in the House on the basis that we will move detailed amendments in the Senate in order to address the consultation and privacy issues raised in the Senate inquiry. But this is a recurring theme in the Morrison government's treatment of disability—unfortunately, even during Senator Reynold's time at the helm. We saw it in this government's steamroller-style approach when trying to railroad cuts and unpopular mandatory independent assessments through. No matter how much Australians with disability told this government that they did not want mandatory independent assessments, that was no good; the government remained committed to steamrolling them in, dropping the plan only when the premiers refused to go along with it. We saw during this sorry chapter how, instead of engaging in genuine consultation, the government simply faked consultation and patronised the disability community. How patronising was it that, instead of genuine and open-minded consultation, this government had a communications plan, which leaked, to simply tell the disability community: 'We listened, we heard. We were never actually listening and never actually hearing.' They refused to turn off the motor on plans to make savage cuts that will hurt Australians with disability.

As I said, it has now been more than a year since Adelaide woman the late Ann-Marie Smith died a sad and lonely death. Ann-Marie Smith had cerebral palsy and she lived alone. She relied on a carer for all her needs. She was an NDIS participant and her package entitled her to six hours of support a day. She was 54 when she died on 6 April. Some details of her death and her last days and weeks remain unclear. But this is what we do know: she had been confined to a cane chair for 24 hours a day for more than a year. Her chair had become her toilet. On 5 April, her carer attended Ann-Marie's home and, finding her unresponsive, called an ambulance.

She had major surgery at Royal Adelaide Hospital to remove rotting flesh from severe pressure sores on her body. She went into palliative care and died the next day. She died of severe septic shock, multiorgan failure, severe pressure sores, malnutrition and issues connected with her cerebral palsy. The police referred to her death as occurring in disgusting and degrading circumstances. Only upon admission to the hospital, when a complaint was made by attending doctors to the health authorities, were any alarms triggered about the NDIS participant's care—or lack of it. Unfortunately, for Ann-Marie, it was too late. This should never happen in this country. This is an indictment on NDIS and the care that Ann-Marie was offered.

There was a characteristic lack of transparency about the authority's actions, in this case from the former NDIS minister, the member for Fadden. But we should be able to safely assume that on the day of Ann-Marie's death, when the Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner was notified, the former NDIS minister, the member for Fadden, was also notified. Despite this, the case was not made public by the police until the police probe triggered media reports more than a month later in mid-May—shocking circumstances. It took a week after that for the NDIS watchdog, the quality and safeguards commission, to sanction the company, the NDIS provider being paid for Ann-Marie's care. The penalty was a measly $12,600 fine—insulting, disrespectful, pathetic.

The South Australian government launched a state inquiry, but the minister refused to launch a national equivalent despite another death by neglect of an NDIS participant at a house in Sydney. I tend to think the quality and safeguards commission, the so-called watchdog, would have been happy to leave it at that. Under pressure to do something, the member for Fadden said the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission would look into Ann-Marie's case. This amounted to the member for Fadden suggesting the watchdog should look into a case where the watchdog's own neglect and inaction would play a starring role. If the watchdog had done its job, this provider and carer would not have been able to neglect Ann-Marie's death.

On 25 May, Labor publicly pointed out the unworkable conflict in Mr Robert's sick solution and demanded an independent inquiry. The next day the watchdog announced an independent former judge would be reviewing what happened, not the watchdog. This was some progress. It is not the national inquiry we need, though, and it is no comfort to the loved ones of NDIS participant David Harris, who, after being unilaterally kicked out of the NDIS, was found in his Parramatta apartment after he passed away. Mr D Harris died in his home after his NDIS supports were cut off because he missed a review meeting. He was not found for months after his death.

In the immediate aftermath of Ann-Marie's death, the provider was happy for all the blame to be hung on the carer who worked for them. Initially the Morrison government's disability watchdog, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, was also happy for the provider to take a small fine and leave it at that. Sadly the real disability watchdog's work in this case had been left to the South Australian Police, and they only get called in after a tragedy has already occurred. But following public scandal, strong work of the police and disability watchdog and a longer think about it, it eventually deregistered the provider. Better late than never, I suppose. What a terrible insult to how, after eight years of Liberal rule, these things are still operating. The sad truth, though, is that we have a disability watchdog that is not performing its role and an eight-year-old government turning a blind eye.

When the circumstance of Ms Smith's demise came to light, the then NDIS minister, the member for Fadden, should have come down on the quality and safeguards commission like a thunderbolt. In short, the former minister should have made the commission do its job, and the new minister should do the same. Instead, too often this government provides cover to the watchdog, which has been found sleeping. All institutions tend towards entropy. The fault lies at the Morrison government's feet for, firstly, allowing this to happen and, secondly, after the alarm had been sounded by these deaths, for failing to demand that things be done differently. The government funds the executive watchdog to jet around but does not ask them what they do in unannounced spot checks on the industry to keep everybody safe. The overall majority of carers and providers do the right thing. They do a great job in trying circumstances. All we ask of the watchdog is that it keeps an eye on the sector and weeds out the bad ones who do not do the right thing and that it does that before they do a great amount of harm.

In conclusion, Ann-Marie's death requires that there be proper reform. It requires that there be proper reform based on proper consultation. We have before us this bill, which a year later and without any proper consultation with Australians with disability, proposes changes which would implement five of Mr Robertson's review team recommendations. We had the AFDO, the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations, blowing the whistle on the fact that this government has left them in the dark in relation to this bill. And it wasn't just the AFDO. Almost every submitter to the Senate inquiry talked about the failure to consult. People with Disability Australia were left in the dark. Queensland Advocacy Incorporated were left in the dark. Even the Victorian government was left in the dark.

The sector's concerns about the consultation process and privacy were noted by Labor. I say to the current NDIS minister, Minister Robert: I know you inherited a mess from your predecessor, but, if you continue to treat the disability sector like mushrooms by keeping them in the dark, you will be bundled in with your predecessor; if you continue with savage, illogical cuts to the NDIS, you will be bundled in with your predecessor. Listen to what I am saying. There is much more that this government can do that is positive for Australians with disability. It can have an inquiry into preventable NDIS deaths that is not limited to one case, an inquiry that considers the deaths of Liam Danher in Queensland, David Harris in New South Wales, Tim Rubenach in Tasmania and Jeff Barker in Western Australia—NDIS participants whose deaths could have been avoided.

These were real Australians whose lives were betrayed by negligent officialdom. They should not be regarded by this government as problems to be managed. They should be regarded as symptoms of a system that is not working. They should be looked at with a clear eye by this government, and the proper steps should be taken to prevent further tragedies. The first step, an important step, is putting away the razor and scythe and dealing with the disability community with open ears.

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