Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Improving Supports for At Risk Participants) Bill 2021 as we, in government, on this side of the chamber, continue to improve social services for Australians near and far.

The measure of a functioning and fair democracy and its people is how we support those who need extra help. In Australia, we have social security, a safety net for all our eligible citizens, that you don't see in very many other countries around the world. Services Australia administer our safety net to millions of Australians every year. In fact, Australians will be interested to know that there are 25.9 million Medicare customers alone, 9.3 million unique Centrelink customers and 1.2 million children supported by child support across our great country. Centrelink, Medicare and child support payments benefit families, students, trainees and apprentices, carers, pensioners, migrants, refugees, humanitarian entrants and new arrivals. These important supports assist in one form or another to make sure that Australians have a unique safety net that is adequate for those who receive it and fair to those Australian taxpayers who fund it. During the pandemic, the JobSeeker coronavirus supplement supported, and now the COVID disaster payment continues to support, Australians through these most trying times.

In addition to the safety net of social services, we have the National Disability Insurance Scheme, or the NDIS, a scheme designed to support those in our communities who have a permanent and enduring disability. Across Australia there are 466,000 participants, and in my electorate of Moncrieff there are 2,245 individuals who we as Australians support. The bill before the House will further improve supports for NDIS participants at risk from harm, and all amendments in this bill seek to improve or clarify NDIS quality and safeguard arrangements to better protect participants from harm. Surely that's what those from the other side want to see: better protections to protect participants from harm. This bill makes technical amendments to better support the operations of the NDIS commission based on early implementation experience.

This bill responds to the Robertson review, conducted in May 2020 by the Hon. Alan Robertson SC at the request of the NDIS QSC commissioner, Mr Graeme Head. On release of the report in September 2020, the commissioner said:

In the course of his review, Mr Robertson has considered wider issues of safeguarding of people with disability who are particularly vulnerable. While Mr Robertson did not identify any fundamental flaws, he has made observations and recommendations regarding things that he believes would assist the NDIS Commission in taking earlier action. These observations and recommendations concern the NDIS Commission's processes and systems and its legal framework and will be valuable in considering ways in which protections for NDIS participants most at risk of harm could be further enhanced.

The Robertson review made several recommendations for improvements in key areas to safeguard at-risk NDIS participants. Let me outline some of those from that report. It's quite a long report—it took a while to read it yesterday in my office—but I'd like to match the recommendations with the actions that the Morrison government has actually taken to safeguard those who are under the NDIS scheme. Recommendation 1 is:

The Commission should act to identify earlier those people with disability who are vulnerable to harm or neglect. Every stage of decision-making, including corrective regulation, should be alive to factors indicating that a participant may be vulnerable to harm or neglect …The Commission and the NDIA should have a freer and two-way flow of information for this purpose.

So, in this bill, to better protect those with a disability, we see the incorporation of the improved information sharing between the NDIA and the NDIS necessary to prevent or lessen a serious threat to an individual's life, health or safety. Recommendation equals action.

Recommendation 2 is:

No vulnerable NDIS participant should have a sole carer providing services in a participant's own home. The relevant statutory instruments and guidelines should be amended to provide expressly for this.

This bill provides that the NDIS can disclose information to worker screening units and other agencies as required, and the NDIS commission can publish and maintain information about historical compliance and enforcement action.

Recommendation 8 states:

There should continue to be improvements to the exchange of information and more formal lines of communication between those running the State and Territory emergency services (including police) and schemes for people with disability and the Commonwealth agencies, being the Commission and the NDIA, and vice versa.

Well, this bill before us today will strengthen the support and protections for people with disability by ensuring a clear and effective legislative basis for the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commissioner's powers and for compliance and enforcement arrangements, provider registration provisions, and efficient information-sharing across governments and government agencies—exactly what the recommendation outlined.

I move to recommendation 10 from the Robertson review:

The Commissioner should have statutory power to ban a person from working in the disability sector even where that person is no longer so employed or engaged.

This aspect of the review is the subject of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Strengthening Banning Orders) Bill 2020, currently before the Commonwealth parliament. The commissioner should have the same power in relation to the NDIS service providers—that is, the power to ban should include entities no longer providing those services. While the NDIS Act gives the commissioner the power to ban an NDIS provider or worker on the grounds that they are not suitable to deliver NDIS services and supports, it does not presently set out how suitability is determined for banning orders.

The NDIS Amendment (Improving Supports for At Risk Participants) Bill provides the power for the commissioner to make rules in relation to suitability for that very purpose, aligning with existing provisions in relation to provider registration. The bill also clarifies elements of the process that providers must follow when registering to deliver NDIS services and supports. This process includes applicants being able to withdraw applications, and applications for renewal or registration being deemed to have been withdrawn if the registered provider becomes the subject of a revocation or banning order during the renewal process. These are just some of the technical safeguards in this bill to strengthen the wellbeing of NDIS participants and to keep them safe—and that's what we on this side of the House want: to make sure that those over 400,000 NDIS participants are kept safe and safeguarded. The Morrison government is committed to consider ways to further support people with a disability, to live their lives free from abuse, free from violence, free from neglect and free from exploitation.

I turn to the impact this bill may have on some NDIS providers. It's true that there will be a broadening of reportable incidents under the prescribed rules. But these are minor adjustments, and they will ensure that the treatment of NDIS participants is in line with community expectations. The NDIS commission will work closely with providers around any adjustments necessary to fall in line with the prescribed rules. These technical amendments will improve the safety and wellbeing of Australia's 466,000 NDIS participants, through clarification of the rules, without significantly changing the powers of the NDIS commissioner. I'm certain that all Australians will agree when I say that we must continue to support those in our community who need extra help and we must continue to improve our social services and our safety net for all eligible Australians.

See this speech in context