Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024. It's been a long and winding road. We're two years into this lamentable government and we finally have this bill in front of the House today. It's an issue that the now minister flagged as a massive priority when he was shadow minister. Like with so much that this government has failed to do, we've seen nothing but hand-wringing from the government on the NDIS for the last two years. But it's good that, at the end of that long and winding road, we can be here today to talk about this bill.

I move the amendment circulated in my name:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1) notes:

(a) the NDIS is supporting the lives of more than 660,000 Australians;

(b) the Coalition's strong record of support for the NDIS;

(c) the former Labor Government grossly mismanaged the establishment of the scheme, including the federal/state responsibilities;

(d) the former Coalition Government recognised the financial pressures facing the NDIS and was committed to working with state and territory governments to address those pressures to ensure the future of the scheme;

(e) ahead of the 2022 election, Labor claimed the scheme was sustainable and ran a shameful scaremongering campaign that the NDIS was at risk and plans were to be cut;

(f) following the election, the Government finally acknowledged the scheme is unsustainable after opposing the Coalition's attempts to put the scheme on a sustainable footing;

(2) calls on the Government to:

(a) release the modelling that underpins the NDIS Financial Stability Framework and the cost savings to be made by this legislation; and

(b) provide a detailed outline of the inevitable cuts that participants should expect as a result of these changes".

I won't go through this amendment in my remarks now. In essence, we've got a very peculiar situation here with this entire bill and, let's be frank, with the rhetoric from this government over the past two years. We know the NDIS has changed lives for the better, with more than 660,000 Australians and their families in some way, shape or form relying on what the scheme is doing. The coalition is very proud of our extremely strong track record in supporting the NDIS, essentially taking it from fewer than 50,000 participants to more than half a million participants in our time in government. We did the real hard work of taking what we inherited in its infancy, with many flaws, let's be frank, and turning it into a viable scheme for more than half a million Australians. We were committed and remain committed to fully funding this scheme. I remember in my time as Assistant Treasurer sitting there with the then Treasurer and never denying the requests from the NDIS minister for more support and more funding to ensure that this demand driven scheme was able to grow to where it grew too.

We know and we inherited a scheme that was underinvested in by the Labor Party. It was a scheme that was established in the chaos of the Rudd-Gillard government, a scheme that had—even as the minister today would concede—agreements with states that were suboptimal from a federal funding perspective. Presumably these agreements were entered into by the then Labor government on the basis that they were much more keen to get a media release out than a viable scheme underway. Notwithstanding all that, the coalition worked hard to take the vision of proponents and actually turn it into some form of reality.

In that time, however, the coalition did often make the point, and have made the point to this day, that the scheme has to be sustainable and that the scheme's very future for people with disabilities and their families will rely on the scheme remaining sustainable. We spoke about that in government, and we were absolutely criticised by the then opposition about talking about sustainability.

In opposition, the now minister stood in the way, day after day, of coalition attempts to put the scheme on a sustainable footing. The now minister accused us in the coalition of 'pearl-clutching kabuki theatre,' claiming the NDIS was 'tracking just as predicted' and that the coalition was 'hyping fictional cost blowouts'. While he was a shadow minister, he also said, 'You can't move around the corridors of parliament in Canberra without tripping over a coalition minister whispering the scheme is unsustainable.' I'm here to tell you today that is a lie, another quote from the minister. He spent his time in opposition blocking every single attempt from the former coalition government to do some of the work that is now contained in this bill. He went to the election and said, 'None of that's necessary. The scheme is on track. It's tracking as predicted. There are no cost blowouts and there are no sustainability issues. It's just those terrible Liberals talking about it.' Then, the minute he got elected, the message changed overnight. All of a sudden, this scheme that was tracking just as predicted, according to this minister, was on an unsustainable footing and needed to be reined in. Now we find ourselves here today.

Further, in the lead up to the election, the minister tried to argue that the former coalition government made cuts to the NDIS. We know you can't trust Labor when they talk about cuts. It's sort of in the bottom draw of every claim they try to make. Even though the coalition rescued the scheme by investing, at that time, $157.8 billion to support more than 550,000 Australians with a disability. So that's the great hypocrisy of it all.

I think every advocate and every person in the disability sector knows that what shadow minister Shorten said before the election was entirely the opposite of what Minister Shorten has said since he's been in government. And now we find this bill—the culmination of his arguments that the scheme is not on a sustainable footing. You'd think in two years a minister who felt as though the scheme wasn't on a sustainable footing, that the scheme needed to be reined in and costs reduced, as he's argued consistently. I mean, give him credit. Since the election the minister has been very consistent. He's had one thing to say about the NDIS, which is that it's got to be reined in: spending's got to be reduced, and ultimately the only way to make it sustainable is to reduce the number of people who get access to the scheme and reduce the amount that people on the scheme are entitled to. He's been very consistent about that. But when you are the minister you have to do things. You actually have to make changes. You can't just diagnose problems forever. The minister's very good at diagnosing problems. He's failed to make the transition from opposition to government, where, once you get into government, your job is to not just diagnose problems but actually fix them.

The minister talks a lot about abuse of the scheme. Well, abuse of the NDIS has got worse on his watch. Abuse by people with the ill intention of defrauding the scheme has gone into overdrive since this minister has been in the big chair. It's not something he spoke that much about before the election but it's gone into overdrive. We've learned through a number of Administrative Appeals Tribunal cases what some claimants have been arguing for under this minister's framework. There are people who go to the AAT and claim that, under the NDIS, taxpayers should fund some of the following: botox treatments, Thermomixes, horseriding, a swimming pool, tai chi, sexual therapy and sex workers, and round-the-world trips. And it's all getting worse on this government's watch.

In fact, through Senate estimates and a number of different forums, we've asked the minister to rule out the use of prostitutes under the NDIS. Under schemes such as the NDIS, Australian taxpayers should not be footing the bill for prostitutes. I don't know why it's so difficult for the minister to come out and say, 'Yes, we're going to ensure that doesn't happen, because, in the end, we are custodians of taxpayers' money.' Taxpayers unequivocally support the NDIS and are willing to support the tens of billions of dollars—$40 billion—that it costs to run the NDIS, provided that the money is used wisely. I'm not going to sit up here and cast moral judgement on people, but, if you want to use prostitutes, don't use taxpayers' money to pay for it. I hear the guffawing over there. I don't know why it's so difficult for the Labor Party to agree with that.

See this speech in context