Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Upon joining the parliament in 2008, the member for Maribyrnong, now Minister for Government Services and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, was immediately made the parliamentary secretary for people with a disability. In his first speech he stated, 'The challenge for all of us is to abolish once and for all the second-class status that too often accompanies Australians living with disabilities.' Having said that, he took on that challenge, and he continues to serve in this place and, as minister, grapple in earnest with that challenge every day.

The NDIS has been a marvellous innovation, yet it isn't working as well as it might. Australia has had to wait for the election of the Albanese government to find a minister and a government that is prepared to grapple with the difficult process of much-needed reform: making choice and control essential to the scheme, stamping out fraud and waste, and putting the voices of people with a disability back at the centre. The previous government were not prepared to administer the NDIS fairly or well. They didn't put in the work to make the hard decisions to ensure the longevity of the scheme. I hope they will now support the work this government is doing to make the scheme everything it can be and ensure it continues to change futures for people across Australia.

In order to begin the task, which now sees the first of its legislative responses in this bill, the minister launched the NDIS Review in October 2022, soon after the beginning of this parliament. In October last year the minister received the NDIS Review report from Bruce Bonyhady and Lisa Paul. They stated in their preface: 'Ten years into the great Australian idea that is the NDIS, the moment has come to renew its purpose.'

I'll speak to a few of their 26 recommendations and 139 supporting actions, and to the bill, which embodies the report in part. I recommend the report to members and to interested members of the public. It considered almost 4,000 submissions, as you would expect of a scheme that already actively changes people's lives for the better. Recommendation 4 of the report underlines the need to support people to navigate the system. Members will appreciate the importance of this recommendation. Often the people who are most in need of a government service or assistance are also those least able to manage their way through the bureaucratic processes to receive those services. It is accentuated in the case where there is intellectual disability or a mental health issue.

Recommendations 8 and 9 relate to housing and living support. It is a crucial area of consideration and particularly challenging in the current market. Group homes are out of favour, but this shouldn't mean that we can't find a way to create independent living arrangements within a supportive community environment. Recommendation 9 specifically speaks of 'a diverse and innovative range of inclusive housing'. I think that will be key, allowing organisations to provide truly creative ways of meeting needs in community settings and for each to learn from the other as we progress.

A case in point is Building Friendships, an energetic organisation in Kalamunda, in the Perth Hills, that delivers activities and training for intellectually disabled adults. In response to the concerns of the parents of their clients, Building Friendships have, for a number of years now, alongside the enrichment activities they already provide, progressed plans for a community of independent tiny houses with essential shared facilities, on the edge of the Kalamunda township. They are now taking their own expertise and knowledge and partnering with Nesti Housing, a specialist disability housing and community housing provider. Their client focused independent housing development plan promises to bring good design and ecological sensitivity, with independent housing tailored to the particular needs of those people who are choosing to live there, and their families, with much-needed certainty for the future.

Recommendation 14 speaks to improving access for First Nations people. The reviewers acknowledge, on the first page of the report, that First Nations people experience disability at up to twice the rate of non-Indigenous Australians. The reasons for this are a complex of historical socioeconomic factors and the policies of former and current governments, and we must do better. There is no closing the gap without reaching Indigenous people well within the NDIS. The emphasis is on working with community to achieve this.

This bill, based on the recommendations of the review, seeks also to take the first steps to restore trust in the scheme. Fraud, overcharging and the underpayment of NDIS workers by a small proportion of providers undermine the system for all. The fraud issues surrounding the NDIS are significant and serious. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission stated in June 2022, shortly after we came to government, that organised crime networks are stealing as much as $1.5 billion from the NDIS each year. This government has been working, from the point of election, to address this fraud concern. Just yesterday we saw a report of an occupational therapist being jailed for six years for doing the wrong thing. There are a further 20 prosecutions before the courts and over 200 investigations underway. We are not looking the other way. Most providers are doing the right thing, but a minority need to be weeded out, and some obviously need to be met with the full force of the law. The previous government were clearly not grappling with this issue. In contrast, there has been hardly a week over the last two years where the minister has not made a public statement on these matters.

I also want to stress the importance of proper audit processes. Strong audit processes must exist in order to keep providers, and all those involved in the NDIS, accountable. Providers doing the right thing will not mind this, as they will pass their audit and, I am sure, will want to know that any organisations or individuals not doing the right thing are brought to account. I and, I know, other members receive reports from constituents from time to time that cast doubt on the actions of some of those few providers in the NDIS space where fees are being paid and services are not being delivered. This needs to come to light quickly and be dealt with strictly, for the health of the scheme and in the interests of those services for the people that are expecting to receive them. The amending bill tightens audit processes.

For the NDIS to be successful, it also needs to be financially sustainable. When the NDIS was first conceived, the Commonwealth and the states were fifty-fifty partners. State funding has reduced as a proportion of funding over time, with the Commonwealth now taking on about 70 per cent of the funding. The states, who are active in disability support in many other ways, have nevertheless agreed to provide more funding for the disability services going forward.

The review and this legislation seek to take the NDIS back to its initial aim, which is to provide support for the most seriously disabled people. There are about 600,000 people in this group, while more than four million Australians have some sort of disability. The bill redefines the pathway and creates a new framework that all NDIS participants will gradually be migrated to. The agreement with the states is directed towards ensuring that, when someone has a disability that will not meet the NDIS pathway, they will nevertheless find the services to support their needs. And while the purpose of the bill is to help streamline the NDIS, it does not involve cutting people from the supports they are assessed as needing. The scheme is still projected to grow by eight per cent per year in the forward estimates.

The scheme will be further developed in concert with the people whom it seeks to serve. Recommendation 5 is that the government must provide better support for people with disability to make decisions about their lives. The bill also allows for budgets to be spent with flexibility within the nominated range of approved supports. As the minister stated in his second reading speech on the bill, a critical element of design and development following passage of the bill will be a person-centred model for needs assessment. We will focus our attention on a person's functional impairments and capacities, not on their diagnosis. This recalibration is supported across the sector.

The bill clarifies the pathway into the NDIS; creates a reasonable and necessary budget framework, needs-assessment processes, flexible funding, and funding for status supports under a new framework plan; provides clarity on the supports that the NDIS will and won't support; and adds safeguards around the management of plans and spending. I understand the opposition is generally supportive of the bill, although it's a bit difficult to ascertain, given their negativity in some of this debate. All I will say is: well, for years and years it could have been the coalition's root-and-branch review, but it wasn't. And for years and years it could have been the coalition's largely uncontroversial bill, but it wasn't.

The NDIS is a world-leading legacy program that, as the minister says, represents the best that Australia can be. The review and this legislation will allow us to make it a better and lasting legacy.

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