Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

I present a correction to the explanatory memorandum.

This year marks two years since I had the privilege of becoming the Minister for the NDIS and the Minister for Government Services. In the past two years, the Albanese government, the states and territories, the National Disability Insurance Agency, the disability sector and thousands of people on the scheme have embarked on the big task of getting the NDIS back on track. I've spent every day working with participants and with advocates on how we rebuild the scheme and make sure it's here to stay. I've understood, every day of my time in this job, that we do not have a second, much less a minute or a day, to waste. The NDIS is too important.

We found out on our journey along the way that, whatever one's political differences, most Australians are actually protective of the NDIS in the same way we are of Medicare. We're proud of these policies and we understand that disability is universal. It could affect any of us or someone we love at any time. It's why I've introduced this legislation to the parliament—to improve the scheme's trajectory and to secure the future of our NDIS.

The bill recognises the commitment of the Australian government to delivering better outcomes for people with disability who engage with the NDIS. This bill includes a package of measures to restore the NDIS to its original intent of supporting people with permanent and significant disability within a broader future ecosystem of foundational disability supports. States, territories and the Commonwealth have a common interest and a shared responsibility to support these reforms to secure a future of lasting and meaningful outcomes not just for Australians with a disability engaged with the NDIS, and to make sure all Australians with a disability are included in our society, but also for all Australians.

The NDIS review was commissioned by this government, as we promised at the election. It has worked with the disability community to tell us what's working and, more importantly, what isn't and how the scheme could be improved to achieve the vision desired for people with disability when the scheme was first established in 2013. I'm grateful to the disability community who spent a significant time responding to and engaging with our independent review panel, working toward shaping a vision for how government to: put people with disability back at the centre of the NDIS; restore trust, confidence and pride in the NDIS; and ensure the sustainability of the scheme for future generations. The review panel travelled to every state and territory, including regional and remote communities, hearing directly from more than 10,000 fellow Australians. They worked with disability organisations to reach out and to listen to more than a thousand people with disability in their families. They recorded more than 2,000 personal stories and received around 4,000 submissions. Following this remarkable level of consultation engagement, it's the responsibility of the government to now build on and implement the recommendations by planning for the future of the NDIS.

This bill is primarily enabling in nature. It's establishing the scaffolding within the current legislative framework, supported by new and amended rule-making powers. The majority of changes in this bill do not take effect until activated by future changes to NDIS rules. This will be developed with people with disability and the disability community. It will be agreed by all states and territories, consistent with the existing shared governance arrangements. The bill includes some measures that commence immediately, including a greater emphasis on spending within the allocation of a participant's plan where there are no changes of circumstances, which will insist the scheme's sustainability. This reflects the reasonable expectation that participants should spend up to the limit specified in their plan unless their needs do significantly change and, with appropriate safeguards, when others may seek to exploit or coerce a participant to use their package in a way not consistent with their best interests.

The changes in this bill recognise the government's ongoing commitment to delivering the independent review panel's vision for the future reforms of the NDIS. It's about laying the foundations for continuing to make society more inclusive and accessible for the roughly 2½ million Australians with a disability under 65 years of age, and the 650,000-plus people engaged directly with support through the NDIS. It's about a future ecosystem of support for all people with disability and their families.

Australians with disability deserve an NDIS that delivers the best outcomes for them and a scheme that is safe from exploitation. We cannot afford to wait one moment longer to get the NDIS back on track. While the scheme's doing amazing things, and changing the lives for hundreds of thousands of people, participants face confusion, uncertainty and, sadly, exploitation—in some cases, everyday—whilst on the NDIS. We do hear some of the bad news stories. The legislation before parliament will give us what we need to make the NDIS stronger, and to make it easier for participants and providers to use NDIS funding in the right way.

Any delays would continue the illusion that providers or participants can just exhaust their NDIS funds and continue to ask for more funds without good reason. It would continue to create participant uncertainty about what they and their providers can do with NDIS funds. It would continue to allow the dodgy providers—admittedly, a small minority, but they exist nonetheless—to rapidly draw down funds from plans, enabling hit-and-run frauds by such providers. Every month this legislation is delayed will cost people with disability and the taxpayers $160 million in funds—taxpayer funding going out the door to dodgy plan managers and people ripping off the scheme, or going to providers delivering luxury holidays and even gambles. The good providers—the vast majority—are crying out for us to do something to stop bad providers taking advantage of people with disability. Families and participants deserve to be protected from unscrupulous operators.

I'd like to briefly cover the work we've done in the past two years to get to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS back on Track No.2) Bill today. To describe the NDIS when Labor won government compared to the work we're now doing is like comparing an empty block of land to a building under full construction.

After we won in 2022, I discovered the NDIS was headed in the wrong direction, and it was far worse than I'd imagined. It was growing too fast and too big without proper guardrails in place. It's also important to say, and we found out along the way, that after the years of talking by the previous government, and us talking since, that people seem actually shocked that there is a problem. But there is a problem and it is worse than we imagined.

What we're doing now to fix the scheme across fraud and regulation will protect people with disability and the scheme into the future. We're stopping price gouging, making sure that people who supply services to people on the scheme can't charge a wedding tax for an identical service with someone not on the scheme who isn't charged the same fee. Some allied health professionals hate me talking about it, but the reality is that some are taking advantage of the system, and we owe it to people on the scheme to tell the truth and not see them treated as human ATMs. We've upgraded the NDIS rules with the ACCC to make sure this overcharging is prohibited.

We've invested in the NDIA—the agency running the scheme—to increase its capability to do its job to support people with disability. Every day of the last two years the Albanese government has been absolutely focused on how we can improve the scheme. This legislation is designed to ensure that every dollar gets through to those for whom the scheme was intended and to protect it for future generations. This legislation is the next step in addressing priority recommendations from the NDIS review and return the scheme to its original intent.

The review called for a transition. The proposed changes in this legislation are the start of a journey. The changes will not happen overnight, but the taps have been left on full pelt for too long in some cases. I say to people with disability, 'I understand your legitimate anxiety when you hear the word "change" and you worry that, whatever the imperfections of the NDIS, you'll lose what you have.' That is not the intent of this legislation, but we owe it to the scheme to tell the truth. We'll work with people with disability on an ongoing basis, as well as the sector, the states, the territories and, indeed, the coalition to make sure that Australia has the most accessible and innovative nation in the world for people with disability.

We have a vision to make sure that Australia is more inclusive in our jobs, schools, health systems, justice, public transport and leadership. I work closely with Minister Rishworth on these matters. Australians with disabilities and the people who love them have had to wait a long time to see a better deal. Life is not a dress rehearsal. There's been a five-year disability royal commission and a 12-month review. We want to make sure that the NDIS is not the only lifeboat in the ocean.

There have been some matters offered in the debate which I want to specifically address, which I think go to some of the concerns that people have raised. This bill does not contain new debt recovery powers. There are no changes to the debt recovery provisions. The debt recovery powers remain the same, as per section 182. The changes being made to section 46 are designed to ensure that funds may only be used to obtain supports that are appropriately funded by the NDIS and directed towards a participant's support needs.

Another issue in the debate, this bill does not introduce changes to eligibility or new CEO powers to revoke access. It does make clear that in relation to future access decisions, the NDIS just has to tell participants whether they've entered the scheme because they've met the disability requirements in section 24 or the early intervention requirements in section 25 or both. Currently there is just an access-met decision. Another issue which has been raised by some is that the changes are the same as the previous coalition changes. They are not. There is nothing in this bill that has anything to do with robodebt and there is nothing in this bill that requires or allows automated decision-making or the use of algorithms.

It's also been said that this legislation is a surprise. It is not. Most of the reforms outlined in the bill are addressing priority recommendations from the 2023 review, as I've mentioned. Initial legislative reform was agreed to by the National Cabinet in December 2023 to be brought forward in the first half of 2024. The bill provides the framework for the reforms, which will be developed through deep engagement with the disability community to design subordinate legislation.

I've personally hosted eight events across Australia to discuss the bill following it's introduction, as well as three Department of Social Security webinars. Five thousand community members have joined in person or online. That's on top of the nine town hall meetings I hosted about the review's findings, where another 5,200 participants attended.

Another matter which has been raised in debate which I wish to address is that the financial impact of this bill is unclear. The 2024-25 budget papers show an increase of $1.5 billion in costs over five years compared with 2023-24 and compared to the 23-24 MYEFO budget update. The budget projected, using the data from December 2023, that without further action NDIS payments would increase by $14.4 billion over the years from 2024-25.

Another matter which has been raised in the debate but is not correct is that the legislation is at odds with the NDIS review. The NDIS review made a number of recommendations—recommendations 3, 6, 7 and 8—around access and budget setting that are all consistent with the proposed bill. A core recommendation from the NDIS review is that the scheme should provide a flexible budget for participants based on a consistent and transparent needs assessment. The bill introduces a statutory framework to implement this recommendation, with further details to be co-designed with the community.

There's been some discussion about our willingness to look at amendments—that somehow that makes the bill a bad one. It doesn't. This is how the parliament works. I recognise that all in this parliament and beyond should have the ability to contribute to the formulation of legislation.

There was another matter that somehow funding for the establishment of foundational supports has not eventuated. National Cabinet is committed to funding for foundational supports—supports for people with disability outside the NDIS—to allow for commencement from mid-2025. In establishing more effective early intervention pathways into the scheme, it'll be important to ensure there's alignment with existing foundational supports. My colleague Minister Rishworth is leading this work, and we're working with the states. We've already committed millions of dollars to this process.

There is also an allegation that the bill is changing external or internal review rights. This bill makes no changes to internal or external review rights in regard to participants' plans. Under the proposed new planning framework, participants can seek internal and external review of their plan, which includes their reasonable and necessary budget based on a holistic needs assessment.

Another myth is that this is simply rehashing the former government's independent assessments. This is not correct. The concept of 'reasonable and necessary' remains central to the NDIS. Under the bill, new framework plans will draw on the support needs assessment in setting a reasonable and necessary budget which can be used more flexibly. This departs from the current cumbersome line-by-line determination of individual reasonable and necessary requests, which can produce contested and inconsistent outcomes, according to the review.

Another allegation is that there's no detail on how needs assessments will be developed. I need to be clear: the needs assessment tools—there will need to be several—will be developed through an extensive consultation and co-design process with deep engagement with the disability community and relevant experts. We'll use an iterative process of designing and testing with people with disability, as well as allied health professionals and people with technical expertise in the development of needs assessments. The process will be transparent. It'll involve extensive testing of existing supports needs assessments with groups and disability types for whom they're validated to inform the design of any new needs assessment. These are some of the issues which have been raised with the bill.

In conclusion, we work every day—I work every day—to make the NDIS better. I congratulate the coalition for being willing to engage in a constructive manner—the member for Deakin, in particular. We all understand the NDIS is changing lives for the better—hundreds of thousands of lives. We understand it is an investment, not a deficit. We understand it's creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and careers, small businesses and innovative startups. But it can't be the only lifeboat in the ocean. We do need to tell the truth about the scheme. There is more good news than bad news about the scheme, but some who are most keen on the scheme say that any discussion of the bad news is somehow demonising providers, participants or the scheme. It is not; it is telling the truth. To those who only see the bad news in the scheme and resent the idea of the scheme, it is changing lives. One day, even the critics may well need it. I recommend the bill to the House.

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