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

What we see is that the NDIS is growing but it's growing too fast. I know members of the opposition understand that. They just couldn't do anything about it. But they know that problem. Now, the issue is it is growing too fast. So Labor has some propositions to help restrain the rate of growth. We've got a bill in the parliament. The Senate has had it for 12 weeks. They've had it for 12 weeks. The problem is that they want to now delay it for another eight weeks. This is the problem. Sometimes, you can delay things in the Senate and, really, the sun comes up the next day and the chicken still lays eggs. But sometimes things get delayed in the Senate which have a cost. This legislation, if it's delayed, is, according to the actuary, going to cost people on the scheme and it's going to cost taxpayers a billion dollars in waste—a billion dollars. The reason it's going to cost a billion dollars is that the Liberals need more time to ask questions.

But I want to put this to the House and the backbench of the coalition, who don't always get to hear what's going on—these are the questions which your senators need eight weeks to answer, but I think even the group opposite could answer this quicker than in eight weeks: do you think it is right that people can claim tarot cards and clairvoyance on the scheme? You don't need eight weeks to work that out. Do you think that it should take eight weeks to work out if people should be able to get cuddle therapy? Of course you don't. But, for whatever reason, you are taking eight weeks and a billion dollars to answer obvious questions.

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