Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to support the motion moved by the member for Dawson which recognises the proposal for a National Disability Insurance Scheme. This scheme is a once-in-a-generation landmark reform that has the potential to deliver a better quality-of-life outcome for Australians with a disability. The motion notes the bipartisan and cross-party support for the implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and recognises that the schedule for the implementation of the NDIS as proposed by the Productivity Commission would take some seven years, spanning the life of three parliaments. Furthermore, it recognises that the NDIS is a reform that involves the cooperation and support of state and territory governments, the disability support service sector, people with a disability and their families and carers, and declares its support for policy stability on the NDIS over the life of those two parliaments and until the scheme's full implementation.

I give my wholehearted support to this motion in relation to the NDIS. It is not where we start; it is where we ultimately reach the other end. If we do not start we will never get to the end. At the start we always talk about the end-point and the absolute cost that is suggested in the media and has been discussed around this House. Perhaps we would never start. I note, however, that there is support on both sides of the House and I would certainly give my wholehearted support as well.

We are the lucky country, if not the luckiest country on earth, by our own benchmark. I think the measure of any nation is how you look after those people who are less fortunate than ourselves. Among others who are legislators and members of parliament, I am here as the voice of the people of Maranoa to speak on their behalf on this very issue. We all need to take that very first big step. I will outline the case of one person with a disability in my electorate—there are many but I have chosen one who is on the public record in the media in my electorate.

When this family saw the announcement that perhaps the Productivity Commission's recommendations would be taken up by both sides of the House, they gained a great deal of hope. Jesse Braithwaite, who has lived in Chinchilla almost all of his life—he went to school there and he still lives there with his family—will turn 21 in September. It is about the time that he wants to move out of home but, unfortunately for Jesse and his family, there is not a home nearby. So, there is no option to move out of home into another home to have a life not separated from his family but at least a little more independent. Any family that has had to look after a child or someone with a disability—whether it is something they were born with or as the result of an accident—knows it becomes a totally consuming occupation for that family.

Mrs Braithwaite said that Jesse is considered low functioning. He has the capacity of a two-year-old and needs 24-hours-a-day care seven days a week. The Braithwaites have a disability support worker who has assessed their situation and has recommended Jesse goes on a waiting list for a place in a supported living home. The problem with this is that there is no home in the town where he lives. That means Jesse would share a house—if there was one—with other people with disabilities and be provided with round-the-clock care.

Jesse was recently offered a place in a supported living facility. The only catch to this is that it is a 3½-hour drive away. So the situation for many families in rural communities is that there is not that support. There is not a home. There may be support in the community but when they want to move out of home or if the parents sadly pass on one day, where do Jesse and people like Jesse go to? That is the situation that we have to start to get our minds around in the longer term.

I am in full support of this private member's motion. I am in full support of the NDIS. We have to take this first big step. I will certainly be doing all I can to make sure we bring about some development in this area. (Time expired)

Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the national disability scheme and the difference it will make to those Australians with a disability and the care that they receive. The government is working towards a future where all Australian children and adults with disabilities lead lives of dignity and opportunity. That is why we are delivering the first stage of a national disability insurance scheme. It is now one year since the government released the Productivity Commission's report into disability care and support. The Productivity Commission recommended an NDIS be established to end what is essentially a very cruel lottery that many Australians with disabilities face when they try to access the care and support that they need.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme will start in Australia from July 2013 in up to four locations across the country. From mid-2013, about 10,000 people with significant and permanent disabilities will start to receive support. By July 2014, that figure will rise to 20,000 people. For the first time in our nation's history people with a significant and permanent disability will receive lifetime care and support, and that is regardless of how they acquired their disabilities.

There are so many people right around the country who have worked for so long to see a national disability scheme in place. Under an NDIS, people with a disability will have their individual needs assessed and they will be able to have much greater choice over the standard and quality of care that they receive. It is a scheme that will deliver Australians with disabilities the services they need when they need them.

Indeed, Australians with a disability and their families and carers have waited long enough. We must act, and the government is acting, to make the NDIS real. The fact is that everyone knows someone who struggles with a disability. Everyone knows a family that struggles to find care for their family member who has a disability. It is an issue that many locals continue to raise regularly with me.

We also note that currently there are vast differences in the care that people get. It often depends on where they live. Of course, that is grossly unfair for those living in regional and rural Australia. When people talk about the care that they receive today, they often say that it can be rationed, that not everybody gets care and that many people do not get enough care. We want to see a national disability scheme make a difference to people with disabilities right around our nation, in every state, territory, suburb and, indeed, town—particularly, as I say, for those from rural and regional areas such as in my electorate.

The government is getting on with the job of building an NDIS, and we are working with the states and territories through COAG. We have set up the Select Council on Disability Reform of treasurers and disability ministers from around the country. This is the appropriate forum to progress this work because states and territories have primary responsibility for the care and support of people with disabilities. We do not want people with disabilities to have to wait any longer. We do not need another committee. We cannot let anything delay the NDIS. This is a long-overdue reform that we are delivering on and we cannot have it delayed. An NDIS will give all Australians with significant disability the peace of mind to know that their care and support needs will be addressed no matter where they may live or how they acquired their disability.

It is intended that the NDIS will produce the following outcomes for people with disability: the individualised care and support that they need over their lifetime; more choice and control in their lives through a person centred, self-directed approach to service delivery, with that individualised funding; and disability care and support that is more accessible and which will meet nationally consistent standards. So it is certainly very wide ranging.

At its heart, the NDIS is all about our nation working towards giving people with disabilities a much better future—more care, more support and more choice about how they run their lives. It is a Labor government that is delivering upon this, and we are very proud to be delivering this, particularly when you look at the history of the reforms of Labor governments of which we have seen so many that have made a major difference to the lives of people right across this country.

If we look over the past decades at where Labor governments have delivered, in 1907, it was a minimum wage; in 1909, an age pension; in 1994, Medicare, one of the greatest reforms we have seen in this country; in 1992, a superannuation scheme; and, in 2010, paid parental leave. Now, we are building a National Disability Insurance Scheme. It is another major reform by a Labor government to improve the lives of thousands of Australians. It is a very long overdue reform that many people throughout this country have called for for a long period of time, and we want to do it by working with the community, working with the states and working through COAG to deliver this real reform. This is an idea whose time has come. We have to move forward with this. We cannot have further committees to hold this up. We need to all work together to get an outcome that actually delivers for Australians right across the country. Those Australians who have a disability and their families and carers need to have this reform in place.

Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion put forward by the member for Dawson, Mr Christensen. I think this is a landmark situation in which we have the opportunity of working not only with a bipartisan approach but with a tripartisan approach, including every member in this House. What I find frustrating with the way governments sometimes do business is the way we make announcements that make it seem as though a program will be rolled out this year—that the immediate impact will be in the very near future. But when you read the fine print, you find it is July next year. You find that the amount of money is not sufficient to cover the expectations of all of those families that are affected.

In my electorate of Hasluck, I have a disability services forum on which I have a number of parents and caregivers who give me an inkling as to what they go through on a daily basis and what they hope will be a major reform by the Australian parliament in respect of the provision of services based on need. You talk to carers, and their job is a 24/7 job. Their hopes and aspirations for their child or the person they care for are no different to those of any other parent, but they know that they have some challenges. They know about and have raised with me the issue of what happens for post-secondary schooling: what jobs can my son or daughter undertake? What are the services that governments will offer?

I want to acknowledge quite openly the states and territories that have been at the forefront for several decades of providing the services that people currently access. I would have thought with the NDIS that we would have seen a genuine commitment to the full level of funding at a much earlier point so we could provide the level of support that each of these families and each individual needs. I know one of the other great challenges for them is: what happens to my child when I die? Who is going to look after them? Who is going to give them the care, consideration and love? That tripartisan approach is absolutely critical if we are to roll out effective support services that meet the needs of individuals.

I had the experience of meeting with 60 carers and I had them speak to me for three minutes each about their context and situations. At the end of that I had a heart that was heavy for the pain that they experience and the uncertainty in access to services—the uncertainty of the future of the person that they care for. I hope that we do not see any proposition for a committee as being an impediment but that, like the committees that have been established to deal with the Murray River context that you chaired, Mr Deputy Speaker Windsor, it is a bipartisan approach of genuine commitment to ensuring that all those Australians who have need of the NDIS have the NDIS, that we look at real funding that will provide the services and that we do not give a false sense of hope, because the disappointment for many will be very bitter. Certainly, in the people that I interact with, in my electorate and outside of it, the expectation that this parliament—and that is all of us—will deliver an NDIS that will meet their needs is going to be shattered for many because the trial sites are only in certain locations.

Certainly I know that our own minister with responsibility for this, the Hon. Helen Morton, who is the Minister for Mental Health and Disability Services, has made a strong commitment to all of the groups I have been to, where she said that the state will not abrogate its responsibility and will continue. Premiers came with high hopes and expectations to COAG but were frustrated with the lack of detail. I think it is important that the Prime Minister in her dealings with leaders of the states and territories has an open and frank discussion that allows for compromise and flexibility, because a one size fits all model will not work, but we certainly have the capability and capacity to deliver something that is real and meaningful to those who are affected. I feel a sense of frustration for those in my electorate who I know are unlikely to get those services, because based on the interview I heard with Minister Macklin on Adelaide radio the definition around the degree of disability has not been finalised and I think it is a long time coming.

Geoff Lyons (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in the House to speak on the National Disability Insurance Scheme and to not support the member for Dawson in his motion. The NDIS is a landmark achievement for the Labor government. I am proud that we are working towards a future where all Australian children and adults with a disability will lead lives of dignity and opportunity. For too long the current system of care and support has let people living with a disability, their families and their carers down. I have heard stories in my own community and in my past role at the Launceston General Hospital. The determination and dedication of carers and parents has contributed to this significant scheme. I applaud their hard work. I have already mentioned in this place the hard work of Jane Wardlaw and Margaret Reynolds, among others, in this process.

There is a real push in Tasmania for the NDIS. Both my state and federal Labor colleagues understand the importance of solving this issue of disability care and funding. The federal Labor government is committed to the success of the NDIS and has made $1 billion available to help roll out the launch sites around Australia. Four million people in Australia have some kind of disability and 1.25 million have a severe or profound disability.

Under the NDIS Australians living with a disability will be assessed to receive individualised care and support packages and will have the power to make decisions about their care and support. The care a person receives should not be determined by the silo of funding where they fit; it should be determined by the services they need. The NDIS recognises the many struggles and challenges some Australians face in obtaining what the rest of the community consider an ordinary life. For the first time, Australians with a significant and permanent disability will receive care and support over their lifetime, regardless of how they acquired the disability.

As I mentioned earlier, in my home state of Tasmania there has been much enthusiasm for the NDIS. The Premier, Lara Giddings, said in her statement on Tasmania being a launch site for the NDIS:

This is a landmark moment for Tasmanians with a disability, their families and the organisations that work so hard to support them.

In Tasmania, young Tasmanians aged between 15 and 24 living with a disability will have access to the NDIS and it is my hope the NDIS will then be available to all Tasmanians. The Tasmanian minister for disability said:

Support for this age group is essential, as they're at a critical point in their lives where they're likely to leave secondary education to move on to further education, vocational training or employment.

By targeting this age bracket, we are helping them make that transition or, alternatively, receive the supports they need to keep them engaged in their communities.

It is expected that almost a thousand young Tasmanians will benefit from the NDIS launch. A launch focusing on this age group will enable support to be provided to individuals at a critical transition point, enhancing their independence and promoting their participation in community and employment. The Tasmanian government is committed to contributing up to $2 million a year, with the remainder of the funding coming from the federal Labor government.

Labor governments across the nation have demonstrated their commitment to better outcomes for Australians. In stark contrast, the Liberal governments said they were not able to find the funding required to bring the NDIS services to their states. Demonstrating their deep apathy towards those with a disability, they played politics and simply failed to put the best interests of the nation at heart. I again commend the federal and state governments for their partnership to achieve better outcomes for people living with a disability and look forward to the launch of the NDIS in Tasmania.

I note the member for Dawson has called for a select committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme. This is a delaying tactic. Either that or they want to mislead the constituents and take credit for the NDIS.

We on this side of the chamber do not want people with a disability to wait any longer. They waited 12 years under the Liberals, when funding went backwards, when Commonwealth funding grew at 1.8 per cent, less than inflation. And the shadow Treasurer wants them to wait now. He told the press club he would not commit, he wanted to see how it unfolds. Members opposite claim in this motion that they want to make a committee contribution. If those opposite have any funding suggestions for the NDIS, let us hear them. Let us hear your policy. People with a disability have waited long enough. We are getting on with the job. We do not need another committee and therefore I do not support this motion.

The NDIS has the potential to do for disability what Medicare did for health in this country and what superannuation savings have done for retirement savings. As I said, the services available should not be determined by the silo of funding a person is categorised in or by how they acquired the disability. I am very proud the government has made the hard decision and is going to do what is right. My advice to the mover of the motion and the opposition is: get off the fence and get on with the job.

Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bass for his positive contribution to this debate but, as usual, he is totally misinformed. I speak in support of the motion from the member for Dawson. I want to clarify a couple things for the member for Bass before he scurries out of the room. The objective of the joint select committee is not to delay the implementation of the NDIS; it is designed to be an oversight of the implementation of the NDIS. I think the merit in the proposal is there for all to see, given the government's track record over the past few years of implementing programs. So I fully support the proposal from the member for Dawson. If the member for Bass had bothered to read the actual motion, it is set up to include four government members, four opposition members or senators, a Greens member and an Independent member. So it is truly designed to be bipartisan.

As we are all aware, the rollout of the NDIS will span several parliaments and will require the support of both sides of parliament to ensure that it is successfully implemented. As proposed by the Productivity Commission, the NDIS will take some seven years spanning three parliaments for its full implementation. We should be doing everything we can to ensure that we give the NDIS the best possible start by establishing this joint committee until full implementation is achieved.

I have had many discussions with constituents back in the electorate around the need for the NDIS, in particular with a constituent who had suffered an accident at work and whose life would be forever changed as a result. This man is the father of two young boys and now spends his life in a motorised wheelchair as a full quadriplegic. After meeting with him at his home, I discovered that it cost him around $200,000 per year just to stay alive. He has carers working around the clock, 24/7, and spends a considerable amount of money making changes to his family home to make it disability friendly. The cost of hiring carers and the cost of medications, which are often not covered by any kind of concession, are astronomical. The saddest part of the story is that he was a young man in the prime of his life with two young children and this accident at work, which involved nothing silly being done, has not only cost him his mobility and brought about a massive change of life but also cost him his marriage. This is just one example of how tough it can be for people living with a disability, not only in my electorate of Forde but in electorates all around the country.

I regularly receive inquiries in my office, in addition to requests for financial assistance from families with young children struggling to afford life's basic essential around the necessary aids and medications for those children with special needs and disabilities. I have also been alerted to concerns from parents of disabled children who worry about what will happen when they become old or pass away. They think, 'Who will look after my child then?'

Something needs to be done to ensure that these people are given the support that they need to live a comfortable, dignified life and to assure them that their children, whom they love dearly, will be looked after when they pass away. We are still waiting to hear about how the first phase of the NDIS will be completed, when the government has only allocated $1 billion out of the recommended $3.9 billion which the Productivity Commission said was necessary.

We have also yet to hear details about how the NDIS will be funded into the future. I can think of a few ways it could be funded now. We have had a few cost blow-outs on various Labor projects, including the NBN, and more recently on Labor's failed border protection policies. It brings into sharp focus the importance of this committee to ensure that the funds that are allocated are properly spent in a timely and efficient manner, to ensure that the National Disability Insurance Scheme is implemented as efficiently as it can be.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the motion moved by the member for Dawson and to congratulate him for bringing to the House this very important motion about the National Disability Insurance Scheme. I agree with the sentiments of proposal (1)(a) in the member for Dawson's motion that the:

… National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a once-in-a-generation landmark reform that has the potential to deliver better quality of life outcomes for Australians with disabilities;

However, I will not, like my other colleagues, be supporting his call for this to be referred to a special committee for oversight.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme is very much a centrepiece of this government's way of thinking and the manner in which it has resolved to act, in order to support people with disabilities and to help them to lead a more active and productive life. We hope to achieve this by focusing on what it is we can help people with disabilities to achieve, rather than what they cannot achieve. It is fitting that we are debating this particular matter this week, a few short days away from the opening of the Paralympics Games in London. Too often in today's society, disability often equates in the minds of people to disadvantage, and that is why the government are even more committed to ensuring that the NDIS is implemented as quickly as possible because of the potential scale and quantum of change that it represents.

We only need to look at our Australian Paralympic athletes to realise that with social change and the right support anything can be achieved. Since the games in Atlanta in 1996, our athletes have maintained our nation's place in the top five on the gold medal tally, including a No. 1 ranking at the Sydney 2000 games.

In a similar way, and in the spirit of assisting Australians with disabilities, the National Disability Insurance Scheme will ensure that people with disability will be helped to tap into unknown levels of potential that will benefit not only them but society as a whole, and more importantly those people who are charged with caring for them.

Over the years as the member for Calwell, I have had many conversations with my constituents. I have heard many pleas from parents who have children with disabilities—as members opposite made reference—and their single, greatest anxiety is what will happen to their children once they are no longer around to look after them. It is one of the most poignant pleas that I have ever had to be at the receiving end of as a member of parliament. Finally, we have a scheme that responds to the real human face of those anxieties and concerns. In putting together the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the government is showing that it has understood people's needs and it is now responding to those needs.

Apart from our own discussions with people over the years, the system the government has put in place has been formed through substantial feedback through the Shut out report of the National People with Disabilities and Carer Council and is underpinned by feedback from the Productivity Commission's inquiry and the Every Australian Counts campaign. So there has been a lot of consultation and a lot of feedback, and a lot of input has gone into designing this scheme.

The government is aware that the current disability system encourages crisis, metering out support only when it is desperately needed—and with meagre and inadequate resources. The government has listened and understood how people with disability often feel shut out and frustrated at not being able to join—in this case, those who can—in the workforce and to contribute larger to society. So I am pleased that the government is responding to these needs through this scheme. I want to reiterate that people with disabilities have waited a lifetime almost for government action in this area of concern, and it is with great pleasure that I am able to support the implementation of the NDIS.

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I take pleasure in joining this debate and I commend the member for Calwell on her contribution. I am sorry that she cannot quite come at joining us in supporting the motion, but I understand her passion for people with disabilities. Assisting those less fortunate is one of the passions that has brought many of us to this place from both sides of the House, including the member for Dawson, who spoke so eloquently this morning on this motion. There have been very few more important motions in this period set aside for private members' business during my four years as the member for Gippsland.

In his speech, the member for Dawson explained his personal association with disabilities, and I commend his speech for not only its passion but also the intellectual basis from which he delivered it. It was an intelligent, coherent and entirely accurate summation of the need for a national disability insurance scheme. It was also very politically astute, because it called on members of both sides to lay down their swords and take up the spirit of bipartisanship to deliver the NDIS.

Disability is not a political issue. This is not an area where any member should seek to score political advantage. We are talking about ground-breaking reform that will take years to develop and several parliaments to deliver. This is not a Labor reform. This is not a Liberal reform. The Nationals will not own it any more than the Greens or the Independents. This is about taking steps in this place to make sure that the lives of people with disabilities and their carers are just a little bit easier.

We in this place are not going to cure their ailments and we are not going to solve all their problems. They will continue to struggle under the unrelenting burden that disability can bring. But we may be able to make things just a little bit easier. We may be able to help people with disabilities achieve their full potential. We may be able to alleviate the culture of crisis-driven responses to disability, where in many instances assistance is not provided until carers are at the end of their tether.

Like the previous speaker, I have spoken to many in my electorate and learned a lot about disability in my time in this place. I have copies of letters here from people forced to care for their children 24/7 and despair over what will happen to their children later in life. These are people who have been born with a disability. In more recent circumstances in my electorate, there is the case of 23-year-old Leongatha footballer, Beau Vernon, who became a quadriplegic this year after a tragic injury on the football field. He was the vice-captain of the team, with a whole life of football and off-field achievements ahead of him, and he is now facing the fact that he has hospital fees, carers, equipment and aids costs that are estimated to be about $3.2 million over the course of his lifetime. Young Beau is recovering remarkably well. He is being helped by his loving family and friends and a very charitable football community in the Gippsland and greater region that is fundraising to help meet some of the costs that he will face.

But, whether it is through losing the genetic lottery at birth or whether it is by a terrible piece of bad luck and acquiring a disability later in life, we need a better system of support across Australia. That is why I believe the NDIS is so important. So I am deeply disappointed by the decision of some members of the Labor Party to attack this motion during their speeches in the House earlier today. I believe they have made a terrible error of judgment. This is an opportunity for this parliament and this government to rise above the day-to-day pettiness of politics and deliver some ground-breaking reform. It will take men and women of good faith on both sides of the chamber to deliver the reform and to give it the funding that is desperately required. The disability sector knows that. I refer members to the statement this morning by Dr Ken Baker, Chief Executive of National Disability Services. In his statement today, Dr Baker said:

Parties at both levels of government should recognize that this is a long-term reform which requires support from both sides of politics. To deliver the NDIS in full, political opponents across successive parliaments both federally and in the states are going to be required to work together for the greater good.

We have a motion before the House this evening which is all about the greater good. This motion supports the need for a joint select committee on the NDIS which will bridge the political divide and commit this place to working together to deliver better quality of life outcomes for people with disabilities and the people who care for them. I commend the motion and I urge all in this place, particularly the Prime Minister, to recognise what a great opportunity lies before her to create a lasting legacy that will live beyond this parliament and beyond the political ambitions of individual MPs. We can do so much better on this issue if we are prepared to work together. I congratulate the member for Dawson on the approach he has adopted.

Like others in this place, in my maiden speech I reflected on the need to provide more support for people with disabilities and their carers. This is a great opportunity that lies before the House at the moment. This motion deserves the support from both sides of the House and also from the crossbenches. We hear many speeches in this place about the need for improved access to health services, the remarkable dedication of carers and the savings they provide to the government, and the importance of early intervention to help children with special needs achieve their full potential. This is an opportunity for this House to do some good on behalf of people with disabilities and their carers. I commend the member for Dawson. I commend the motion to the House. (Time expired)

Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased that we as a nation are embarking on the establishment of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. It is something that has long been needed and it is something that the government has committed itself to. It has done a lot of the work necessary to get to the stage where we are undergoing trials.

I have listened very carefully to members on all sides talk here. I was just listening to the honourable member for Gippsland saying that we need to work together to effect groundbreaking reform. We already have the groundbreaking reform. A lot of the policy work has already been done. Sure, there is a lot of work to be done to make sure that the scheme is fully implemented and will work, but a lot of the policy work is done. It needs all of us to support it 100 per cent to make sure that we get there. If there are any issues to be worked out, and there will be, we need to work them out in a collegiate way so that as a nation, through this parliament, we are 100 per cent behind all of the people who need the services.

I want to talk a little bit about what the NDIS will bring and some of the work that I have been doing in my electorate on this issue. Under an NDIS, as we call it, people will for the first time be assessed to receive individualised care and support packages. That is something I have been advocating for a couple of decades in the work that I have done in the community and when I worked in the community sector. Your needs should not be dependent on a model of service. It is about the service you need as an individual. We have to make sure that those services are tailored to fit you and not the other way around. Also, it is about people having the power to make decisions about their care and support, including choosing their service provider. Of course, this is what it is about. This is the ideal. I know that in country areas it is sometimes going to be a bit of a challenge to work all of that out, but that is what we will work towards. We will work towards it and we will get there. People will be assisted by local coordinators to help manage and deliver the support, and access a system they can easily navigate which will link them to mainstream services. These are really important components of what the NDIS will be about.

In my area last year, in October 2011, I was speaking at RED Inc: Realising Every Dream. That is a local NGO run by the wonderful Jenny London. What was said there was that getting this work done quickly is an essential step towards delivering the kind of care and support that is needed. It is what people with disability, their carers and families rightly expect of us. It is what we have to get on with, and it is what the government has got on with. I would like to put on record my thanks for the then parliamentary secretary who had disability in his portfolio, Bill Shorten. It was something that he took up when he was in that portfolio area. He was determined that it was something that we would work towards. It is something that a whole lot of us had worked on, but it was really good to be in government and be able to work on it.

In my electorate of Page, the National Disability Insurance Scheme means better support for people with disability, it means people with disability having a say in how they are supported and it means making sure that support reaches those who need it. It also means breaking down barriers to schooling, work and community life.

It would be nice if we could come in here and talk about disability issues in a really positive way. I read the private member's motion, and I thought: 'There's always an edge and barb. Why don't we just get on and work with each other to make sure that people with disability and people in the sector are not subjected to the ongoing unpleasantness?' Commonwealth funding for disability in fact went backwards under the last federal government. I do not want to drag all of this up, but it is a reality. I would like to see the opposition commit totally to the NDIS. I am not saying that the opposition should do so without caveats and qualifications, because we all have things like that which we insist on, but let us commit to it and just get on and make it happen.

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Dawson for bringing to the House the very important issue of disability, and it is with pleasure that I rise to voice my support for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the implementation of which has—contrary to what those on the other side say—bipartisan and cross-party support. I, along with my coalition colleagues, strongly support the Productivity Commission's recommendations on providing a better deal for Australians with disability and their carers. Earlier this year I pledged my support to and got involved in the Every Australian Counts campaign, the national initiative designed to raise awareness and support for a disability system for all Australians.

I have had a long association with people with disabilities. When I was in my early teens, my father was confined to a wheelchair almost overnight. Luckily for him, with intensive rehabilitation and sheer determination he was able to regain the use of both of his legs and to give away his wheelchair for the rest of his life—or so he says. In my early 20s I was involved—as you would probably surprised to learn, Madam Deputy Speaker Vamvakinou—in the Miss Australia Awards, through which I raised $30,000 for Carpentaria Disability Services, which is a program for the families of children and adults with disabilities and high support needs in the Northern Territory. It was through this program that I became reacquainted with the pressures faced by the loved ones and carers of people with disabilities. It was also through the awards that I met Jeffery McCourt and Raymond Roach, both of whom, along with their extended families, still today have a special role in my life. My husband Paul and I provided respite care for Jeffery until his late teens, when he was too big for me to lift. Jeffery was born with cerebral palsy. His parents were grateful to Paul and I, knowing that we cared for Jeffery with as much love and care as we would have had he been our own son. Caring for Jeffery gave us great joy—particularly to our son, who thought that he had another brother. It also gave us a real insight into and appreciation of what it means to care for a person with disabilities 24/7.

Like many of my colleagues here, I am a campaigner for better support services no matter how severe a person's disability is. I have mentioned Tahnee Afuhaamango in this place before. She is another dear friend of mine. Tahnee is a world swimming champion who continues to break records. I understand that she is the first person with Down syndrome to be included in an Institute of Sport program in Australia—in fact, she is the first person to be included in such a program anywhere in the world. I admire Tahnee, Jeffery and Ray, who are all in their own way hardworking, tenacious, determined and courageous people who have never allowed their disability to hold them back.

As has been raised in this place before, the coalition is committed to delivering the NDIS—a program designed to provide people with a significant and permanent disability with support over their lifetime, regardless of how they acquire their disability. Earlier this year the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, spoke at the National Press Club, reiterating that the NDIS will be a priority for a coalition government. We have pledged to work with the Gillard government to implement the recommendations as soon as possible, and only bipartisanship will ensure that the NDIS proceeds smoothly.

Movement on this issue, however, appears to have stalled. Sadly, the only funding Labor has committed to is $1 billion over four years, which is almost $3 billion less than the Productivity Commission recommended over the same period. In the lead up to the last budget the coalition called on the government to provide funding certainty; to this date nothing has happened. To this end the coalition has proposed to establish a joint parliamentary committee chaired by both sides of politics to make it work. This is the only way, and it is time that the Gillard government stopped playing politics with this issue. Our communities have spoken and a clear message has been sent to all of us that we should provide proper support for people with disabilities and their carers. The coalition will continue to place this issue above politics and will work towards a better deal for people with disabilities. It is time for the Gillard government to stop playing politics, get serious and get this issue sorted. (Time expired)

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As someone who has had a longstanding interest in disability issues broadly, I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion regarding the National Disability Insurance Scheme. For too long people with a disability, their families, their carers and the people who work within the sector have been sidelined and neglected. The result is that today we have a serious deficiency in the services available to people with a disability—services vary from one state to another, and it depends on which state you live in as to what kind of service you can access. It is a system that needs an overhaul and that has too often pushed people out of sight and out of mind. That seems to have been the mentality and the mindset of people in the past. It is time that is changed, because people with a disability should be treated no differently to anyone else. Every Australian counts.

I have listened to speakers from both sides of the chamber on this debate and I do not question for a moment the sincerity with which members have spoken with respect to the motion before us. The reality, however, is that if you are going to speak to this motion it is one thing to talk about sincerity and the issues that are of concern to you and it is another to have a look at the facts. I want to raise some of the facts with respect to this matter, because members opposite have consistently used the word 'bipartisanship' with respect to the motion.

Let us look at some of the facts. Fact 1: it was this Gillard Labor government that put the National Disability Insurance Scheme on the agenda, that commissioned the Productivity Commission inquiry and that received the report back in August last year—almost a year ago. Fact 2: this government has committed $1 billion over the next four years and, while the member for Solomon says that is a relatively small amount of money, it has in fact brought forward the starting time for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Fact 3: it was the South Australian, ACT and Tasmanian governments that immediately embraced and committed to the trials proposed. All of those governments are Labor governments. Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia initially made no such commitments. Fact 4: in fact, New South Wales and Victoria only came on board after widespread public backlash caused those governments considerable embarrassment. We needed the public to get on board before the governments of New South Wales and Victoria made caring commitments. Fact 5: the Queensland government continues to walk away from this scheme. Campbell Newman cannot find $20 million for a National Disability Insurance Scheme but he can find $120 million for the Gold Coast racetrack.

Let me put an additional fact on the table. The South Australian government, a smaller government than the Queensland government, found its $20 million up-front without debate, without argument, in order to get on with the job of bringing in a national disability insurance scheme. If you want to talk about bipartisanship, you do not do it simply by words; you have to match the words with your dollars, as South Australia, the ACT, Tasmania and now Victoria and New South Wales have done.

The substance of this motion is to form a committee of federal parliamentarians. The fact is that disability is a joint responsibility between the federal government and the states and territories. The federal government acknowledged that and quite properly has formed a state and federal government select committee on disability reform, with the state and federal disability ministers and the treasurers of each state being part of that committee. That is the way it should be, because they are the people who will ultimately carry responsibility for the delivery of the National Disability Insurance Scheme across the country.

As I said earlier, people with a disability, their carers and the support workers in the sector have waited long enough. They want to see the government getting on with the necessary reforms. They do not want to see more committees and hear more talk about what might or might not be done. They know what is being proposed—and it is being proposed, I might add, in conjunction with a number of consultative committees that have been established to help the government work through this, with people who come directly from industry and know exactly what is needed and how best to achieve it. It is time to get on with the job. It is time to make a national disability insurance scheme real.

Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to support the motion moved by the member for Dawson relating to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. While we may debate what each side of politics has or has not done and has achieved or has not achieved over recent decades with regard to caring and responding to the needs of people with disabilities, all of us agree that it is important that a national disability insurance scheme be implemented. I think that is fairly consistent with what everybody has said today. The most important people in this debate are the people with a disability in our communities, their families, those that care for them and the industry sector that endeavours to provide and deliver services, often when they are stressed, under pressure and under-resourced.

I have consistently supported the NDIS. Having worked for more than 30 years with people with a disability and their families, I have seen firsthand the challenges they have faced. My own mother is legally blind. While she did not focus on her disability—she focused on her ability—she still had needs and has special needs as she ages. I believe it is absolutely critical that we provide people with a disability, their families and their carers with the regular care, support, therapy and equipment that they need. We would all agree on that. As mentioned by the member for Dawson, the NDIS is a once-in-a-generation landmark reform that has the potential to deliver better quality-of-life outcomes for Australians with a disability.

The coalition has placed a significant emphasis on the importance of this scheme. This is why the coalition believes that the parliament should immediately establish a joint select committee to oversee the implementation of the NDIS. We know that what we can achieve when we come together and agree is quite powerful. The rollout of an NDIS will span three parliaments. We know it will take longer than one term. The coalition recognises that there needs to be a mechanism to lift the NDIS beyond partisanship and to ensure it is owned by the parliament, thereby facilitating successful outcomes for all who are directly impacted by a disability.

The Productivity Commission has provided the best road map for achieving an NDIS. The Prime Minister needs to explain—and I ask this honestly—why she continues to encourage a strategy that differs from the guidelines set out by the commission. Until the Prime Minister does this I can only assume that the Labor government is not committed to ensuring the successful delivery of the NDIS long term.

In fact, to date the Prime Minister has constantly undermined the legacy and longevity of the program since the first day the scheme was introduced into parliament. In the 2012-13 budget, the government failed to adequately provide for the first phase of the NDIS, by allocating only $1 billion of the $3.9 billion that the Productivity Commission said was necessary over the forward estimates to commence the launch site. It is unfortunate the Gillard Labor government's increasing debt and interest bill is delaying the full introduction of the NDIS, and as a result is delaying the necessary reforms to improve access and delivery of services to those with a disability, their families and carers. The federal Labor government will be spending more each financial year on debt interest costs than it will spend in total over the next four years on the NDIS.

Furthermore, the Gillard government has failed to commit to the Productivity Commission's target date for the full NDIS by 2018-19. In essence, the Prime Minister has put a small down payment on a program to which the government will not give any long-term commitment or support. People with a disability and their carers and families deserve more than this thinly veiled attempt to appear committed. The NDIS is a reform that requires the cooperation and support of state and territory governments, we all agree, as well as the disability support services sector and most importantly people with disabilities, their families and their carers.

Such reform will take all stakeholders coming together and working together. A workable NDIS will only take effect with states, territories and all the stakeholders incorporated in the plan and in the development as well as in the implementation. It is critical to the success of the initiative that the Prime Minister treat all stakeholders as partners. I reiterate the Leader of the Opposition's and the member for Dawson's call for the Prime Minister to accept the proposal to establish a joint parliamentary committee to be chaired by both sides of politics. It is important that the implementation of the NDIS remain beyond partisanship, and has the commitment of this parliament so that we can ensure the NDIS endures well into the future. (Time expired)

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.