Mal Brough (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, I present the committee's progress report on the implementation and administration of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. At the outset I would like to thank all 15 of the committee members who participated in the short time this committee has been in session for their bipartisan, collegiate approach to ensuring that this incredibly large and complex reform is given the best chance of success. Every member came to the committee with the approach, 'We want to do the best we can as members of parliament and as senators to ensure that the National Disability Insurance Scheme, as implemented by the agency, works.'

We heard incredible evidence of wonderful success. Some was heart wrenching, hearing about the changes that have been made to individuals' lives. We also heard that there is still an enormous amount of work to be done. On that front, I want to thank the National Disability Insurance Agency for its cooperation and work, and for the way in which it has set about this very complex task. In making the recommendations that we have, I can say today to the House that the agency have moved quickly to absorb what we as a committee recommended they do to improve the system and to ensure it is sustainable into the future and provides the sorts of outcomes every Australian desires. But they have already responded to the committee about this report, and in doing so have told us unequivocally that they accept in full all of the recommendations made that pertain directly to the agency, and for this we thank them.

What this committee undertook to do in the first instance was to visit the trial sites—in Newcastle, Geelong, Hobart, being all of Tasmania, and also in Adelaide—and talk directly to participants, to the people whose lives have been impacted the most by a lack of services, or those who have actually gained services as a result of the implementation of the scheme. We also spoke to those who are there to support the people who are living with a disability. They are the carers, their families and of course the service providers.

In this short address to the parliament this morning, I would just like to make note of a few of the issues that have come to the fore, and what is to happen from here. First of all there was a great concern about what is known as 'tier two'—those personnel or people who are not actually going to be accepted by the agency as needing tier three or as having high complex needs, but are still going to need important services to ensure they have the quality of life that the services and the scheme is designed to provide. There is much work to be done here. In confidential conversations we have had with the agencies we are buoyed by the direction they intend to take.

Supported accommodation continues to be a major concern around the country. With state governments making what I believe to be the right decisions—that is, to get out of large complexes where people have resided for a long time. There is a great deal of angst amongst those who have resided there and feel safe. There needs to be a lot more done and a lot more innovation put in place. The state governments, the private sector and the Commonwealth are going to have to work closely together to ensure that we have a range of supported accommodation and respite accommodation that meets the market and the aspirations of the people who will be needing it.

For me, the largest issue is the readiness of the sector itself. This is a sector that has continually relied upon direct Commonwealth and state funding in block funding. The model has been turned on its head. The power has been given to the individual, as it should be. But at the same time this creates massive uncertainty for the sector. The sector not only has uncertainty but it also has to deal with enormous growth. The Productivity Commission thinks there is going to be a need for another 125,000 people in the sector. They need to be trained. So there is a lot of work to be done by COAG to make sure the Commonwealth heads of government, all of the ministers involved, work on both the people, the training and the sector as a whole in its development and robustness, so that we can move forward and make sure we meet these aspirations.

Again, I want to thank everybody who gave evidence, because it was the people who gave evidence who allowed this committee to make the recommendations we have, and in doing so give the agency and governments as a whole the power they need and the decisions they need to be able to make the right decisions moving forward on behalf of this important sector to Australia.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fisher for the way in which he has chaired this committee. With him, and the other members of the committee, we were very pleased to go to the Barwon region in Victoria, the Hunter in New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania to see the implementation in the first launch sites of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the first parts of our country where this historic reform is becoming a reality. Since then, the National Disability Insurance Scheme has launched in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and right here in the ACT.

Like other members of the committee I was blown away by the stories that we heard—the monumental change already underway. The member for Fisher will remember, as I do, the story of John Coyle in Hobart, Tasmania. Around a decade ago, John lost his beloved wife to cancer, and he is now raising his three children, two of whom have a disability, as a single dad. John describes so eloquently how the NDIS has already changed his life and the lives of all three of his children. He spoke of being overjoyed at being able to see clearly, for the first time, a future for this children. He described the NDIS as 'a godsend'. In Newcastle the committee heard from James Bailey, a young man who suffered severe brain injury in an accident. He said, 'I am lucky to be a participant in the NDIS,' and he went on, 'Every morning I wake up and smile because I know my life is better now.'

We must never forget that, before the NDIS, the system was completely broken. In July this year, the chair of the NDIS, Bruce Bonyhady, spoke of Lillian Andren. In 2011 Lillian told the Productivity Commission of how she had acquired a spinal injury in a swimming pool accident—how there was no compensation available, of having access to only three showers a week, of falling through the cracks in our society. Her story shocked commissioners, and it was stories like Lillian's that provided the catalyst for monumental change.

The NDIS will provide social and economic benefits for people with disability and their carers and families and, indeed, all Australians in the wider economy. Analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers shows that the cost of doing nothing, the 'business as usual' approach, would exceed the cost of the NDIS by 2025. By the time the NDIS is fully rolled out across Australia, more than 460,000 Australians with disability will benefit. More Australians with disability and their families and carers will rightly have more control over their lives, more certainty over the level of care they receive and more opportunities to have work and to be involved in school and community life. What more could we hope for than that?

Australians know that this is what people with disability deserve, and that is why we built the NDIS. This is a massive and complex reform—complex for governments, for the agency, for the disability sector and for the whole community. But, as the great Kurt Fearnley said to us in Newcastle, and the member for Fisher will remember this:

The challenges that we have been listening to today have been, in my opinion, extremely positive. The NDIS was brought around to challenge people so that we could decide what level of life was going to be lived for people with disabilities.

The committee is very encouraged, as the member for Fisher said, by the way in which the National Disability Insurance Agency has responded to this report, facing head-on the challenges that need to be overcome. Recently we have seen the release of the latest quarterly report, and we welcome that. There are now 7,300 people with approved NDIS plans in place, and the NDIS is coming in on budget.

This is a great social and economic reform and, I have to say, one very much in our Labor tradition. That said, we are very pleased to see the whole of the parliament getting behind it. We are determined to see it delivered in full and on time. People with disability have waited for long enough. I join the member for Fisher in thanking all members of the committee, the people who came and spoke to us—the families, carers, advocates, service providers, state officials and NDIA officials. I want to thank all the committee staff who made sure this new committee was able to do its work in such an effective way and I include the Hansard staff, who sat with us in what were sometimes very emotional circumstances. I look forward to working with the member for Fisher and the other members of the committee so the whole of the parliament can help make sure we get the NDIS right.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for statements on this report has expired. Does the honourable member for Fisher wish to move a motion in connection with the report to enable it to be debated at a later occasion?

Mal Brough (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House take note of the report.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 39, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next day of sitting.