Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ignorance, self-interest, ideology and political interference—they were the four principles that Insurance Council Australia outlined in the Productivity Commission report that informed the disability scheme. They were the big risks, and they are exactly what this bill breathes life into. I will take independence—ACOSS. ACOSS said to the Senate inquiry that this arrangement:

… gives greater control to the Commonwealth and removes independence from the management of part of the Scheme's funding base. This has rightly caused concern amongst the disability sector, as a core part of the NDIS is the independent management of Commonwealth and State government funds by the NDIA.

The Disabled People's Organisations Australia also pointed to the concerns undermining the arrangements and the neutrality and the independence of the NDIA's structure. But do not worry—the government plans to review the operation of this special account by 30 June 2027. That is right—10 years on and seven years after the NDIS reaches full scheme, the government will finally get around to having a look at it to see whether it is working or not. ACOSS points out that waiting 10 years is too long and will lead to perverse outcomes.

At the start of my remarks I outlined a range of concerns: IT, the ACT rollout, the stuff-ups in the agreements with the states. I would also draw the House's attention to the Auditor-General's report and, again, I quote:

… there was no published overall work plan which sets out timeframes and deliverables.

That:

There is limited evidence of a strategic approach to the use of the Commonwealth’s $146 million Sector Development Fund …

And:

Within NDIS’ intergovernmental governance arrangements, the processes and timeframes for collective decision-making have been inconsistent with the timeframes for the rollout of the Scheme.

So, in summary, this bill is unnecessary. It is built on the lie that the NDIS was not fully funded. It is a distraction—a distraction from the failure of the government's own budget management and, listening to the speakers opposite, you would forget that they are actually in government. It is smokescreen and a charade. It is a charade to disguise welfare cuts which pick on the vulnerable, especially the disability support pension reviews. It is an excuse for more nastiness to come by setting up a fund and then pretending: 'Oh shock! Horror! We can't fund the NDIS. We've got to run over here and take a few more bucks off people who have nothing.'

It undermines the key principles of the scheme: independence—funded from general revenue, free from political interference. This is what the Productivity Commission said was necessary for the scheme, and it is confused. How does it relate to the fund that Labor set up with the extra Medicare levy, the DisabilityCare Australia Fund? No-one knows. It is creeping politicisation of the scheme but it is consistent with this government and that side of the House's pattern of great social reforms: we build it; they stuff it up. Medicare—let's freeze it; let's cut it. Superannuation—let's stop the rises; let's protect the rich's tax rorts in the scheme and now the NDIS.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The bill before the House is a simple measure, but it is smart policy. It is a clear example of the sensible, pragmatic approach to policymaking that characterises this government and another demonstration of our commitment to following through on our promises.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme is a noble idea and one close to my heart. As the parent of a daughter who lives with disability, I take a passionate interest in getting it right when it comes to delivering these services. I know that Australians with disability want security, excellence and choice in the support that they access. The NDIS should be a world-class means of delivering that support. It should become an increasingly critical part of our nation's provision of health care, supporting hundreds of thousands of Australians with security and dignity. However, without urgent action, all of that is at risk from a funding black hole that threatens the sustainability of the entire system.

While Labor sought to deny the problem, the coalition recognised this shortfall from the very beginning and we have consistently proposed commonsense measures to meet the Commonwealth's NDIS obligations. The government is on record as committed to properly adequately and sustainably funding the scheme, and the present measure is an important part of following through on that commitment.

Behind the technical terminology of this bill is a very straightforward idea: good governments listen to the people and they learn from the commonsense ways that families adopt and by which they prosper. To any of us who have ever had to manage a household budget—or, as I have, operated a small business—the good sense of the measure before us today is immediately apparent. I think most families around the country would recognise this approach. How many of us have a jar on the kitchen bench at home, or an extra bank account—a place where we save what we find we have left over to pay for the big costs and investments? When we have a little spare money, when the water bill is not as we expected or there is some change left in a pocket at the end of the day, we all know what the best thing to do is: we drop it straight in the jar or we deposit it into that extra account.

But we also know that just having the jar is never enough. The other lesson we all learn early, hopefully, is how quickly that money, whatever our good intentions, can disappear unless we decide beforehand exactly what we are saving for and we stick to that resolution. It is these practical lessons and that pragmatic attitude that informs this bill.

No forecast is ever exactly right, and few budgets are met to the dollar. In the course of the tens of billions each year, which will flow through the National Disability Insurance Scheme, some items of expenditure will not be as large as the department anticipates. With the economies of scale generated by the full national scheme, there will be other savings which the Department of Social Services will identify. As the minister announced in May last year, savings of $711.2 million over five years have already been achieved through the timely finalisation of transition arrangements with states and territories. There will be many more to come.

By providing the ability to determine amounts to be credited to this savings fund special account, this measure will allow the minister to bank those savings and underspends, and make sure that they are locked in as major contributions to the National Disability Insurance Scheme in the future. However, we are going to need more than that.

An investment as large and important as the NDIS will encourage all ministers and departments to work together and consider carefully whether any economies can be made in other portfolios. The bill therefore also provides for the minister to channel funds to this account deriving from savings in other departments. These savings would result from decisions by the Prime Minister or cabinet in other areas of government. For those times when banking day-to-day savings is not enough and to get the fund going, the bill also rightly allows for extra credits to be made based on discretionary investment decisions by the Prime Minister or cabinet.

In May of last year, the Minister for Social Services laid out some of the specific discretionary savings and investments this government will make to start the account off on a healthy basis. The government has committed to allocating $1.3 billion over five years to the NDIS Savings Fund Special Account from closing carbon tax compensation for new welfare recipients. It further committed to another $67.2 million saved by closing that same compensation for single-income families not already in the system from July of this year and to another $62.1 million over five years from additional reviews for disability support pension recipients. All of these are in addition to the $711 million saved through the finalising of state and territory transitionary arrangements.

The closing of compensation for a Labor carbon tax that has been abolished is exactly the kind of common sense saving that this bill will allow to be redirected to paying for the NDIS. And these savings continue. Just this week, the government announced a further $3 billion that will be allocated to the fund from the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Omnibus Savings and Child Care Reform) Bill 2017—that is, if the other side agree to its passing. But, like any household saving, we need to do more than find the money. We need to ensure that it is locked in to paying for the NDIS and nothing but the NDIS. We need the funds to be quarantined and protected as predictable forward contributions to the scheme; otherwise, there is a risk that additional funds may be announced one day but redirected for short-term political expediency the next.

The NDIS Savings Fund Special Account is therefore necessary as an instrument to guarantee that money once committed is available only to the Minister for Social Services to spend on meeting funding shortfalls in the NDIS. This is also why the bill's provisions regarding the long-term commitment of credits to the account is so important. All credits to the saving fund will be publicly announced, calculated consistently with the Budget Process Operational Rules and committed for 10 years. With these provisions, we can ensure that the additional funding available to the NDIS is consistent, predictable and available when it is needed.

Sadly, we know that this additional funding is going to be all too necessary. Members opposite like to claim the NDIS as their own, but the reality is that their version—your version—of the NDIS was half-baked, half-finished and fatally compromised from the beginning by a lack of funds. A report into the capabilities of the agency set up by Labor to run the scheme said in 2014 that it was 'like a plane that took off before it had been fully built'. It has been left to this government to complete it while it is in the air. In the first quarter of operation under Labor, the average cost of an NDIS package was a full 30 per cent higher than it was anticipated. If this situation had been allowed to continue, the total blowout in costs would have been immense and unmanageable. As it is, this government inherited from Labor a shortfall of $4.1 billion a year between the Commonwealth's NDIS commitment and the funding set aside for it in concrete dollars and cents. Over the next decade that funding gap is expected to grow to more than $7 billion a year.

The need for a special fund was highlighted again this morning in stark terms. The Labor Party continue to this day to be wilfully blind to the disaster they left behind. The Leader of the Opposition said this morning on the radio that Labor had funded the NDIS and that their plan to do so was 'to find other savings'. What other savings? We were never told. In fact, what we do know is that any savings that the Leader of the Opposition did identify he had already promised to other projects not once but repeatedly. The Labor budget that supposedly funded the NDIS predicted a surplus of $1.5 billion but in reality delivered a deficit of $18.8 billion. The need for a special account could not be clearer. The money needed for the NDIS must be clearly and irreversibly committed to be spent only on paying for the NDIS. One wonders why those opposite would challenge such a view.

This dire funding situation could not be allowed to continue, and this government has taken a series of practical and decisive steps to repair Labor's NDIS black hole. The government committed immediately to properly, adequately and sustainably funding the NDIS without yet more of Labor's deficit borrowings or increased taxes. We have maintained that commitment ever since. Before the last election, we made it clear that we intended to establish this Savings Fund Special Account. As I have suggested, in the 2016 budget, the government even laid out some $2.1 billion of additional funds that would be channelled into the fund. We took that plan to the Australian people last year, and we are now seeking to make that plan into a reality through this bill.

As we have seen, this plan has been diligently worked through and planned for by the government. It has been discussed with stakeholders and put to the Australian people, but it has also been considered at another place. The Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee produced a detailed report on this bill, with a single recommendation. What was that single recommendation? That the bill be passed. That was a Senate recommendation.

The NDIS Savings Fund Special Account will allow the government to lock in underspends and savings from across all departments across future years and reserve them for the NDIS alone. With the 10-year commitment of funds, it will also grow consistently over future budgets, moving us forward in a transparent, predictable and responsible way to meeting the Commonwealth's NDIS contribution.

When it is fully operating in 2019-20, the NDIS will be injecting more than $24 billion each year into the Australian economy and making a difference in the lives of around 460,000 Australians with disability.

The NDIS is not due to roll out until 2019 in the seat of Fisher on the Sunshine Coast, and it will not be before time. Many families I speak to that have a family member living with a disability are eagerly awaiting its implementation. I only found out this morning that the decision on when to roll out the NDIS on the Sunshine Coast was a decision made by the Palaszczuk Labor state government—not this government but the Palaszczuk Labor government, another example of them penalising a loyal conservative area of the Sunshine Coast.

Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Oh, you're making that up.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You should have been at the NDIS meeting. The NDIS will help give people dignity and choice as to how they are given assistance and by whom. It is an exciting initiative and the assistant minister, my friend the member for Ryan, should be congratulated for her tireless work in this space. I look forward to hearing many more stories from participants in the NDIS as the transition gets underway.

The government is committed to properly, adequately and sustainably funding the NDIS, and this measure is an important way in which we are following through on that commitment.

Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Savings Fund Special Account Bill 2016. I oppose the creation of an NDIS Savings Fund Special Account for three main reasons: (1) it suggests that Labor did not adequately fund the NDIS, and nothing could be further from the truth; (2) it suggests the need for a special account for the NDIS, and the government has not made a case for that; and (3) this special account, this savings fund, is most likely a euphemism for further savage budget cuts by this ruthless government that does not give a hoot about our most vulnerable people. This so-called savings fund is a wolf in sheep's clothing. The fund proposed in this legislation will not protect the Commonwealth's full contribution to the NDIS. The fund proposed in this legislation will be used as an excuse for further cuts to the Social Services portfolio.

Let's consider some of the submissions from non-government organisations to the inquiry that the member for Fisher spoke about, by the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee, and the concerns they consistently raised about this bill. These concerns included: that the NDIS should not be used as an excuse for cuts to payments for the most vulnerable; that, contrary to what the government says, the establishment of this new account means funding for the NDIS is potentially less certain, given it is tied to cuts that may not pass this parliament, and that it may represent a cap on NDIS funding; that these groups could not see a purpose or a need for the account; and that this government has failed to establish evidence of the need for this fund, proving it is merely a political stunt in an attempt to use the NDIS to justify further cuts. It is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

How this government could suggest that Labor did not adequately fund the NDIS is beyond comprehension. In the 2013-14 budget, Labor clearly set out how the NDIS would be funded for 10 years, well past the transition to the full scheme. This included reforms to the private health insurance rebate, reforms to retirement incomes, the phase-out of the net medical expenses tax offset, and other long-term savings proposals. The Medicare levy was also increased by half a percentage point to two per cent. Together with the contributions from state and territory governments, these measures covered the cost of the NDIS for 10 years. It was fully and adequately funded by Labor. There was no NDIS funding shortfall left by Labor. There is no need for an NDIS special fund, and this government knows it.

My electorate of Paterson, in the New South Wales Hunter Valley, included some of the trial sites for the rollout of the NDIS. We were among the guinea pigs, and I will not pretend that there were not problems, but on the whole the trials went very well. It has only been since the full rollout of the NDIS, and the technology debacles around the online computer portal, that we have heard any negativity about the NDIS. I do not intend to underplay the problems. In fact, I have been vocal on behalf of people in my electorate, the electorate of Paterson, who have had problems—both people who are NDIS participants and those who are disability service providers, who are also struggling with this payments portal. It was terribly organised. I organised for those people to speak with Labor's shadow minister Jenny Macklin, and she has taken their concerns straight to the minister, Minister Porter.

There have been teething problems, but Labor as the author and the instigator of the NDIS, and the guaranteed funder of the NDIS, will continue to work with this government to ensure the future of the NDIS. We created the NDIS, and we will care for it. We will tend to it. Labor will not work with this government to undermine the NDIS. It is too important to too many people.

I would like to share just one story with you, about how important the NDIS has been to just one family in my electorate. The mother of a boy with disabilities wrote this letter to one of my staffers, thanking him for steering her in the right direction, and I will read it to you:

Dear Giacomo,

I just wanted to let you know we finally got an NDIS review today for Bailey.

I wanted to thank you so much for the direction you pointed me in and the people you put me in touch with.

I had only left the review meeting 30 minutes earlier, and I received an email with an amazing amount of new funding for Bailey.

This new plan is going to make Bailey's life much easier, with all the new services we can get with the increased funding amount.

Thank you so much for helping us.

Kids like Bailey need a strong voice to echo their needs.

Signed Leesa Morris.

This is only one family, but it is clear how, for that one family, the NDIS has been completely life-changing. This family lives in Metford, in my electorate of Paterson. Bailey, who is seven, has level 2 autism, sensory perception disorder and high anxiety disorder. He attends Maitland East Public School and, after some initial settling in issues, he now considers school to be the most important part of his routine. In fact, school holidays now pose more of a challenge than school, as Bailey wants to go to school even when he does not have to, and even when he cannot. It is all about the routine.

In the first year of the NDIS, Bailey's package of support allowed him to be funded for speech pathology, occupational therapy and psychology services. This year his package was increased threefold, and, as well as extending those speech, OT and psychology services, he now has a designated behaviour management consultant and a support worker, and both of these new services are working to improve his social skills. The support worker is particularly important in school holidays, when Bailey does not want to even leave his room unless he gets to go to school. It can take four to five hours to get him ready to leave the house, and having a support worker to do that means his mum, Leesa, is able to devote more time to five-year-old Sieanna, the sibling that is so often, in Leesa's words, 'on the backburner'.

Leesa told us this week that the NDIS package had really lightened her load. She said:

It has made a huge difference … Not just financially, but emotionally. And for the whole family unit. This support gives me more time to spend with Sieanna and it helps the whole family. It makes us more like a normal family.

There is no doubt the NDIS is life-changing. It is vitally important to so many in my community and in communities everywhere across Australia. It is too important to be undermined, attacked or whittled away by measures such as this savings fund special account—this wolf in sheep's clothing that is nothing but a smokescreen behind which the government intends to make further cuts to social services.

Do not think further cuts to social services are going to help anyone. Cuts to social services are certainly not going to help the many, many Australians who rely on government services and government benefits to live their lives. We have seen such savage cuts to social services by this Abbott-Turnbull government, cuts that have driven staff in these departments, not to mention the clients of these services, to the brink—people who are really on the edge.

My electorate office in Raymond Terrace constantly receives calls from people who are struggling in their dealings with government departments that have been slashed and burned by savage Abbott-Turnbull government cuts since 2014. Their list of complaints is long, and they are repeated over and over: long waiting times, whether it is on the phone or in the physical queue for services such as Centrelink; having to use the internet to process claims and accounts, but without technology; documents being lost; documents being provided over and over again and still being lost; and incorrect information being recorded on official documents and it being nigh on impossible to have it corrected.

One staffer took a call from a fellow so frustrated with Centrelink that he did not know where to turn. He said he had called Human Services regarding his mother-in-law's aged-care fees about 20 times in the past year. Not only was there an issue with her fees being, in his words, 'stuffed up' but also, almost every time he called, he was told his mother-in-law's file could not be accessed because the computer was down. That is maybe 20 times in one year when this one fellow called that the computer was down. How much time is the Human Services computer actually up? This poor fellow was so infuriated he called my office and said, 'Ask Meryl to do something about it.' Short of going round and trying to sort out the Human Services computer, I am trying to do something about it here. To add insult to injury, on two occasions, when the long-suffering staff who answered the phone could access his mother-in-law's file, he was told he was not authorised to speak about his mother-in-law's file, despite his wife sending two separate documents authorising him to speak about his mother-in-law's file. Seriously! It is a tragedy, but it is just farcical.

That is the story before we even get to the actual cuts to pensions, meaning our most vulnerable and elderly cannot cover their costs for rent, utilities and transport; and to cuts to medical services, meaning our most vulnerable and elderly cannot get access to medical services, to doctors that are prepared to bulk-bill, to specialists who make it very difficult for public patients to see them or to services outside major cities that are prepared to look after our rural and regional communities.

These cuts have hit all our communities, particularly the most vulnerable. They cannot afford any more savage cuts to pensions or to services. And Labor will not allow any savage cuts, particularly to the NDIS—because that is what this National Disability Insurance Scheme Savings Fund is. It is a cut disguised as a fund. It is a wolf in sheep's clothing, and we will not have the wool pulled over our eyes.

Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Savings Fund Special Account Bill 2016. This bill legislates for the establishment of a savings fund to allow the government of the day to properly manage what will be the biggest effort ever attempted to provide the kind of living support necessary to allow those among us who have a permanent and debilitating disability to live full lives, to their best capacity. It will provide the kind of help that we would hope would be available to any of our children if they were in that unfortunate position.

The NDIS of course has bipartisan support, and we all want it to be an enormous success. But it offers great challenges, such as ensuring skills are available to meet the funding increases. That will be a great challenge. If anyone places a pile of money into a space where it has not existed before, there will have to be a huge ramp-up of services, and there are risks around how people will qualify and register to deliver those services. But it is this government's duty to get that right. We will make sure that those who choose to manage their own funding have the assistance available that they need, and that others have the right mix of funding. It will also be a great challenge to get the administration right, making sure there are sufficient people with the skills, as I said.

But the NDIS cannot work unless we get the budget right, unless it is properly and fully funded, and that is what this bill is about. The previous, Labor government revelled in announcing the program, but, as in so many other cases, they did not work out how to fund it. They left that to the coalition. The shortfall has a number, a very scary number: $4.1 billion in the first year of full operation and rising year-on-year after that. Just think of that—$4 billion a year short and then eventually rising to $7 billion a year. This is just so typical of Labor. They promise the rivers of gold, say they have delivered the rivers of gold, and then never deliver.

Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rubbish!

Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like the four years of surpluses—was that rubbish as well? Like WestConnex, which we just heard in this chamber in the MPI debate a few minutes ago was raised by the Minister for Urban Infrastructure. For WestConnex $1.8 billion was promised and $1.6 million was delivered—a rounding error of just a tad over a thousand per cent. Unbelievable!

Then we had their long-term projections on education and their so-called Gonski reforms. They promised the world and promised rivers of gold, and then put it on the never-never—well beyond the forward estimates and well beyond any possibility of the Labor Party still being in government. They provided no hint of how they thought the nation might pay for it because they knew they did not need to because they knew that they too were goneski.

It is a pretty regular modus operandi: make the announcement, build up expectation, tell everyone how lucky they are and how fortunate they are to have such a munificent government, and then push it out a few years beyond the forward estimates, do not fund it and then blame someone else. What a hollow empty shell they are!

In fact, the budget papers of 2013 indicate that Labor have developed yet another skill when it comes to money management. They can spend the same wad of notes not once, not twice, but three times. Savings from the private health insurance rebate of $1.1 billion were allocated to the NDIS by the then-Treasurer, the Member for Lilley, in October 2012. A few months later, when the MYEFO was announced, the same money had been allocated to the dental health reform package. Later, in the same document, the same savings were allocated to deficit reduction.

At least, if they believe in nothing else they believe in magic puddings. The Labor Party is indebted to the economic theories of Bunyip Bluegum, Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff as depicted by Norman Lindsay. I would think the member for McMahon has probably got a copy of that fabulous book by his bed at night. He must be re-reading it nightly as he seeks to justify his abandonment of support for reducing taxes for business, for instance—something he had championed previously.

So when it comes to the NDIS it is the coalition that has to do the heavy lifting, and we will. We will ensure the NDIS is funded completely and sustainably, and we will meet that challenge. All Labor can do is oppose, oppose, oppose—or, as the then-manager of government business, the member for Grayndler, used to say on such a regular basis, as you would remember, Mr Deputy Speaker, when he sat on this side of the chamber: 'Nah, nah, nah.' That is what the Labor Party tell us about funding the NDIS. That is what the Labor Party tell us about funding child care in Australia: nah, nah, nah. Labor should wake up. They should know Australia expects us to fund this scheme properly. They oppose on the strength that Australia is so rolling in cash that we can afford to send a Christmas bonus to welfare recipients. Really? Is that what they really think? The special fund account ensures that the savings and efficiencies made within the scheme are not lost to the scheme, and that the government is able to direct savings from other portfolios to the scheme where there is a mechanism to receive the support.

This bill also gives me an opportunity to talk about some of the positive stories I am starting to receive from families. Just recently a father of a very high-needs son high on the autism spectrum spoke to me about the enormous change support from the NDIS has made to his family. Both he and his wife work. They are both very talented people and certainly they have needed two incomes to provide the care that they have had to pay for for their child. Like many in the same boat, with the support of their employers, they stagger working hours and juggle school holidays. The father informed me their support package was in excess of $50,000 a year and that they were now able to access all the services and not just those they could afford. He is blown away by the difference it has made to all their lives.

Another who contacted me is a single mother with two autistic children. She says she has a life again—just a chance every now and then to not to be a 24/7 mother and a 24/7 carer. She even had the opportunity to have a short holiday by taking her children and a carer with her, which is something she says she could have never attempted before.

So many times we stand in this place and thank the volunteers of Australia for the great work they do helping those around them. It is difficult to say whether parents and caregivers are volunteers or whether they are conscripts accepting the extra responsibilities that life has thrust their way. Whatever it is, whether they are volunteers or conscripts, they work to help their loved ones. The effort they give without being asked saves the nation billions of dollars. That is why at the end of the day the NDIS fulfils its primary role, with as best as money and services can provide in maximising the life experiences of the individuals. However, despite its cost it is also the best value for money, assisting parents to do what comes naturally to maximise the period in which they can be the primary caregivers for their children, and it provides in the national interest. I commend the legislation to the House.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

( The issue this week that has really demonstrated just how nasty and cruel this government is this issue. This government yet again has shown how cruel they are and how they are the masters of wedge politics. To go out there and say, 'How we are going to fund the NDIS is by cutting welfare payments, cutting family tax benefit payments, cutting pensions and cutting Newstart allowance,' is only designed to do one thing and that is to wedge families and to wedge our community. It demonstrates how cynical every member of this government is if they vote for this bill and vote for the omnibus bill, which is being listed for debate later.

The problem that the government has with this political stunt is that it is ignoring what is in the budget papers. As people on my side of the House have argued, in the 2013 and 2014 budget Labor clearly outlined how it would pay for the NDIS. I can remember, because it was before I was in parliament, the way in which people in our community embraced the idea of increasing the Medicare levy to help fund the NDIS.

It is rare to find somebody who does not have a family member, who does not have a friend or who is not caring for somebody with a disability. So Australians welcomed the idea of increasing the Medicare levy, and that is what happened. That funding is to go towards the NDIS. There were also a number of other measures that the former Labor government introduced: reforms around the private health insurance rebate, reforms around retirement income and reforms around the phase out of the net medicine expenses tax offset and other long-term savings.

In government, Labor was responsible to make sure that the money was there. In trying to establish this fund, the government is purely trying to use it as a smokescreen for their welfare cuts. Having struggled to get these zombie cuts through in 2014, 2015 and 2016, now in a desperate attempt they have attached it not only to NDIS but also to child care reforms. This is how desperate they are to cut welfare payments and attack some of the most vulnerable in our community.

It is such a shame that they would seek to divide people with a disability and their families against their neighbours, against young people who might be looking for work, against older pensioners by cutting their pensions and against families, the next-door neighbours who will have their family tax benefits cut. This is how cynical, this is how opportunistic and this is how mean this government is.

The NDIS is something that many in our community are looking forward to. In my own part of the world, in Bendigo, we are getting ready for the rollout. Across the Bendigo electorate—in Loddon, in Macedon, in Mount Alexander and in the City of Greater Bendigo—we formally come online with the NDIS this year, 1 May 2017. There is lots of hope that families have, but they are starting to get really concerned by the way in which this government is managing the rollout.

We all know the facts prior to the rollout. Even the Australian Bureau of Statistics backed up what we were hearing in the community. About half the people with disabilities are not receiving the help that they require. And I have heard this from local organisations in my part of the world, including Scope Loddon Mallee. A customer as well as a service delivery manager, Mary, said, 'The rollout of the NDIS would ease the burden of unmet need for local people with a disability.' She said from her knowledge, 'There were a lot of people in Bendigo getting insufficient support.' She talked about parents in their 70s and 80s still providing full-time care for their adult sons and adult daughters. Mary is not alone. We have had a number of organisations like Amicus, Access Employment and Access Australia Group all providing support and saying there simply is not enough support for the people that need it.

Another young woman spoke up about what it would mean for her. Emma Johnson was looking forward to the incoming NDIS because she was looking forward to moving out of home and starting a job in hospitality. NDIS and the funding that she would receive would help her with the training and skills that she needs for employment. It would also help her find accommodation.

There is a growing problem in our community with the need for accommodation for people with a disability and, in particular, people with a profound disability. There simply is not enough suitable accommodation available in regional areas. Wood Street, which does provide some respite care, has had to wind back its hours because it simply does not have the funding it requires to have all of its rooms available to local families.

All of us, if we are good MPs, know that for carers respite is so vital. If a family can have a week off, if they can have an afternoon off or if they can have a couple of nights off, that time gives them a chance to reset and refresh. The cost on our community, the cost on our government if we do not have quality respite care options is enormous.

One of the great moments that I had last year was being able to attend the opening of the Mount Alexander respite facility between Maldon and Castlemaine. This project has been community funded. There has been some federal government funding and there has been some state government funding, but the bulk of the funding has come from the local community. It has come from the Lions Club, from all the raffles that the parents organised, from donations and from very, very kind gestures of people in the community. This particular service is offering those families that respite support. But communities should not have to fight so hard. It took them over a decade to get the resources to build this respite facility. We need our government to be doing a lot more when it comes to the NDIS, the rollout of the NDIS and, in particular, when we look at accommodation.

There are some very good stories in our part of the world about people looking forward to the NDIS. But, as others have said, there also are some worrying stories. I hope that the government is listening to all of these stories, taking them on board and fixing the problems in the system where they exist.

Last year, on 22 November, a constituent contacted my office about his NDIS assessment. As people probably know, when it looks like they are about to hit the start button for the NDIS in your area, they offer early packages to people, which is what was happening here. For this constituent it related to his 10-year-old son. He was being given early access to the NDIS. Under the old DHS plan, Joshua, his son, was receiving $34,500 per year for services. The original NDIS assessment was for only $14,500, with an extra $4,500 being allocated to the management of the plan. The family was very concerned because it was a reduction of at least $10,000 for their son's package, which caused a lot of distress in the family. They were really anxious about how they would be able to meet their son's needs. We were able to assist. The NDIA did a reassessment, and the good news for this family—after all the anxiety—was that the final figure was much higher. The figure after the reassessment was $47,381. It was a very anxious time for the family when they thought they had lost funding, only to have it come back and increased after it was reviewed through the appeal process.

The volume of work that we are now doing to support people who are concerned or upset about their NDIA assessments is growing. We are expecting about 3,400 people in the region across the city of Greater Bendigo to have an NDIS package, so there is lots of work and support that our electorate office is providing to people. It leads me to ask the government: How are you managing this role? Are there enough people employed by the NDIA? Are there enough public servants there to support people? What training do they have to make sure they are supporting these families, who are just trying to make sure that their loved ones get the best support that they can? People have raised questions about payments. If they choose to manage the package themselves, how do they pay the providers? There are lots of questions coming up day to day.

The other problem that the government is not addressing in relation to the NDIS is workforce. It has no workforce strategy. We all know the statistics that in all of our states it is expected that the workforce will increase by 90 per cent—almost doubling—to make sure that we have enough people working in the sector for all of these packages. Yet despite report after report saying this and despite the agency saying this the government does not have, or has not released, a workforce development strategy. These are the issues that the government needs to be focused on rather than on its smokescreen and game playing. What about quality and safeguards? With any new system we need to ensure that we have quality and safeguards in place. Currently, the NDIA and DSS are working to develop a quality and safeguards framework, but what is it? What role is the government playing to ensure that we have safeguards within the system. It is a new system. It is expensive. We are providing support to the most vulnerable in our community to give them the same opportunities that the rest of us have.

Quite frankly, if the government does not start to take on board the issues of workforce and the issues of quality and safeguards the system might fall over, and it will be this government's fault for its inability to roll out the program properly and effectively, as planned by Labor.

Finally, I would like to reinforce that the government has used this issue to try and wedge our community. It is pure politics. It is saying to families who have a disability, who have been waiting for the NDIS to come: 'We're going to find you but not your neighbour.' It is wedging neighbourhoods and communities by saying, 'We will cut family tax benefit, we will cut pensions, we will cut Newstart and we will cut youth allowance to fund child care and to fund the NDIS.' That demonstrates just how cynical the government is. It demonstrates the disrespect that it has for Australians. People do not like to be treated this way. They do not like to know that a reform that they have been waiting for for many years will come at the expense of the pensioners living across the road. People do not like that. They do not expect that.

It comes back to government priorities. This government's priorities are wrong. It should be funding the NDIS. It should be looking at the issues that have been raised by the sector. It should be supporting pensioners. It should be supporting people into work. It should not be proceeding with big multinational tax cuts, cuts that we know will deliver more profits for the banks. Government has always been about priorities, and the priorities of this government are wrong. Its behaviour this week in attaching NDIS funding to welfare cuts demonstrates again just how wrong it is.

Labor opposes this bill again. This is the second time that I have spoken on this bill, so it does feel like a bit of deja vu, but when the omnibus bill comes up it will have been the sixth time that I have spoken against those cuts, those zombie cuts that the government seems determined to ram through the parliament. It is unfair. Labor had a plan to fund the NDIS. Labor had a plan for the safe rollout of the NDIS. I call upon the government to look at those plans, to make sure that the people who most need our support and need opportunity—people with disability and their families—get the support they need. Stop the politicking, stop the division and do what is right.

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I call the member for Hughes, I must admit that I am looking forward to his contribution, because of the life that he has lived with his child.

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise this evening to speak on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Savings Fund Special Account Bill 2016. Mr Deputy Speaker, you are right: I declare a special interest in this debate. Twenty-one years ago, next month, my son Trent was born. He was born with Down syndrome. A couple of years later, he was diagnosed also with Down syndrome—a double whammy. We will celebrate his birthday next month. Although he is 21 years of age, he has the mental age of a 2½-year-old. He will be unable to understand the concept of what turning 21 is. He will be unable to understand the concept of what it means to blow out a set of candles. But we will celebrate, because he will understand what the cake tastes like.

I have seen firsthand the difficulties of families with disabled children, because I have experienced it myself. But I have been lucky, because it is the wives who experience it most. Many of us get to carry on with our jobs and get up and go to work, whereas our wives are stuck looking after our disabled children. I commend my wife for the brilliant way that she has looked after and raised my son for 21 years.

The importance of the national disability fund means as much to anyone in this parliament as it does to me, but we must ensure that we can fund it on a sustainable model. We cannot do it through borrowing more money. The government does not have a money tree that this can be financed from. The only way that we can finance this is by the wealth created in our nation. That is one of the reasons why I came to parliament: to ensure that we give the entrepreneurs of this country every opportunity to get out there and make a rich and prosperous country that can afford a national disability insurance scheme.

I would like to address claims by Labor members in this debate that the NDIS was fully funded by Labor. They are nothing more than a cynical attempt to rewrite history. Let's go over some of the facts. It is estimated that in 2019-20, which is a little over two years away, the NDIS is going to cost the government $22 billion—that is, $22,000 million for one year. That amount will increase year after year and is likely to be greater than the taxation revenue that we can possibly get. Of that $22 billion, about 52 per cent—$1.1 billion—will come from the Commonwealth and the rest from the states.

Let's start where Labor say this funding comes from. Firstly, I go back to the then Treasurer's speech on 8 May 2012:

The four years of surpluses I announce tonight are a powerful endorsement of the strength of our economy …

…   …   …

This budget delivers a surplus this coming year, on time, as promised, and surpluses each year after that, strengthening over time …

…   …   …

The surplus years are here.

Damian Drum (Murray, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You said 'promised'!

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They promised. That is how Labor were going to fund it. We know what happened to that promise about the surplus. They cooked the books by bringing expenditure out of that 2012-13 year, bringing some forward into the year before and pushing some out to the next year, so they could create this false claim of a false surplus—a faux surplus—in that year. But we know what happened. They were that hopelessly incompetent that they could not even cook the books right, and the so-called surplus of $1.1 billion that they promised turned into an $18 billion deficit, even though they cooked the books.

If we read further from that same budget speech we see it said that it 'finances bold new policies to help Australians with a disability'. There was no financing of it, because they could not even get the budget into balance. They ran an $18 billion deficit that year. The then Treasurer, the member for Lilley, went on:

Tonight I am proud to announce funding for the historic first stage of a national disability insurance scheme …

…   …   …

This budget commits $1 billion over four years to roll out the first stage of a national disability insurance scheme …

So it was $1 billion over four years. They put in $250 million for each year—remembering that we need $22,000 million to fund this.

Secondly, I will speak about Labor's so-called promises to fund this. We had the increase in the Medicare levy from 1½ per cent to two per cent. It was said at the time that that would raise $3.3 billion. But, going back to when that funding and changes to the Medicare levy were announced, the NDIS was estimated to cost $8 billion. We now know it is $22 billion. Whereas the Gillard government said increasing the Medicare levy by half a per cent would fund 40 per cent of the NDIS, it funds but a mere fraction of it. When we get to 2019-20 we will have $4.1 billion out of a $22 billion cost. It will not fund 40 per cent; it will fund less than 20 per cent.

At the moment we have existing funding from the budgets at $1.1 billion. We have a Medicare levy at $4.1 billion. We also have further funding, from redirecting state funding from the existing special disability services that we provide, of another $1.8 billion. Adding all those numbers up takes us to $7 billion out of the $22 billion, or $7 billion out of the Commonwealth's total of $11.1 billion. So we have a $4.1 billion shortfall to fund the NDIS.

In some type of game of magic pudding, Labor comes in and pretends that they have all these savings that they say they have announced, but they have previously stated that they have allocated those savings to reducing the deficit or to financing other things. Now they want to say that those savings are to be allocated for the NDIS. We know that Senate estimates asked whether those so-called other long-term savings measures that Labor said would fund this could be listed in detail. The Treasurer's response was: 'The short answer is "no".' In other words they do not have a single clue about where that $4.1 billion will come from. Even at the last election it was Labor's plan to increase the deficits further.

If we are going to fund this NDIS, it must be on a sustainable basis. We need to set out where every single dollar of the money will come from. That is what we in the coalition are trying to do. We are trying to ensure that the NDIS is fully and properly funded on a sustainable basis to pay that $11.1 billion. And here is the great tragedy: as a nation this year we will pay $12 billion in interest on the previous Labor government's debt. If it were not for their reckless—

Mr Neumann interjecting—

You are responsible as well; you were in that other government. If it were not for your reckless, wasteful and politically motivated spending, we would not have that $12 billion interest bill that we have to pay. The interest bill that we have now could fund the NDIS from the federal level in full and with spare change left over. But we have to pay that interest bill on the debt of the previous Labor government.

The member for Jagajaga and other members talked about this so-called $50 billion handout to large companies. This shows the economic ignorance of those who sit on that side. They think that it is like a fixed pie: if you take the money and you give it to big companies here, then you are taking it away from other people. What complete and utter incompetence! If you want to know how this Labor Party has diverted so far from what they traditionally believed about supporting workers, just go and have a look at the member for McMahon's own special book. On page 63 of his book he actually has a separate subheading called 'Promoting growth through cutting company tax'. I will quote directly from the member for McMahon's book. He says:

One of the more controversial reforms by Paul Keating as Treasurer was slashing the corporate tax rate from 49 per cent to 39 per cent …

Going from 49 per cent to 39 per cent—that is what the previous Labor Treasurer did. The member for McMahon writes:

I was a fresh-faced Labor Party branch member at the time, and I recall the party as a whole being incredulous that a Labor government would cut the tax rate for 'fat-cat companies'. I remember a motion Young Labor conference calling for the corporate tax rate to be lifted to 60 per cent to pay for a program of social reform.

But Keating knew that the corporate tax rate needed to be cut to make Australia competitive, that capital and investment would flow to tax-competitive nations and that this was an important job-creation move.

I ask the question to the members on the other side: when Paul Keating cut the corporate tax rate—

Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He is not here. This is 2017.

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a question to you, member for Lindsay. You may learn something. When he cut the corporate tax rate from 49 per cent to 39 per cent, how much did that cost the budget? Let's go through it. How much did that drop from 49 per cent to 39 per cent cost the budget? The answer is that it cost the budget nothing—and that is why none of the Labor members would probably even know it. In 1987-88 we were getting $8.8 billion in company tax at 49 per cent. When it was lowered to 39 per cent, guess what happened? Corporate tax receipts increased. In 1988-89 they went up 16 per cent. The following year, they went up another 29 per cent, and the year after that they went up another nine per cent. So three years after the corporate tax rate was reduced the budget was not worse off. In fact, it was actually better off in company tax receipts to the tune of 60 per cent. That is the lesson from Paul Keating. That is the lesson that today's Labor Party does not have a clue about.

The other comments that the member for Jagajaga made referred to the energy supplement. I think it is worthwhile quoting from Graham Richardson, a Labor stalwart, someone who is Labor to the bootstraps. In his piece in The Australian today, he said:

Watching Question Time in the House of Representatives on Tuesday was, for me, as alarming as it was tragic. Mark Butler, Labor's Shadow Minister for the Environment, asked the PM a question on the supply of electricity in NSW. Butler's point was that power was cut to homes and to the Tomago aluminium smelter in a state which overwhelmingly relied on coal power and not renewables. The Opposition, front and back bench alike, roared their encouragement and support. I was alarmed because this open display of ignorance and stupidity by Labor paves the way for electoral massacre …

That is a former member of this House, a former member of government. He continued:

… it would indeed be a travesty if dumb ideological adherence to a renewables policy doomed to fail brought Labor undone.

(Time expired)

Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a pharmacist, a carer and someone who has dedicated most of their life to working with those with mental ill health, the NDIS means much to me. Labor had the vision to design, fund and implement the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Labor, working with people with disability, their families and carers, brought in the NDIS so that they can have the certainty, security and support needed to live full and independent lives. Labor in government successfully developed, introduced and implemented the NDIS, on time and on budget. During this time, the NDIS received bipartisan support, something the coalition now seems to have forgotten. Since the coalition came to government, the NDIS has been systematically undermined and neglected. Disability service providers have gone unpaid while people with disability and their families have been forced to cancel appointments because of system failures, with paperwork and waiting times blowing out. The community are rightly frustrated and concerned about the rollout and the problems they are experiencing with the NDIS in my community and across Australia.

Instead of taking responsibility, the Turnbull government is passing the buck and holding the NDIS and our community to ransom. The NDIS is the biggest social policy reform since Medicare. It is too important to be a plaything for this government. Many people with disability have waited their whole lives for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and now this government is threatening to take it away. Yesterday's behaviour was disgraceful. The Turnbull government is attempting to rip billions of dollars from the pockets of ordinary Australians with its omnibus bill and is trying to force these measures through the Senate by holding the NDIS hostage. Linking the delivery of the NDIS to massive cuts to families, pensioners, people with disability, carers and Newstart recipients is appalling. How far gone do a government and a minister have to be to pit one group of vulnerable Australians against another for funding?

The Liberals' position in government is a long way from their so-called support of the NDIS in opposition. It appears that they were paying lip service to people with disability and those who care for them and love them, and are now threatening to take away funding if senators in the other place do not make cruel cuts to families, young people, older Australians and new migrants to this country. Is the Turnbull government really saying that, if these unfair cuts are not passed through the Senate, the NDIS will not go ahead? People with disability do not deserve to be treated with such contempt by the Turnbull government. This is just another attempt by the government to bring in the cruel cuts it has been trying to get through the parliament since the 2014 budget.

The attacks on the NDIS continue with the bill before us today, the National Disability Insurance Scheme Savings Fund Special Account Bill 2016, the purpose of which is to establish an account, the National Disability Insurance Scheme Savings Fund Special Account, to pay for the NDIS. Labor had funded the NDIS in establishing the DisabilityCare Australia Fund, while this government continues to claim that the NDIS was not funded. We increased the Medicare Levy by 0.5 per cent to contribute. We increased Commonwealth expenditure on disability. We made sensible and sustainable savings to the budget. Labor's 2013-14 budget clearly set out how the NDIS would be funded for 10 years, well beyond full implementation. But now the minister is saying that all the work Labor did to fund the NDIS has been undone—not through purposeful spending but to fund cuts in other areas or to give tax breaks to big business.

The government are prepared to hold the NDIS to ransom and play politics so they can push through more of their devastating cuts to shore up their fragile budget bottom line. This is playing politics with the wellbeing and future of some of the most vulnerable people in Australia and those who love them. Yet, when they were in opposition, the coalition supported all but one of the revenue and savings measures proposed by Labor. Some of these measures were even passed in the parliament after the election, when the coalition formed government. Minister Porter argues that, because these savings were not specifically set aside for the NDIS, they were 'effectively lost for NDIS purposes', yet this proposed fund will not protect the Commonwealth's contribution to the NDIS. If the DisabilityCare Australia Fund was pilfered by this government, then so might this new account be. It will be used as yet another excuse for further cuts to social services. These cuts are already making the NDIS harder to access for people in my community.

At a mobile office in Lake Haven shopping centre, I met Carolyn. Her five-year-old son, Sebastian, has global development delay with autistic traits. He is non-verbal, is limited in movement and has constant, high-care needs. Carolyn is full of praise for the staff at Northlakes Public School, who attend to Sebastian's needs with constant care and supervision. He is also supported by the Cerebral Palsy Alliance for occupational and speech therapies. Carolyn and Sebastian are new to the Central Coast. Having fled a violent relationship, they are now making a new life in our community. They have no family nearby. Tragically, Carolyn was diagnosed with breast cancer late last year. She is now preparing to undergo chemotherapy, which she will start in the next week. She is desperately concerned about who will care for Sebastian when she is too sick to do so. She says:

Sebastian will need a Local Area Coordinator, to ensure he is getting the best options available to him when I can't lift my head off the pillow.

He will need someone to help him get to and from his therapy appointments when I am unable to drive.

He will need someone to take him swimming with his school group when I am considered too toxic to swim in a public pool.

He will need someone to take him to the park, or the beach, or the movies on weekends or after school so he's not isolated in the house with me when the chemotherapy makes me ill.

He will need someone who can keep an eye on him if we go out on a Central Coast Aspect fun day when I may not be able to run to catch him when he takes off.

When circumstances change, NDIS packages are able to be amended. Carolyn submitted the appropriate paperwork as soon as she was diagnosed, but this process is taking far too long. Time is a luxury she and Sebastian do not have. It is critical that the NDIS has the resources to provide reviews in a timely manner. But, as long as this government is opposed to adequately resourcing the Public Service, including the National Disability Insurance Agency, people will suffer from the lack of frontline public services.

While the government is in this place playing games with funding, people in my community are waiting for the care and support that they urgently and desperately need—people like Diane, who made contact with my office when her son Hayden entered the NDIS. Hayden has Down syndrome, and he suffers from a heart condition related to his disability. Hayden's plan is in the process of being approved, but, as is the case with too many people, it can be difficult to separate Hayden's health conditions from his disability—nonetheless, that is a job that must be done. It is a source of great stress for Hayden and his family as they move through this process. Their questions about essential medical equipment—such as a wheelchair, VPAP machine, and oxygen concentrator—and how this equipment will be provided for him are met with conflicting information from the health service and the NDIS. It would be devastating to think that, while those necessary decisions around which agency is responsible for which services take place, people like Hayden are caught in the middle.

The New South Wales government embraced the NDIS, and I applaud them for that, but as it rolls out on the Central Coast I will work to ensure that all levels of government work to achieve the best outcome for those people living with disability—not the best outcome for the budget bottom line. The money to fund the NDIS is there. It is in consolidated revenue. But the coalition would rather spend it on their pet projects than on people for whom it could make a real difference in their lives. Labor will keep fighting to protect the National Disability Insurance Scheme from the Turnbull government's attacks.

Labor will and does oppose this bill. There are still many questions that must be answered by the minister about just what is going on with the NDIS funding which he claims is now gone. The minister has not consulted the sector. He has not consulted people with disability. Yet he is frightening people with disability, their families and carers by telling them that the National Disability Insurance Scheme is not funded, or that funding will be taken away if the government's omnibus savings bill is not passed. People in my community know how beneficial the NDIS is, but this government is undermining the success of the scheme and its future.

The Central Coast is already underserviced for disability support, and, without a strong and well-funded NDIS, local people will miss out. There are reasons for the lack of services on the coast, but it is imperative that governments, including the state Liberal government, address this as the roll-out continues.

My constituent Lexanne suffered a massive stroke six months ago which left her with limited movement in her right side, blind in one eye and confined mostly to a wheelchair, with leg braces for walking in limited environments. She cannot push her own wheelchair, but, due to her limited vision, an electric wheelchair is not an option. Lexanne's NDIS experience is a mostly positive one: she is happy with the support of her coordinator, and the funding levels allow her to consider home modifications and care options that otherwise would not have been possible. However, she says the biggest problem is that there are not enough service providers on the Central Coast and the delay in accessing care is worrying.

Lexanne, after her stroke, moved in with her sister Joanne. Joanne is juggling full-time work with caring for her sister and their elderly parents, who also live with her. When I spoke with Joanne last week, she was at work, at the train station. Recently, she had to work late unexpectedly and got home at around 11 pm. With no night care for Lexanne, she began the night-time routine, preparing her for bed, several hours later than would ordinarily have occurred. Part of this includes medication to help Lexanne sleep, and the delay in administering this meant Lexanne was overtired and lethargic the following day, making it much more difficult to provide her usual care routine.

The local health service provided a six-week in-home-care program following Lexanne's discharge, but there was a period of several months between this and the availability of services through the NDIS. The only option during this time was for Lexanne to directly fund her care. She can only afford one hour per day, yet her NDIS package provides for more than six hours a day. Of course, the bulk of the caring and financial support currently falls to her sister Joanne. This is precisely the situation that the NDIS was designed to change—to help relieve the stress of care, to return autonomy and independence to people's lives, and to ensure that people with disability, their families and carers live with dignity and independence.

People with disability know that Labor will always stand with them. We built the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and we will never let the coalition tear it down.

Ann Sudmalis (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A lot of the discussion around the NDIS goes towards the budget, so let us put this in clear terms. The budget is the document that outlines how the government spends your money—not your money, Mr Deputy Speaker Vasta, but that of the public out there, who may or not be listening but who certainly would love to hear about it. That is their money—it is their money if they pay tax.

No-one in Gilmore will ever begrudge funding that can assist people with a disability. But I have heard in this chamber some members of the opposition describing the process of trying to get a balanced budget as like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Well, I would say: we in this House have an absolute responsibility to make changes to a whole-of-country support system that works well now, to make sure it works well into the future. Labor says we are taking funding, like robbing Peter to pay Paul, but, in reality, their proposals are taking money and benefits away from our children and our grandchildren. So this is, in effect, robbing our children's future of stability—actually robbing Australia's future.

The NDIS was originally framed to be of assistance to those born with a disability and those injured who then, due to those injuries, were said to have a significant disability. That has since been expanded, and it was never originally budgeted for but we need to take care of those people as well.

The original work was inspired because there is a hodgepodge of service provision that has different levels of care from state to state across Australia. I recall the numerous bi-party briefings that were held during 2012 and 2013; at that time, I was a staffer and I was asked to attend those briefings in place of Joanna Gash. I knew that there were many people in our region who were struggling to get through the system, and at that time I was alerted to the needs, particularly, of custodial grandparents where the child was affected with a disability. I still have that issue as one of paramount concern. However, I will return to that issue and others later.

There is no doubt that all members in this parliament—and I mean all of us—will be 110 per cent in support of having an effective NDIS funding strategy. But I hesitate and take a breath. When Labor was in government, this NDIS was one of their signature policies. It was legislated in the House in 2013 with total bipartisan support, and, as the member for Jagajaga mentioned earlier today, their budget projections included an increased Medicare levy to pay for the NDIS. Some would say that that is a reasonable plan; many would be concerned with the cost implications for families at the lower socio-economic level. Labor failed—yes, I said 'failed'—to legislate this additional levy, yet they counted the extra revenue into their funding estimates for the NDIS over the forward estimates. This was a deceitful way of saying the NDIS was funded when really it was not. I need to put this in clear and understandable terms. In May 2013, the then Labor government had a fully funded NDIS based on an increased Medicare levy and other actions that they actually never legislated. The election was in September, so they had more than three months to get that legislation through before they called the election. Remember that federal elections are called by the sitting Prime Minister. I think at that time it was Kevin. It may have been Julia, but I am pretty sure it was Kevin. We are working—

Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Was it Malcolm? Was it Tony?

Ann Sudmalis (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, my dear, it was not. This was back in 2013. The theory was that he could have a fast election and possibly save Labor. Instead of saving the future of the NDIS, they callously called an election before passing that very, very important legislation to make the funding possible.

Now in this House we hear, 'We're funding the NDIS and there's no shortfall!'. Good grief! Do the maths. If you do not pass legislation to generate the income, there is a funding shortfall. The facts are that there is a $4.1 billion annual shortfall in the NDIS funding, but we are all committed to making sure this is filled. The shortfall has been recognised by disability groups and independent commentators throughout this whole debate. By 2019-2020, the Commonwealth, states and territories will jointly be spending around $21.4 billion to implement the NDIS. Not one of us resents one cent of that amount, because we know how critically important this is. We have heard stories throughout this House where we know this is essential.

The Commonwealth will fund approximately 52 per cent of the scheme, which will be about $11.1 billion in the 2019-2020 year. Labor claims it clearly identified enough savings specifically assigned to pay the other half of the Commonwealth funding requirements, which will be $4.1 billion in 2019-2020. As I have explained, this is untrue. Labor's actual budget papers did not link the savings to the NDIS, and that proposition only appeared in a 2013-2014 budget glossy. When savings measures were announced, Labor was still committed to a surplus, and it committed the funds to reducing the deficit, not merely to more spending. When the savings were announced, Labor did not mention the NDIS at all. Savings Labor now claims it made to help fund the NDIS went into consolidated revenue and were never set aside to fund the NDIS.

Any serious allocation of savings in an area of such significant social need, and such a large part of the budget spend in regard to the NDIS, requires a specific fund to be created to protect any savings from other uses, such as deficit reduction. This protects the funds from being washed away in growing deficits that were not predicted at the time the savings were made. In other words, a different government at any future time cannot take the funds and use them to pay off the 'government mortgage', rather than saving them for the needs of the people who the NDIS will cover. On this point, it is notable that at the time the NDIS first appeared in the federal budget, in 2012-13, the Treasurer of the day, Wayne Swan, predicted a surplus of $1.5 billion in 2012-2013 and that actually turned into a deficit of $18.8 billion.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme Savings Fund Special Account Bill 2016 will establish a new, ongoing special account known as the National Disability Insurance Scheme Savings Fund Special Account. My gosh; I am sure they are going to get a smaller title eventually! We have to meet our future spending. It is so important. The new NDIS Savings Fund Special Account—hopefully they are going to limit that to 'savings fund'—will collect underspends and savings to help meet the Commonwealth's contribution to the scheme. We will be able to pool these underspends and savings from across government over future years and lock them in as major contributions to the NDIS.    The NDIS is due to become the full scheme in 2019-2020, which will inject $21.4 billion each year into the Australian economy and improve the lives of around 460,000 Australians with a disability.

In Gilmore we have showcase organisations that either are working within the NDIS rollout right now or will be initiating such connections after July this year. One of those showcase organisations is Yumaro. Yumaro employs people with disabilities and is located in Moruya. Mark Brantingham, who has been a fabulous CEO, has put together amazing projects in that organisation, and you could not wish to meet happier people than the people who are working there. So far we have committed a small amount, $20,000, to help Yumaro expand and provide new opportunities for their ongoing business directions, but they also have part funding for some disability respite accommodation.

I have to applaud Yumaro. They are doing a fabulous job. They employ over 100 people who have a permanent disability. They have secured a major contract to manufacture and supply cleaning cloths to Bunnings Warehouse stores all around Australia. Next time you see those white packs in the painting section, you will know that they contain torn-up towels from hotels, overlocked by young people with a disability, packed into bags and shot out to Bunnings all over Australia. The $20,000 funded part of an extension valued at over $100,000 and it will deliver an additional 65 jobs, both during construction and for people with a disability.

Jindelara is one of my favourite disability projects in the seat of Gilmore. Last week I turned first sod for the project, which had been a promise during the election. There were tears that day, because the Lions Club, the Rotary club and all the people in the community had tried to fundraise for this enterprise—they had scraped together money; we had had a gala ball put on by the mayor of the day; and they had had a special grant of about $358,000 from America—but they could not get to what they needed, which was well over $700,000. The government matched them dollar-for-dollar, and we have now turned the sod on that cottage. Ultimately, it will have accommodation for six young people or children who need respite care so their carers can have a bit of a break. Last Friday I joined that community again, after we had announced Jindelara Cottage way back in June last year, and the Ulladulla Milton Lions Club President, Brian Thompson, and I turned the sod. Uncle Fred Carriage did a wonderful welcome to country, effectively a blessing for the site.

Jindelara Cottage will be a purpose-built five- to six-bedroom cottage with lots of modern facilities to accommodate young people living with a disability in our local community. It will enable families to access vital services in our region without the expense of travelling long distances, which stresses the families and means that children may be taken away from Budawang, which is the school that is based just two blocks from this respite place. The cottage is expected to be able to be accessed by over 60 children and young adults staying there over the year.

The cottage was inspired by a meeting at the Dunn Lewis Centre in Ulladulla, where the whole community gathered together and said: 'We need to have this respite facility. We do not want to take our young people out of school.' A young man, Eric, who had quite significant disabilities, was quite vocal at this gathering. He was being looked after by his custodial grandparents, so he is one of these special young people. He needed to not have to be taken to Batemans Bay or to Wollongong to give some respite, because that took him away from his school and his whole behaviour pattern changed because he was out of sync with his daily pattern. The appeal from his grandmother on the day was, 'This has to happen, but I don't believe it will happen in my time.' Well, I am happy to say that Eric's grandmother is still alive, although Eric will not be accessing this as much as he might have, because he is now mature enough to go to a group home. I was told that on Friday, so there were smiles all round.

Another organisation in my region which has done spectacular work for people with disabilities is Slice of Life Australia, or SOLA. It is a Shoalhaven based not-for-profit organisation that supports employment for people with disabilities in the hospitality, retail and horticultural industries. It also takes on young Indigenous people with disabilities. On this day after the Closing the gapreport, it is actually achieving that—closing the gap—bringing in young Indigenous people with a disability, mentoring them and helping them to move into part-employment. It operates a general store and a sustainable garden, which is now under the auspices of a fabulous Indigenous group called Waminda, who are doing an outstanding job as well. SOLA also runs Reflections Cafe at the local crematorium and it has a second-hand clothing store which is a bit better than normal, in the main street. SOLA is a sustainable company and it has been going for quite some time. It employs eight dedicated volunteers and over 30 full-time and casual employees, about a third of whom have a disability. SOLA has done some amazing things. It has even run a certificate II course in food handling, in conjunction with TAFE, in its preparation kitchen. So it really is achieving well.

All these organisations are disability providers. They are part of the NDIS system of right now and of the future. As we see the potential of the NDIS, there are increasing numbers of organisations that are changing the lives of so many people who have a disability, and these people are now able to choose the provider that best suits their needs. The NDIS is welcomed. It should be a great outcome for those with a disability, their carers and their families, not an unfunded brilliant program that can only partially deliver on its potential. Our plan will have a funding model that works not just now but well into the future so, when those amazing custodial grandparents who are looking after the children of their children pass, they will know that those children or young people with a disability will have a place to go; they will have a system of care; they will have people who are there to support them and surround them as they move on for the rest of their lives, even if their grandparents have passed.

I am proud of the system that has been brought in. It has, to date, been well supported by both sides. We really need to get on board with this, make sure we get it through, get the funding sorted and make sure these people with a disability are looked after.

Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Savings Fund Special Account Bill 2016, and I do so because I feel this government is shamefully using the NDIS as a political tool rather than a tool for increased care and equality for Australians with a disability. Do not mind me saying so, because I have got one of my own that I have been raising for quite some time. It was lovely to see the member for Dobell in here giving her very tempered response, after that very 'tempered', outrageous statement from the member for Hughes, who proceeded to give us an illuminating lecture about government spending but forgot that his own government is currently in deficit to the tune of $447 billion.

Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minor detail!

Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just 'alternative facts'! We see contained in this bill and the accompanying talking points from those opposite a multitude of mistruths and misdirections. Foremost is the government's assertion that the NDIS was not fully funded by the previous Labor government. That is trotted out from the mouths of everybody sitting over there. This is an 'alternative fact'—which I thought were just reserved for President Trump. And the government now asserts that the creation of this special fund signifies the beginning of the NDIS being fully funded. Of course, this is complete rubbish. The government knows it is complete rubbish, and I can only surmise that the time and energy that has gone into building up this fallacy really bells the cat about where the true priorities of this government lie when it comes to the NDIS.

Mr Keenan interjecting—

Mr Champion interjecting—

Here are the facts—and, if they stopped squabbling at the table there, they might actually learn something—

Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Lindsay has the call.

Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The previous Labor government's 2013-14 budget clearly set out how the NDIS would be funded for 10 years, far exceeding the transition period to the fully functioning scheme. The Labor government put forward a suite of savings and revenue measures which paid for the NDIS well beyond the transition phase. It surprises me that coalition members seem to have forgotten this fact. It might jog their memory to know that, at the time, they voted in support of every one of these measures, bar one.

This is a new parliament, and there are new members on both sides, including me and my colleagues who join me here now—the member for Dobell, the member for Longman and the member for Oxley—so I think it is worthwhile stepping through some of the measures Labor put in place to fully fund the NDIS, just to jog those memories. The Medicare levy went to two per cent. There was a phase-out of the net medical expenses tax offset. There were reforms to retirement income schemes. There were reforms to the private health insurance rebate. There were contributions from state and territory governments. And there were a bunch of other long-term savings measures, including changes to fringe benefits and changes to tobacco excise. All these sensible and measured changes added up to funding the NDIS.

I read in The Australian Financial Reviewavings Labor now claims it made to help fund the NDIS went into consolidated revenue and were never set aside to fund the NDIS.' This statement is staggering. To claim that savings measures could not be related to the NDIS because they flowed into consolidated revenue is absurd and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of government revenue and section 81 of the Constitution.

This is only made worse by the fact that the 2013-14 budget, brought down by the previous Labor government, actually specified the opposite of the minister's claim. I draw the House's attention to the second paragraph on page 1-20 of Budget Paper 1:

The long-term savings made in this budget total $77 billion by 2020-21. These savings fully offset the expenditure needed for DisabilityCare Australia and the National Plan for School Improvement. Between 2013-14 and 2023-24 the long-term savings provide $121 billion.

Indeed, the minister's own department has said that the NDIS is fully funded in their submission to the Senate inquiry looking into this bill. The idea that Labor has rewritten history, with respect to funding the NDIS, is completely false. It is a fabrication designed to distract from this government's NDIS bungles and their desperate desire to rip money out of the social services budget. And what better way to do that than an imaginary need for a separate funding account to strip money from other welfare programs to put into that account when the NDIS was already funded without the need to reduce welfare spending. There should be no doubt that this whole exercise is nonsense. It is completely unnecessary, and it raises serious questions about this government's intentions.

Respected and independent service providers and advocates have said so themselves. It is a shame that the member for Fisher is not in here because he will know now, from my speech, that it has been rejected by peak bodies. Peter Davidson from the Australian Council of Social Services has said:

It is not obvious why this new fund is needed. Its purpose, apart from the generic one of funding the NDIS, is not clear and we don't believe it should be supported in its present form.

Alan Blackwood from Young People in Nursing Homes National Alliance has said:

The Alliance does not support the Savings Fund as constructed in the bill…the notion of a funding shortfall portrayed in the bill and Ministers speech is actually concerning and perplexing.

These are all the experts, the peak bodies. And Stephanie Gotlib from Children and Young People with Disability Australia has said:

It is believed that the creation of this Special Account … places essential disability services and supports as non-core business of the Australian Government, with their full funding being dependent on other budget savings measures identified by the Government of the day.

How has this government found itself in a position where NDIS funding on the ground becomes dependent on other budget-line items? This is a significant departure from ordinary practice. The question must be asked: why should this essential service for Australians with a disability be funded any differently from other expenditure programs of the federal government? The answer is simple: it should not. And the effort with which this government has pushed should be a cause for concern.

The NDIS program is close to my heart. In fact, I think it is one of the greatest examples of government providing dignity and protection to its citizens. That is why I will defend it to the end. I know firsthand the difference the NDIS can make to the lives of people with a disability and their families. Raising a child with special needs is the toughest job on earth, and there would not be a single parent out there who would say they do not need all the help they can get when it comes to their child with special needs, especially when it comes to allowing them the ability to receive life-changing early intervention. Through the NDIS, children who were previously ineligible for assistance under the patchwork model, which was broken-down, underfunded and chaotic, are finally able to be helped. This makes a real difference to their lives, and I know this, personally—having campaigned for it, having stood up for it, having gone to rallies and having made sure this becomes a reality for every single person in this country.

The NDIS provides independence to people who have only ever known reliance, and that means something. It means something to the beneficiaries of the scheme, it means something to their families, it means something to carers and it means something our community as a whole. This is all because of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which is a legacy of the last Labor government. Of course, that is not to say the NDIS is without creases that need to be ironed out. But, fundamentally, the NDIS is a once-in-a-generation reform package that must be defended, and shifty moves like this one must be called out for what they are: a concerted effort to undermine our social safety net and attack the essential services that assist the most vulnerable people in our society. And the government has form in this regard.

We are still hearing and seeing the impact of this government chasing innocent people for fake Centrelink debts, and, to date, they have shown that they just do not care. We have seen this week their plans to force unemployed young people to live off nothing, for five weeks, in what can only be described as a big-stick punishment for anyone who does not have rich parents. Seriously, how does this government expect these people to survive? The shiftiness of this special savings fund bill is evident as well in the government's plans to cut family tax benefits and cut paid parental leave.

Everywhere we look we see this government undermining the support being given to the most vulnerable Australians. Three-time Paralympic gold medallist Kurt Fearnley was spot-on when he called out this shameful government for pitting Australians with a disability against other vulnerable Australians. He said, 'To say the NDIS isn't important and we need to directly grab money from X to pay for it, it hurts our community and the country as a whole.' And that is so true. He went on to say that he wished the government would fight for the NDIS with as much vigour as they are fighting for their $50 billion big-business tax cut that is going to hand $7 billion straight to each of the four big banks. And that is all you need to know about this government and this disgusting bill.

They are creating a problem that does not exist so they can use the NDIS as a battering ram against other crucial elements of our social safety net, and that is simply not on. This government should wake up to itself and concentrate on making the NDIS a success rather than taking every opportunity to undermine its future. That is what Australians voted for, and that is what they expect.

Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party, Assistant Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Savings Fund Special Account Bill 2016, and to return to the focus to what it should be on, and that is the people that this fund will support and the opportunities it will provide, particularly into my region in Central Queensland.

The NDIS is one of the largest social and economic policy reforms in Australia's history, and we should continue to be focused on the people it will help. The scheme will support people with disabilities to meet the costs associated with their condition and, importantly, it will empower people with disabilities to make their own decisions about the support they receive. As of June 2016 there were around 30,000 people participating in trials of the scheme across the country. The NDIS Quarterly Report for July-September 2016, released in November last year, stated that $3.3 billion had been committed to help people with disability across the country and 37,721 participants now have plans under the scheme. By 2019-20, there will be an estimated 460,000 Australians with disability being supported by the NDIS.

Queensland represents the third-largest market with around 91,000 participants living with disability and their families benefiting when the NDIS is fully rolled out by July 2019, up from approximately 48,000 people with disability currently receiving funded supports. In my electorate of Hinkler, the scheme will begin rolling out in Bundaberg from 1 October this year and the Fraser Coast from 1 July 2018. The rollout schedule was determined by the Queensland state Labor government, with the state divided into 13 service regions using existing Queensland disability sub-regional areas. The NDIS represents a significant change for people with disability and the disability services sector, and that is why we are introducing the scheme in stages to ensure that it is carefully managed.

People living with disability, their families, their carers and their service providers will all benefit from the NDIS and from the certainty the full scheme provides. Support will go directly to each eligible person, which means the current supports and services will change as participants demand new supports and services. Previously, people with a disability, their families and carers have not been able to exercise extensive choice and control over the supports that they receive. The NDIS will allow them to have that choice and have the services that they want.

There is no doubt that the NDIS will change the landscape of the disability sector. Not only will there be new opportunities, there will also be a new source of demand within the wider economy for disability support services. Providers of disability support services will need to be prepared to be innovative and capitalise on job opportunity growth, because the NDIS ultimately means more jobs.

Last year, a new analysis of the NDIS in Queensland, the Market Position Statement, was released by the National Disability Insurance Agency, NDIA. The Market Position Statement aimed to share information about the NDIS with the marketplace, helping providers to make business decisions about how they can best meet the needs of people living with disability. The report stated that the disability services market in Queensland will grow from around $1.8 billion currently to approximately $4.3 billion in 2020. The NDIS will inject $2.5 billion into the Queensland economy and double the disability services workforce, which will benefit the entire state.

Across my electorate, more than 1,650 jobs are expected to be created when the NDIS is rolled out. The Bundaberg and Maryborough service regions are expected to require the largest proportional workforce increase, as the current estimated workforce is less than 40 per cent of the estimated NDIS workforce. More than 600 jobs are expected to be created in the Bundaberg region and 1,050 in the Maryborough region. The number of people receiving disability support in the Bundaberg region is forecast to grow from 1,500 to 3,300, which is 120 per cent, and in the Maryborough region from 2,200 to 5,100, which is an increase of 132 per cent.

This growth will, in turn, generate jobs, fuel innovation and increase investment, and we need to be ready to capitalise and encourage these job opportunities. The Market Position Statement talks about these opportunities, and I quote:

The NDIA values the role of providers and sees them as a critical part of the NDIS in terms of delivering high quality, person-centred supports to help participants achieve their aspirations.

The NDIA would like to see a market with a diverse array of providers that maximises choice and control for participants but also enables strong links with mainstream services and family and community support to help achieve the overall NDIS aspirations of increased social and economic participation for people with disability.

The report goes on to say:

NDIS-generated growth presents significant opportunities for an expansion in service provision. With this opportunity comes the challenge to deliver high quality, capacity building, value-for-money supports.

Some providers are already embracing this challenge and are looking at new business models and products and exploring new ideas, collaborations, technologies and services that are more responsive to individual choices.

I would encourage all of those economic development agencies in my own electorate of Hinkler—whether they are working with local government or local chambers—to be on the front foot, encouraging people to invest in the region, where we have opportunities to not only increase our local economy but also improve our employment level. I am very supportive of anyone that can bring new business to our region—whether that is local businesses with innovative solutions for disability services or training providers, we need all of that support. This is a growth area in Central Queensland and it is a great opportunity to help people that need disability support and an opportunity for our region to strengthen its economy.

In April last year, the Assistant Minister for Disability Services, my good friend and colleague Jane Prentice and I held a roundtable discussion with local service providers in my electorate. Representatives from service providers, including from Impact, Bridges, Steps and Endeavour, met to discuss the NDIS and what it will mean for Hinkler residents. It was a great opportunity to talk to people at the coalface of disability and mental health services and discuss what they need to be doing right now to capitalise on the opportunities that the NDIS will bring. All stakeholders will need time to build their understanding of their customer base and preferences and position their offerings. But they are already growing and diversifying to meet the new demand. There are around 2,300 registered providers in the NDIS, and about 130 organisations have applied to register as a provider of NDIS supports in Queensland.

The coalition government is committed to adequately and sustainably funding the NDIS. That is why I am speaking on this bill. The Commonwealth will manage the NDIS Savings Fund Special Account in a way that is transparent and quantifiable. In addition to this special account, the Commonwealth is redirecting existing disability related spending and the DisabilityCare Australia Fund to the NDIS rollout. This will come from existing disability funding; the    Commonwealth share of the increase in the Medicare levy through the DisabilityCare Australia Fund; and redirected funding which is currently provided to the states for specialist disability services. This will amount to about $6.8 billion. This does still leave a shortfall of $4.1 billion. It is this government's job to set aside the remainder needed for the full rollout by 2019-20. This special account is the mechanism for securing that funding shortfall.

And it is smart policy. The Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee, through a majority report, recommended that this bill be passed. The special account will be administered by the Department of Social Services, with its funding sitting within the Consolidated Revenue Fund. This will ensure that savings deposited into the special account are not returned to the Consolidated Revenue Fund itself and effectively lost for NDIS purposes. The special account will allow the government, over future budgets, to identify savings from existing programs and set aside those savings to assist in meeting the Commonwealth's future financial commitments to the NDIS. Effectively, the Commonwealth will, over successive years, put aside savings that are clearly identified, quantified and defined so that the annual funding gap from 2019-20 is met within existing funding. Further, there will be a review of the special savings fund before 1 July 2027. The coalition government is committed to properly, adequately and sustainably funding the NDIS. This measure follows through on that commitment, and I certainly recommend the bill to the House.

Susan Lamb (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to think that one of the important roles that we as members of this place have is to speak up for the silent, to stand up for injustice, and to provide hope. The National Disability Insurance Scheme is the embodiment of all of those things. It is the culmination of decades of work by disabled people, their families and their carers, and its passing in this place demonstrated our parliament's tradition of bipartisanship on the really important things. Unfortunately, it appears that the bipartisanship seen at the inception of the NDIS will not continue through to its delivery. The government's insistence on using this as a political stunt is really to muddy up the legacy of Labor in government. It is to muddy up that work, not just of that government but also of the people who worked really hard to see a better future for their kids; a future where they could be confident that their disabled children would continue to receive care.

I fear that these attacks on that legacy are not just about scoring political points though; I think they disguise the government's new mechanism to make cuts to other parts of the social services portfolio, cuts that will have an impact on people's lives. The attempt of those opposite to argue the need to secure funding to the NDIS is patently false. The NDIS is fully funded. In the 2013-14 budget, Labor clearly indicated how the NDIS would be funded for the next decade. There was a raft of savings measures that we used to fully fund the NDIS. Almost all of these savings measures were supported by those opposite. They included reforms to the private health insurance rebate, reforms to retirement incomes, the phase-out of the net medical expenses tax offset, and other long-term savings proposals. In addition to this, the Medicare levy was increased to two per cent. The former Labor government actually set up its own special account, the DisabilityCare Australia Fund, just for this purpose. The source of the funding for this account is actually the increase to the Medicare levy. So if this legislation was to pass effectively, we would have two special accounts doing exactly the same thing—providing funds for the NDIS. That does not fit very well with the Liberal Party mantra of cutting red tape, though, does it? The National Disability Insurance Scheme is fully funded; suggestions to the contrary belong in the world of alternative facts. So where is the need for this legislation? There is no need to create a special savings account to fund a scheme that is already funded. We know how important the NDIS is for people living with a disability. But it also extends to those who are around them—to their supporters, to their carers, to the community and to a society as a whole. This is, after all, the biggest social reform since Medicare.

There is genuine goodwill towards the NDIS in the community. So many of the people I have spoken to are willing it to succeed. They are so supportive of the NDIS because they know the transformative effect it will have on people's lives. We must ensure that we utilise this positivity in the community to deliver on a scheme that people living with disabilities and their families absolutely deserve.

One of the positive things about this debate is that we know the NDIS is working—yes, there have been issues with the rollout of the NDIS, particularly around the speed and the quality of delivery. We on this side of the House will continue to hold the government to account on these matters, to ensure the rollout is as good as it can be. And I make no apologies for that. However, it is undeniable that, when this scheme is delivered as designed, the positive effect it will have on the lives of those who use it will be immense. As the scheme gets rolled out across the country, we can already see the impact that it is having—like this heartening story I am going to share with you, Deputy Speaker, which the member for Braddon shared with me. She spoke to me about Lyn Leedham, a mother of three sons, including 23-year-old Mitchell. Mitchell has autism, he has floating-harbor syndrome and he has intellectual disabilities. The member for Braddon tells me that Lyn is an amazing woman. She is always smiling and always full of life. Mitchell joined the NDIS when it was first rolled out in Tasmania in 2013. The NDIS has transformed not only Mitchell's life but also that of Lyn and the rest of her family. Lyn says:

There are so many positives with the NDIS. Mitchell has got a life now because of the NDIS. He's got one-on-one carers, he's learning to become more independent, he's becoming a real citizen in the community. He's learning how to cook, how to spell and how to do the shopping and manage his finances.

But it is not just Mitchell's life that has been transformed for the better. Lyn has told the member for Braddon that one of the biggest positives in Mitchell's package is the provision of family respite, something that has not been available before. Mitchell has two host families who take him for weekends and other holidays. Lyn describes what this respite has meant to her and her husband by saying:

Brian and I are a married couple again—we have never been able to go out as a couple because one of us would always stay home to be with Mitchell. We went out for a Chinese meal and it was very quiet and we thought of Mitchell the whole time, but it was the first time in 20 years we had been out as a couple. And Mitchell loves the host families and loves his own freedom. As he says, I can't be with you oldies all the time.

Lyn's hope is that Mitchell will one day live in a supported home with others. She is full of praise for his service providers, especially for Tracey from Multicap in Burnie who manages Mitchell's plan. According to Lyn, Tracey is brilliant—she is just perfect. As well as receiving one-on-one care for Mitchell and respite for the family, Mitchell is also getting support from health professionals for his depression. Mitchell has advanced to the point where he is now working one day a week for his new local member of parliament. He loves it and he is doing well.

There are so many positive NDIS stories like this in the country. In my very own electorate of Longman there are some fantastic organisations and individuals that support those living with a disability. One such organisation is the Caboolture Disability Support Network, founded and run by an amazing man by the name of Matt McCracken. Matt is a passionate advocate for people in my electorate living with disabilities. He is dedicated to the creation of an organisation that provides information and support groups for those living with a disability. The Caboolture Disability Support Network advocates in the community and beyond to voice issues relating to disability. The Caboolture Disability Support Network was set up with the aim of cultivating and nurturing a community of friends where long-term mutually beneficial friendships are established, leading to a sense of inclusion. The network aims to broaden community understanding about living with a disability. Matt is particularly focused on tackling the stigma that still surrounds disability. Matt tells me we are making progress on that front, but there is still a long, long way to go. Matt's tireless work and that of his organisation has made a real difference to the lives of people in our community.

I have spoken to Matt many times about the NDIS and in particular its rollout in Longman. He is a passionate supporter of the scheme that aims to help people with a disability. Matt, like so many others in the sector, is excited about the possibilities of the scheme. As I mentioned, his organisation, the Caboolture Disability Support Network, is already working hard planning for the rollout of the NDIS. This is despite the fact that the scheme is not due in our area until January 2019. This is an example of the eagerness that is felt for the impending NDIS in my electorate. The organisations and individuals that support those with disability right across the electorate are wholly invested in the NDIS. They are committed to making the scheme work.

Matt tells me that there is great anticipation for the scheme among the 12,000 people who are classed as disabled in the wider community area. The scheme obviously helps many more people than just those 12,000 when you take into account all of the people around them—all of their family members and their carers who support them living with a disability. So many lives will be transformed by the NDIS. However, Matt understands that this really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for those he advocates for. It is an opportunity to do it right and do it once. He is quite anxious, though, when he hears about the type of legislation that we are speaking about today. He is quite fearful that the scheme will fall prey to politics. But Matt is a great guy, he is a great advocate and he is up for the fight to protect the NDIS. He is one of the fiercest advocates I know for the scheme. This is something the member for Sydney would attest to, I am sure. I distinctly remember Matt bailing up the deputy leader as she attempted to leave a function in my electorate in the dying days of the election campaign. As can sometimes happen in the business of an election campaign, Tanya was running a little behind schedule and needed to get to the next event. However, Matt, never known to miss an opportunity, grabbed Tanya and took the opportunity to advocate for the NDIS. He let her know that he was not going to go without a fight for this in our community. Matt knew he was preaching to the converted because the member for Sydney is just as passionate about supporting this scheme as Matt and I.

Sadly, Matt has heard it all before. He has heard the promises of past governments to fix the system once and for all. He has seen good policies compromised to the point where they become ineffective, and he has seen when people living with disability, like those he represents, become a political football. Matt understands the disability support sector. Sitting on the advisory council for the Caboolture area, he is in touch with the feelings on the ground locally. There is disquiet from his colleagues and his counterparts because they are worried. They are worried that the scheme they fought so hard to implement will be weakened by legislation such as this. They are worried that this scheme will be undermined and knocked down one decision at a time. Seeing stunts like those pulled this week that tie the future of disabled Australians to the taking away of benefits from other Australians proves that they have the right to be worried.

This level of uncertainty in the disability sector is unacceptable. There must be certainty for the funding. For those with NDIS packages, they must not live in fear of being defunded. For those in my electorate who are yet to be assessed and receive their funding, there must be certainty that they will get the funding they need and not be left with nothing. This bill provides no protection of the NDIS fund that Labor budgeted for in the 2013-14 budget to ensure that it could be rolled out and achieved. The NDIS was paid for by reforms which the coalition agreed to, mostly through measures we put up. We cannot let the NDIS scheme fall victim to politicisation and we must protect it at all cost. Labor will always fight for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. We designed it, we implemented it and, of course, fully funded it.