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

Labor, as the author of the NDIS, is committed to its success, but there are problems and they should not and cannot be ignored. Today, for the second time, the Newcastle Herald has reported on the despair of Dawn Lhota, of Mallabula in my electorate of Paterson, over her son Graham Roberts's NDIS experiences. Since the New South Wales government privatised home care services, Graham has been charged $320 per day for two EpiPen injections. That is because a nurse, not a carer, has to give them, at a cost of $92 an hour plus travel. Dawn is worried that Graham's package will run out. She has asked the provider for a breakdown of his account and they said they do not have to provide it.

Sometimes the carers do not show up. Graham is 37, wheelchair bound, catheterised and an insulin dependent diabetic. He cannot get out of bed by himself. One day when a carer did not show up Dawn phoned to complain and was asked, 'Can't he just stay in bed for the day?' Seriously! Dawn complained to the New South Wales Minister for Disability Services, who handballed it to the federal Assistant Minister for Social Services and Disability Services. She has been helpful in the past and I am hoping that she can help Graham.

A bigger problem, Dawn says, is that the NDIS does not deem reasonable and necessary the physio, massage and personal training that Graham used to get. He does not go to the gym to get buff; he goes to keep using his hands. The NDIS is too important. We must make sure it is functioning properly. (Time expired)