Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. People with disability suffer far higher rates of violence than the rest of the community. Ninety per cent of women with intellectual disability have been sexually assaulted. Children with a disability are at least three times more likely to experience abuse than other children. Will the Prime Minister support the establishment of a royal commission into violence and abuse against people with disability? I acknowledge the advocacy of the Disabled People's Organisations Australia, VALID, AFDO and other community organisations who have called for this royal commission.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition and I spoke about this matter last week when I heard that he had raised the call for a royal commission. I was grateful for him explaining the circumstances of his call. As the minister will describe in more detail in a moment, we are setting in place the quality assurance framework so that when the NDIS is fully rolled out—this new institution will begin at the beginning of the next year—it will ensure that the quality of NDIS services is maintained and that matters of this kind do not occur.

I explained to the Leader of the Opposition, as we discussed it, that I believe these incidents that have been reported have occurred almost entirely in institutions under the jurisdiction of state and territory governments. Accordingly, I will be raising this at the COAG meeting next week when I meet with state and territory chief ministers. I can assure the honourable member that we are committed to the NDIS. I call on him again to fund it and to ensure that the NDIS is fully funded. We have set out the means to do it and the time has come not to be focused on the rhetoric or the politics but to pay for it. We need to pay for the NDIS. We have the means to do so, and we ask the Leader of the Opposition and his party to support it.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also call the Minister for Social Services.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is, of course, the case that everyone in this House would agree that violence, abuse, and the neglect of vulnerable people—particularly those with a disability—is utterly abhorrent and completely unacceptable. There may be differences of view as to how to approach that problem, but understanding the problem is the best guide to realising what is the best approach. At present, the governance in terms of quality, probity, assurance and standards of service in organisations where difficulties have essentially arisen is the responsibility of the states. We have a not particularly good system where there is a current arrangement that is heavily dependent on a patchwork of systems. They are operated across various states and they vary from state to state, and the level of consistency changes.

The agreement between all the states and territories as the best path forward is to establish an oversight on behalf of the Commonwealth. That will become the NDIS quality and safeguards commission. This very budget placed $209 million into the federal budget to fund that commission. The legislation for that commission will be coming to parliament this week. That will be a very significant structural reform to this area and the solution is action, not more inquiry.