Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'Freedom, hope, independence, flexibility, people-centeredness, self-management, control and choice'—these are the words written by 26-year-old Gretta Serov only last week. They're the words she had hoped would describe what the NDIS would bring, but, sadly, they are not the words she now uses to describe her experience of the NDIS. In 2011, Gretta had high hopes. She has cerebral palsy and speaks using her nose on an iPad touch screen. She's studying journalism at university and lives between her mother's house in Bowen Mountain and her dad's house in Leura. Both those places are a long distance from her university and she needs transport to get there. But she has been battered down by the relentless fight to get fair transport funding from the NDIA so that she can simply do the things she was doing before the NDIS came in.

Before the NDIS came in, Gretta was self-managed and she had enormous flexibility to be able to adjust her transport allowance. She could use it to get to university each week and she could use it to take her mates away on holidays with her so she could have a holiday with friends. She needs transport that accommodates her large, very automated wheelchair and that allows her to adjust heights and get around and be part of the community that she's visiting. All that has stopped because of the NDIS—and we are so frustrated. The minister doesn't seem to be able to help. Nothing seems to be able to work.

Her mother says that it is disgusting that they can continue making people jump through hoops—collecting paperwork, writing emails, taking phone calls from people who don't know what they're talking about—without anyone making a decision. Let's be really clear: Gretta doesn't want more money. She's happy with the package she's got. She just wants to be able to access some core funding to supplement the really pitiful transport allowance that she got. At the moment, either her mum has to skip a day's work to get her to uni or her dad has to skip a day's work. It's completely unacceptable.

That's just one example of the sorts of things we're finding with the NDIS. It isn't working the way it's meant to. We in my office will be fighting for fair funding for every person in Macquarie who is eligible to be on the NDIS. Gretta emailed me this morning. She remains hopeful that yet another meeting with the NDIA today will resolve the issue, but we've had this hope many a time. It's not because there aren't good people working there; it's because the system is not working, and it is up to the minister—please!—to fix it.