Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the grievance debate this evening I want to draw the attention of the House to concerns my constituents have raised with me about the impact of the NDIS as it's rolled out across the country to the hundreds of thousands of Australians with disabilities.

The NDIS, as envisaged and designed by Labor, was meant to be people centred and focused entirely on the individual needs of people with disability. Unfortunately, the coalition government's attitude to the NDIS was different to that of Labor's and this was obvious from the onset. We well remember the dragging of the feet in signing the agreement with the states and territories in order to fully roll out the NDIS.

I think it is always best to put people's names and their personal circumstances in order to better illustrate the impact that government policies have on the individual daily lives of our constituents—in this case, my constituents. So, today, I want to speak about Lauren Winbanks and her very dynamic mum, Dianne. Both came to see me recently to raise their concerns about the possible impact of the Turnbull government's version of the NDIS on Lauren's care plan, as well as the impact on Lauren of the coalition government's changes to the employer contributions for lower-paid workers.

Lauren has an intellectual disability and an estimated IQ of 65. She has autism, face blindness, which means she doesn't recognise family members, and she has kneecap misalignment affecting all the muscles in her legs. She is 22 years old and has a twin brother, who does not have any diagnosed disabilities. When Lauren first started school at Greenvale Primary, she was told she should be in a special school. Despite that, she has completed her education, including VCE. Her parents have invested an enormous amount of time and money focusing on what Lauren can do, not what she cannot do or should not be doing.

Lauren is currently on a disability support pension and has been deemed by Centrelink as having zero capacity for work. However, despite this, Lauren has a job one day a week at Toybricks, a toy shop in Bayswater, on a supported wage scheme. She spends two days a week in training for the Special Olympics in dressage, a sport in which she has represented her state in national competition. She is also practising for her grade 5 exam in piano and she plans to volunteer as a pianist in aged-care homes.

Lauren also has an ability with building in LEGO. She exhibits her building creations in Adelaide, Sydney and Canberra. In fact, she'll be exhibiting in Canberra at the Hellenic Club in the second week of August this year. When she's building and displaying her LEGO, it is the only time that Lauren actually speaks or talks to anyone. Lauren, with the help of her mother Dianne, has built a grand piano out of LEGO, combining her love of music and building in bricks. The grand piano is currently one of the projects on the LEGO ideas site, which people can vote for as a future official LEGO package for sale.

Lauren currently receives a range of support on an individual support plan through the Victorian Department of Human Services. In March, next month, she will have her assessment taken over by the NDIS and they will be responsible with providing her support. Lauren's mother is deeply concerned, based on her acknowledge of other people's experiences with the NDIS, that a lot of these services which are fundamental to Lauren's functioning and wellbeing will be deemed ineligible for funding under what appears to be a hugely compromised and inflexible NDIS system. When first introduced by Labor, as I've already said, NDIS was, to quote Dianne, 'A fantastic idea that was driven by social justice goals. Under the current government it has been reduced to simply trying to save money.' This of course means that the staff who are involved in the NDIS assessments are constantly trying to rule things out as ineligible and are not interested in finding ways to support people's individual needs.

When it was first introduced, the NDIS was meant to be people-centred, and nobody was expected to lose any of the support they were already receiving. Now that does not appear to be at the case at this point. For example, Lauren currently has singing lessons. They have done more for her ability to speak than years of speech therapy ever did. Although the decision has not yet been made for Lauren, her mother fears that the NDIS will rule that singing is not an eligible service that should be funded. They would instead insist on funding speech therapy, which is much more expensive than singing lessons and, in Lauren's case, has proven to be a far less effective proposition. As far as Dianne is concerned—and we all should be concerned—that sort of attitude is not really saving money; rather, it is wasting money on the wrong sort of support.

Lauren also has a monthly full-body massage. She enjoys it and actually has come to need it. The change in her mood and behaviour after a massage is dramatic. It is feared that this too will be deemed a health service, not a disability service, and hence will not be funded under the NDIS the way it currently is under the ISP. It has been funded for Lauren since she was four years old. Lauren is also currently funded for support people to be with her at the LEGO exhibitions and during other activities, such as swimming. Overall she's supported to around $48,000 per year. These activities are not a wish list but essential to Lauren's ability to live a full life and participate in the local community, including in work and volunteering.

Many other people who have already been through the NDIS assessments have been knocked back for a range of supports essential to their lives. Lauren's mother, Dianne, who works as an educational consultant, is in a position to hear many of these stories firsthand and has shared those stories with me. For example, anyone with autism levels 1 and 2 has already been advised not to bother applying, as they will not be eligible for NDIS support.

A further concern is that the NDIS is being rolled out too quickly, and staff can't manage the workload. This means that many people are being forced to conduct their assessment interviews over the phone rather than in a face-to-face meeting where they could explain the nuances of their individual needs. The assessments are being completed as a checklist operation and, according to Dianne, it's a case of 'not eligible', 'not eligible', 'not eligible'. Everything has to be proven to work, documented et cetera. Now, there's no problem with that, but there is no room for explaining how certain therapies or activities work better for some people than more conventional services. For example, chiropractic is not supported, while physiotherapy is. Acupuncture will be knocked back, even if it has worked wonders for someone for years. One parent that Dianne knows was asked by NDIS staff, 'How do you know your son has cerebral palsy?' when this is a condition diagnosed at birth that never changes. People are feeling considerably distressed by such needless questioning.

All in all, there is no flexibility in the allocation of funding either. Under the current ISP system, if you underspend in one area, you can overspend a bit on another item that is needed or beneficial. You can't do that under the NDIS. There is no flexibility. If a particular service can be defined as 'health care' rather than 'disability', it is immediately ruled out for NDIS funding. According to Dianne's experiences of the staff, they seem to constantly be trying to limit the support that can be offered, as if they have to rule out as much as they possibly can.

Lauren has also been in supported employment for three years. At the end of her most recent job, she had a superannuation balance of zero. In 2013, the government got rid of the requirement for employers to make a super contribution for workers who earn below a minimum threshold. This has detrimentally affected supported workers such as Lauren. Even where employers do make a contribution, this small amount is cancelled out by super fund fees. As a response, perhaps people in this situation, according to Diane—and I'd like to put this on the record—should be allowed to have a regular bank account that employer contributions can be paid into so that whatever they get in that account is not completely eaten up by fees. The current situation means that low-paid workers like Lauren are unable to save any money at all and are effectively treated as second-class citizens or a subclass of workers.

Everyone is entitled to superannuation. Perhaps there needs to be a low-fee or no-fee super scheme dedicated to workers with disabilities who are in supported employment, people such as Lauren who are also on disability support. In the case of my own electorate, a huge number of people are on low wages and have no capacity to pay into their superannuation scheme, and that in fact is an enormous problem for them.