Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is the International Day of People with Disability, and the member for Maribyrnong, our shadow minister for the NDIS, hosted a special morning tea this morning to meet with people with disability and their families to discuss some of the issues they are facing. I was very pleased to welcome from my electorate Jesusa and her beautiful daughter, Gabriela, who is an NDIS participant.

Gabriela is three and doesn't walk or stand. She has been waiting the best part of a year to receive a walker and a standing frame that may enable her to walk and stand. At that age, every week and every month is so important to a child's development and sets them up for the rest of their lives. I see this with my own son who's 21 months old—how he changes every week and every month. When I look at that little girl, I see my son. I think that if someone were stopping him from having the best start in life—what every parent wants for their child—I don't know what I would do.

We need to get the NDIS right, because people with disability deserve so much better than this. We need to keep up the fight. Today the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, of which I'm a member, handed down its interim report with recommendations, and I urge the government to adopt these recommendations.