Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024. As Australians, we should be proud of the NDIS. Those in this place who voted for its passage in 2013 and those of us who have seen the scheme through to its 10th anniversary all know what a life-changing difference this scheme has made to so many people. For people like Ian from the Murrindindi Shire in the south of my electorate, the NDIS has been transformative. Ian says that the NDIS funded supports 'allow me to live independently by helping me with tasks I struggle with on my own'. With NDIS support, Ian is empowered to volunteer at the local radio station and cast a line in some of his favourite local rivers. Ian says, 'If I didn't have these supports, I wouldn't be living the life that I want to live—independently and to the fullest.'

The NDIS reflects the best of Australia, a country that showed its commitment to providing a decent quality of life for all, including those with disabilities. It shows the understanding that, when we help others to thrive, we all benefit. In my first speech in this place, I said:

This parliament must work conscientiously to ensure that the incredible system the NDIS was set up to be lives up to the promise and hope felt by so many when it was created.

In 2020, I said:

We all have a stake in a properly functioning NDIS, not only because we all might need it one day but because a society should be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable …

These statements are as true today as they were then.

Since being elected as the Independent member for Indi, I have consistently advocated for the 4,700 NDIS participants in my electorate, who face unique challenges in accessing and benefitting from the NDIS. When the Tune review into the NDIS occurred in 2019, I was, in fact, the only member of this place to make a submission. I called for the implementation of participant service guarantees, which would increase choice and control for NDIS participants. Because this was the most common NDIS issue I heard about from my constituents, I ensured that this was heard by the review. I will continue to fight for a better NDIS to ensure it is delivering for all Australians, particularly those in regional, rural and remote Australia, whose challenges in accessing the NDIS are all too real.

While as Australians we should be proud of the NDIS, that doesn't mean we should not always be asking: How can this system be better? How can we better meet the needs of Australians living with disabilities either through the scheme or outside it? How can we better meet the original intentions of the NDIS? How can we uphold proper ethical and governance standards? How can we ensure that it is delivering for Australians in regional, rural and remote Australia? These are the questions I ask myself as an Independent when I am assessing the reforms put before us today.

The NDIS does need reform. Any scheme of its size and significance will require changes over time. That's why I supported the recommendations of the 2019 review into the NDIS Act and I welcomed another comprehensive review handed down just last year. I am committed to creating an NDIS that will outlast all of us in this place so that the next generation couldn't imagine an Australia without it.

I identify eight major ways the NDIS is likely to change because of this bill. These will be implemented by changes to the NDIS rules, legislative instruments prescribed by the minister and negotiated with states and territories. Some of these changes are less controversial. These include requiring the National Disability Insurance Agency, the NDIA, to clearly state whether a new participant entered the scheme through a disability pathway, an early intervention pathway or both; creating the legislative basis for the new early intervention pathways; clarifying that NDIS participants can only spend their budgets in accordance with their plan; and increasing the powers of the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission to stop banned persons from working in NDIS auditing services.

However, other proposed reforms are causing palpable anxiety in the community. Firstly, there will be a new definition of eligible NDIS supports. This new definition will be based on the international human rights treaty, convention on the rights of persons with disability. Secondly, the bill will establish new processes setting participant budgets. These new framework plans will include a stated total funding amount and will be based on needs-based assessments. Thirdly, the minister will be able to create new information-gathering powers to require the participant respond to requests for information. Fourthly, the minister will be able to create new powers for the NDIA to change a participant's plan type. The government has said these powers would be used to safeguard participants where others may seek to exploit or coerce the participant to use their package in a way that is not consistent with their best interests.

This bill contains significant reforms that aim to ensure the NDIS is sustainable for years and in fact decades to come, and the government has said this is the first in a series of legislative reforms arising from the 2023 NDIS review. Unfortunately, it is hard to say exactly what this bill will mean for people in my electorate, because so much of the detailed change will be deferred to the creation of the new NDIS rules. Earlier I outlined ways in which this bill is likely to change the NDIS, and it's unusual for me to say 'likely' after weeks of analysis and examination of legislation. But it speaks to a key anxiety around the way this legislation works, because we don't know what these new rules will look like and we're yet to see the government's formal response to the 2023 NDIS review. The government is asking participants to go on a reform journey without sharing the destination. The government is saying, 'Trust us.' The minister has committed to co-design throughout the development of the rules, but this is a community with a deep-seated trust deficit in its interaction with governments and institutions. 'Trust us' just isn't good enough in my opinion.

In recent weeks I've met with NDIS participants and providers and engaged with leading disability representative organisations to understand just what these bills will mean for the people of Indi. What I'm hearing is that people are so anxious about NDIS reforms. People want to know that reforms will enhance participant choice and control, not diminish it, and right now we simply don't know. While the effects of this bill may be unclear, some things are very clear. It is clear that the NDIS isn't working as intended in regional communities. It is clear that people are waiting for months for NDIS plan reviews even when they're living in abusive or unsafe environments. It is clear that participants have money they simply can't spend, because of the lack of regional NDIS providers. It is clear regional participants are forced to travel hours to access services, sometimes all the way to Melbourne from a faraway regional town.

What do I say to the people who come into my office feeling like they've got nowhere else to go? What do I say to the carers of NDIS participants who haven't been paid in months, due to NDIS plan review delays, but can't bear to see their clients fall through the cracks? What do I say to regional NDIS providers who are the only registered providers in their region but are verging on insolvency due to a funding model that sets them up to fail? These aren't profit-hungry businesses; these are community organisations employing local people and providing life-changing services, and I imagine there isn't a member in this place who's not familiar with stories just like these.

In the recent budget the government committed $130 million to co-design NDIS reforms with people with disability. If this government is serious about getting these reforms right, they need to slow down a bit and go on this reform journey with the community. Put simply, people with disabilities, their families and their representative organisations say this bill has been brought on too fast, with little consultation. This bill has been introduced before the government has published its response to the NDIS review. People are being asked to trust that the government will co-design future changes, but there are no guarantees. I've identified five areas in which this bill should be amended as a priority.

Firstly, the bill should be amended to guarantee co-design, and I would support amendments requiring that the legislative instruments be accompanied by a consultation statement setting out the views of disability representative organisations. Secondly, I support amending the new proposed definition of 'NDIS supports' to be broader than currently drafted. I've heard, loud and clear, community concerns that the proposed definition might limit how NDIS funds can be spent. I support the linking of the NDIS act and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. But here is the important part of that: the government can't cherrypick which parts of the convention it likes. The NDIS should support the implementation of the full range of rights of persons with disabilities, and flexibility must remain at the core of the NDIS. I've spoken with the minister on this issue and I do understand that there will be amendments circulated.

Thirdly, the bill should clarify that needs-based assessments and statements of supports are to be shown to participants before they are signed. These fundamental documents must be reviewable both internally and at the Administrative Review Tribunal. If the bill is passed unamended, disability representative organisations are concerned that participants will be shut out from decisions that affect them with inadequate rights of review. Fourthly, the bills need to clearly state that needs-based assessments are to be conducted by allied health professionals or social workers with disability expertise.

And, finally, sweeping new information-gathering and plan-management powers need to be stripped back. Unamended, there is nothing to stop the NDIA from kicking vulnerable people off the scheme simply for failing to respond to a letter in 30 days, and this simply can't be. The minister has assured me that this is not the intention of these changes, and that these powers would be used only in certain circumstances. I thank him for taking the time to meet with me about this, but if this is so, the bills should specify the criteria that would need to be met, and clarify that these powers would be used only where a participant is wilfully and fraudulently misusing the NDIS. Similarly, changing a participant's plan management type to one that is agency controlled is a significant decision, and the ministerial powers drafted are too broad. The community need clarity that these powers will be used only as a last resort and only in very specific circumstances. I do not support changes that would see participants punished or debts raised for mistakes or misunderstandings that will, understandably, occur from time to time.

I call on the government to work with the community in good faith to improve this bill so it achieves its purpose of securing a sustainable, thriving NDIS well into the future. Right now, this bill is causing anxiety out in the community, and until I see improvements on the bill I will be reserving my position. I finish with the words I spoke in 2020: the NDIS is something that all Australians should be proud of—not just a symbol but a functioning, real-life commitment to the type of nation we want to be. I still believe in that commitment to become the nation we want to be. That's why I support reforms to the NDIS that are designed with the community, not for them. If we get these NDIS reforms correct, if we sure that the NDIS review is implemented in genuine co-design with the community, then in another 10 years time we will look back and be proud not only of the nation we want to be but also of the nation that we are.

Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very proud to be speaking on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024. This important bill is designed to implement the transformative recommendations outlined in the final report of the review of the NDIS.

The government is proposing a series of amendments to the NDIS legislation, referred to as 'Getting the NDIS Back on Track', and that's exactly what it's doing. This has been a big issue in my community, as it has been with many members throughout the House, in speaking with local participants and providers, and we have listened and acted. These amendments are needed so that governments working with the disability community can really improve the scheme. The bill represents this profound commitment by our government—the Albanese Labor government—to recalibrate the trajectory of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, all with the overarching aim of reinstating its original ethos and significantly enhancing the experience of its participants.

The bill will usher in a new era of NDIS reforms that ensure the scheme can continue to provide life-changing outcomes for future generations of Australians with disability and for those that are in the NDIS now, whilst also ensuring that every dollar in the scheme gets to the participants for whom the scheme was designed. It will also bolster the powers of the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission to protect participants from illegal and unethical conduct.

During the election campaign, we announced a commitment to a complete review of the NDIS that would be conducted by independent experts and timed to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of the inception of the scheme in 2013. The launch date of the NDIS review was brought forward by a year after we were sworn into government and were able to examine the urgent need for repair to the scheme. We understood how urgent that was.

In October 2022 the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme initiated the evaluation of the NDIS in order to improve the framework of the NDIS and essentially to rebuild trust, confidence and pride in the scheme, because it is such a vitally important scheme. As a fundamental election commitment of the Albanese Labor government, the NDIS review really addressed head-on the need for repair after what can only be described as a decade of neglect under the previous Liberals and Nationals government.

Led by an independent review panel, the review involved extensive consultation with the Australian community. This consultation encompassed over 10,000 contributions and nearly 4,000 submissions from individuals, families, carers and disability representative organisations. The culmination of this inclusive process was the unveiling of the final report on 7 December 2023, with 26 recommendations and 139 supporting actions, all crafted to steer the NDIS towards its full potential.

Crucially, the panel absolutely ensured that the voices of participants were not merely acknowledged but actively incorporated into the fabric of the NDIS review. Through consultations and much stakeholder engagement, the panel gathered insights, perspectives and, really importantly, lived experiences, which served as the basis upon which all the recommendations were built. This very strong participatory approach was instrumental in fostering a sense of ownership and agency among those most involved in and impacted by the NDIS.

Now the Albanese government is delivering on its commitment to build a strong and sustainable NDIS by providing a further $468.7 million to get the NDIS back on track. This builds on the $213.7 million to fight fraud and to co-design NDIS reforms with people with a disability, announced earlier this year. This year's budget will drive the implementation of key recommendations from the independent review. The 'getting the NDIS back on track' bill will provide clarity over who can access the NDIS; enable better early intervention pathways for people living with psychosocial disability and children younger than nine years old with developmental delay and disability; and improve how NDIS participant budgets are set, making them more flexible and providing clearer information on how they can be spent.

Many of the changes to the scheme will be implemented through the new NDIS rules, which will be put in place following the initial amendments made by the bill. The NDIS rules set out the details of how the scheme operates. Again, those new rules will be co-designed with the disability community—continuing to keep the voices and needs of people with disability at the heart of all of the NDIS reforms.

At its core, the bill seeks to fortify the foundational pillars of the NDIS—namely, access, which is so important; budget setting; and quality and safeguarding. All of these are absolutely needed. Among the reforms envisaged are the delegation of rule-making powers for priority areas identified by the NDIS review, the conceptualisation of the framework for an early intervention pathway, and the enhancement of transparency and flexibility in the allocation and utilisation of NDIS funds. Moreover, the bill endeavours to strengthen provisions pertaining to expenditure within allocated supports and to bolster the efficacy of the NDIS commission. That will ensure that the participants receive the support they need when they need it most, and that's what it's all designed for.

Furthermore, this bill lays the groundwork for fostering a cohesive system of support for individuals with disability that comprises inclusive mainstream services alongside foundational supports. All the changes that we have made are based on the principles of empowerment and inclusivity and are symbolic of an evolution of our NDIS, one characterised by resilience, responsiveness and relevance. Of course, all of these reforms build on the original idea of the NDIS. When it was introduced, it was a transformative moment for those of us who were here, for this parliament and for our nation to have such a scheme in place, because, as we know, for many, many years it had been called for. I'm very proud to say it was a Labor government that delivered it, and it's now a Labor government that's getting the NDIS back on track.

Importantly, through these changes the government has really highlighted our unwavering commitment to inclusivity and collaboration throughout the whole implementation of what we're doing. The legislative approach adopted in the NDIS amendment bill reflects a key recognition of the imperative to co-design changes to the NDIS rules in partnership with the disability community. By seeking the input of, the feedback from and the expertise of individuals with disabilities and their families, carers and advocates, our government absolutely aims to ensure that the NDIS evolves in lockstep with the evolving needs and aspirations of its participants. That is what is at the heart of what we're doing.

All that is proposed in this legislation is backed up by our $468.7 million investment, which includes $45.5 million to establish the NDIS Evidence Advisory Committee, $20 million to start preliminary consultation and design work to help people with a disability navigate the services, $5.3 million to undertake preliminary work to reform NDIS pricing arrangements and over $213 million of recently announced funding to fight fraud and to co-design NDIS reforms with people with a disability. To fight any sort of fraud that potentially has occurred, it's vitally important to have that massive amount of funds.

I will say in my concluding remarks that this bill, the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024, represents a real testament to the resilience and resolve of all of those that it supports. I want to recognise all those who have participated and make sure that their input is heard. We are always listening to the lived experiences of people in all areas. In particular, with redesigning the NDIS, this is vitally important. All of us are so committed to improving the experiences for all Australians with disability who interact with the NDIS, as well as their families and carers. Of course, what drove us with that is the past 10 years, when we did see underfunding of the NDIS and a lack of commitment from the previous government. We saw and heard the problems firsthand, and some of the issues and problems that people had were devastating. We absolutely made that commitment, and I'm really proud to be here as part of the government that's delivering upon these reforms.

After that decade of neglect under the Liberal and National governments, we can now pave the way for a more equitable, accessible and empowering NDIS, one that truly embodies the principles of dignity, choice and autonomy, because that is at the heart of it. People with disability and their families know that they can trust this Labor government to continue to protect the scheme and absolutely get it back on track. Our government is committed to improving outcomes for participants and ensuring that every dollar of funding goes to those who need it most. That's absolutely imperative. With this bill and our investments in the budget, our government reaffirms its commitment to leaving no-one behind and to building a future where every individual can thrive and flourish.

As I said, I am extremely proud to have been part of a Labor government that delivered the NDIS here in this chamber over a decade ago and, now, to be part of another Labor government that is committed to continuing to improve the scheme for the betterment of the Australian people. That is an absolute commitment. It is always Labor governments who are on the side of the Australian people, and we'll continue to deliver life-changing reform and provide all those supports wherever they are required. In this case it has been a long time coming, and we are very proud to be in government and be delivering these absolute changes to the NDIS that are long overdue.

I commend the bill to the House. It's vitally important that we get the NDIS back on track, and it's the Albanese Labor government that's doing that.

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commence by putting on record my strong support, as all of us in the coalition have, for the principles of the NDIS. It's a very important support for some of the most vulnerable people in our society. John Howard always used to talk about how some of the great heroes in our society were the carers and people that looked after our most vulnerable. Before the NDIS, it was a very patchy framework across the country with how people with complex disabilities got support from their governments. Invariably, state governments in particular that had carriage and responsibility for this area had too much of a one-size-fits-all mentality or approach, and the principle of the NDIS—giving people individualised and tailored support for their specific needs—is one we strongly support here in the coalition.

It is interesting to have this bill, the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024, before the House because the now Minister for the NDIS, when he was the shadow minister for the NDIS, didn't think there was anything wrong with the scheme whatsoever and didn't think there was a need for change. In fact, he made the comment as the shadow minister: 'You can't move around the corridors of parliament in Canberra without tripping over a coalition minister whispering the scheme is unsustainable. I'm here to tell you today that is a lie.' Now we have the same former shadow minister, now the Minister for the NDIS, bringing before us a bill which, if I read the screen correctly, is, as quoted in its title, the 'getting the NDIS back on track No. 1 bill'. So something has changed from the perspective of the minister, the member for Maribyrnong, between commenting that it was a lie to suggest there were any issues with the sustainability of the scheme and bringing a bill before the parliament entitled the 'getting the NDIS back on track bill'. Nonetheless, we in the opposition are prepared to consider supporting this bill, to let it go before a Senate inquiry and make sure we look at all the potential implications for what's being proposed here. We are indeed open-minded to anything that is genuinely about improving the NDIS.

As our shadow minister, the member for Deakin, has very sensibly put in our second reading amendment, we think there's no reason whatsoever why the government isn't prepared to release the modelling it's undertaken that underpins the NDIS Financial Sustainability Framework within the bill, and to talk about the cost savings that are going to eventuate from the passage of this legislation and be honest with people about the impact of potential or inevitable cuts that participants might expect as a result of these changes. Those points articulated in the second reading amendment from the member for Deakin are very important points to make, and ones that I expect the House will support when we have the chance to vote on this.

I look forward to the minister's summing-up speech because we've learned today he's got an excellent speechwriter. I'm sure we're going to get something between a Gettysburg Address and a Martin Luther King style summation to this bill because, if the cost of a speech from the minister is anything to go by, that's what we should be expecting in this chamber—$620,000 for a speechwriter that the minister is employing, beyond all the resources of his department and office, for two years work. I looked at the minister's website; I think he's got 28 speeches on his ministerial website, so 620 grand is about $22,000 a speech—pretty good work! I made a big mistake in choosing to be a humble member of the House of Representatives when I could have been writing speeches for the Minister for the NDIS—$22,000 a speech! Some of those speeches were really just reading speeches for other ministers and one of those 28 speeches was reading the minister's message at a citizenship ceremony, which we as members of parliament all do. I didn't know the person who had copied and pasted that or printed that off for him would make $22,000 for the taxing task of doing so, but I congratulate the person that has managed to leverage that kind of spectacular financial gain from the minister. But, nonetheless, we do wait with bated breath for his summing up speech on this bill given what we are led to believe will be the $22,000 standard of closing remarks that the minister will give to us.

It is important that we look at opportunities to genuinely reform the system because there are concerning examples that have been given to us or that we have heard about the way in which the NDIS operates. Every genuine dollar that is spent through the NDIS for people that genuinely need its support is something that we in the coalition support and every wasted dollar is obviously a dollar that can't be given to someone that genuinely needs it. There are some bizarre things that we have had reports of the NDIS funding being spent on. Surely the most ridiculous is this claim that NDIS funding was provided for the cremation of an NDIS participant's pet emotional support rat? I had never heard of the concept of a pet emotional support rat. I suppose that's discriminatory. You tend to think of dogs and other animals. I have never known a rat to be an emotional support animal, but maybe that is my ignorance. Certainly funding the cremation of that emotional support rat I would query or question whether or not that's what the proud day of legislating the NDIS envisaged the funds being invested in. Let's be serious now.

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal has had cases disputed for what had been claimed to be reasonable and necessary, including an infra-red sauna and botox treatments. Someone tried to claim a Thermomix through the NDIS. There was tai chi and singing lessons. The most concerning, really, is the expenditure of NDIS funding on sex therapy and sex workers. Let's be honest: that's patently ridiculous. Commonwealth funds through the NDIS are there for genuine investment in helping people with a disability. I won't ever be convinced that paying for—not a legal activity, I might add—sex workers and sexual therapy through the NDIS is what the scheme was ever envisaged to be funding.

So we welcome genuine reform that closes those loopholes, things I don't think anyone ever envisaged was what NDIS funding would be directed towards. We would invite and welcome Minister Shorten in his $22,000 closing remarks to this bill to talk about how this bill addresses those serious and significant issues within the system, because none of us, I am sure, want the fund to be investing in those sorts of faux supports that are taking dollars away from genuine supports that people no doubt are entitled to through the scheme. This is taxpayers' money. This is taxpayers' funds. Every dollar that is spent inappropriately in any part of government, whether it's the NDIS or anywhere else, is a dollar out of the pockets of hardworking Australian taxpayers. We don't want to see those sorts of things being funded through the NDIS.

I would invite and encourage the minister to talk about those sorts of issues and advise us whether or not this bill is going to address them. As the member for Deakin has indicated in his second reading amendment, there is modelling and other impacts of this legislation that the minister could reveal, publish and explain to give us a better understanding of how this bill is going to lead to genuine reform of the NDIS. We stand ready to support anything that is going to lead to genuine reform of the NDIS. It's abundantly clear that there are changes needed despite the current minister's view when he was in opposition that there was no need for any of these reforms and that.

He claimed coalition ministers were whispering that the scheme was unsustainable. I'm here today to tell you that is a lie. He's obviously changed his opinion on that. We welcome his conversion on that and his newfound recognition of the fact that we need genuine reform to the NDIS. We merely ask the minister to outline, in his response to the second reading amendment from the member for Deakin, exactly what the impact of these changes is going to be, exactly what that modelling is and exactly what reductions in services are going to be. Hopefully, those reductions are no longer paying for the cremation of pet rats, infrared saunas or sex workers. Will he properly outline to people what the effect of those changes will be to service deliver in this scheme?

With those remarks, I commend the member for Deakin's second reading amendment to the House.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a paediatrician, I've sat in my office many times with families who had children—sometimes young adults—with severe disabilities: things like cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, many other syndromes, many different iterations of disability. I looked after those families and their kids for a long time, and the one thing that all those parents cried out for was some certainty about the future for their children.

I can think of them. Some of the kids I got very fond of. Troy, a little boy that I saw with Down syndrome when he was born, developed something called Eisenmenger's complex, which is a heart condition that's inoperable. I watched him grow and develop. His father died. His mother was left to bring Troy up and care for him in his 20s, 30s and now in his late 30s and early 40s. She spoke to me many times—they were a working-class family—about what was going to happen to him when she was no longer around to look after him.

I remember Justin, with cerebral palsy, who was not mobile. He couldn't speak adequately, but, with the use of a computer and voice activator, he was able to communicate. He was actually very bright, but he clearly needed care all his life. His mum really wondered what would happen to him when she passed on.

I actually spoke to Julia Gillard about this many years ago, when she was first elected to the parliament and she came to a fundraiser for Chris Hayes, then the member for Fowler. She said that what she really believed in was providing a support mechanism where all of us—the Australian population—carried some of that burden for those families, that we shared in that. That was the beginning of her idea for a national disability insurance scheme working much along the lines of Medicare. That came to fruition thanks to the Gillard government. People on all sides of parliament did support it, but it was her vision, and forever I am grateful for that and to her, as are the families that I cared for.

The NDIS has provided so much for those families: the certainty about the future, the certainty that their children, as adults with disability, would be able to get the care that they deserve to maximise their potential for a fulfilling life. That's why it has been so important. Unfortunately, it is after years of neglect by the coalition. I had many meetings with the coalition minister responsible for this, Stuart Robert, about the lack of transparency, the delays in approvals, the lack of understanding of the importance of certainty for these families and the lack of interventions that could have provided enormous help to people with severe disabilities, yet nothing happened. The scheme was manipulated to the point where it became all things to all people. State governments walked away from their responsibilities to care for these kids, and the NDIS was left as the only man standing to provide supports. This has to stop. It cannot possibly be all things to all people.

I've heard terrible stories in my office about people with severe disabilities being denied support when other people with the same disability were getting amazing support. There was no transparency as to why. I've seen providers come and go and exploit people with disabilities to the point where the providers became the reason for the scheme, not the people with disabilities. That is shameful. Many things happened with no transparency and no oversight, so that the scheme was growing out of control. The people that I cared for, the people with severe disabilities, were not able to access the supports they needed.

I fully support the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024. A huge amount of taxpayer money has been allocated to unproven supports. It was allocated without any real understanding of the purpose or the need, and it was allocated to people with relatively minor issues. It is terrible that the amount of support you get depends on who advocates for you. It's terrible that providers have grown rich by exploiting the NDIS at the expense of their clients. I've seen that happen in my own electorate. There are thousands of people who deserve support but are not getting it, because of the lack of transparency and the lack of oversight of the NDIS. I fully support this bill.

No-one knows the importance of the NDIS better than the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Bill Shorten, who early in the process advocated the importance of the NDIS and support for people with severe disability. The NDIS has been extraordinarily important in the lives of the people I've looked after for the last 45 years, and it is wonderful to see how people with severe disability can now rely on all of us to provide supports for them. We help carry the load. We also rejoice in the better quality of life and the improvements in functioning for many people on the NDIS. I thank the minister for the amazing amount of work that he has done in providing for people with disabilities—whom we all care for; I know there is bipartisan support for this bill. Importantly, this bill aims to provide transparency and oversight of the functioning of the NDIS and how it supports those with the most severe disabilities. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate interrupted.