Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The NDIS is yet another great Labor reform—a source of great pride. In practice, the NDIS both supports and aims to make a real and meaningful difference to the lives of well over half a million Australians and their families. This includes the 9,768 participants in my electorate of Spence, the highest number across the country.

Spence has a lot at stake when it comes to ensuring that the NDIS gets back on track, which is why I am saddened to see the Liberal Party and the Greens team up again, playing games in the Senate and holding up the passage of our government's NDIS reforms. They grandstand in the media as if they are sworn enemies. However, they can be spotted sitting next to one other a little too often for that to be true. Their decision to delay this bill so that a committee—which has spent over three months reviewing the bill and which tabled its report last month—can conduct yet another inquiry. This is a delay which will cost Australians $1 million each hour, every hour, until the second report is due—in early August. That's about $1.1 billion, all up. Worse still, these Canberra bubble shenanigans leave scores of vulnerable participants at risk of exploitation at the hands of dodgy for-profit providers that fail to grasp what the NDIS is actually about: enriching the lives of participants and not themselves.

As for the Liberals and Greens, with enemies like each other, who would even need friends?