Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

It would be fair to say that when I came into the role in relation to the NDIS there was a bit of work to do. The NDIS was not in a state of administrative nirvana. Firstly, the name DisabilityCare Australia was one that people with disabilities found patronising. They did not want to be objects of care, so we changed the name back to the NDIS.

We also discovered that the previous government had applied an efficiency dividend not just to administration as you would expect but also to package costs for individuals. They actually applied an efficiency dividend to the money that was meant to be going to individuals in their packages. So we overturned that and we put that $44.9 million back into the pot for people with disability. We commissioned a capability review of the NDIS agency, which found that the agency was like a plane that was being built in midair. We have put a bit of work into the capacity of the organisation and made very good progress.

We also found that there was a plan to purpose-build stand-alone NDIS offices throughout the country. I put my head together with my good friend Senator Payne, and we thought that the Department of Human Services has a big property footprint, so why not, where it makes sense, co-locate with the Department of Human Services. So, in many cases, Senator Payne will be my landlord. Senator Payne, I will be a good tenant. Also, we found that there was a plan to have 10,000 staff for the NDIS. The Minister for Finance and I thought, 'Why don't we open up the opportunity for not-for-profits and businesses to provide some of those administrative functions?' So we will now see staffing levels below 3,000. (Time expired)