Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I present the report of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme entitled NDIS planning interim report together with the Hansard record of proceedings and documents presented to the committee. I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

I also seek leave to have the tabling statement incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The document read as follows—

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The report of the joint standing committee that we've just tabled is a very important report. It coincides, as you would know, with the International Day of People with Disability. The report is an interim report and also a unanimous report. The report is an interim report because the issues that were raised were so important that the committee felt that an interim report needed to be put together and tabled. The interim report examines a number of issues associated with the NDIS planning process, with a particular focus on draft plans and joint planning. It makes 14 very important recommendations to improve the operation of the planning process and the NDIS more generally.

The committee is very concerned that a number of issues outlined in the interim report have been raised in previous inquiries. In fact, at the very first hearing that was held in Brisbane, Kirsten Deane, the campaign director of Every Australian Counts, highlighted this repetition to the committee—and, in fact, the responses to questions without notice from the minister today also, to me, felt very much like what Ms Deane described was happening within the NDIS. So I want to go to what Ms Deane said:

… people with disability and their families feel like they're trapped in some NDIS version of Groundhog Day where they keep saying the same things over and over and over again about what the problems are and what the potential solutions are but they wake the next morning to find that very little has changed. If I could summarise our submission it would to make a plea to the committee, to say that the problems with the NDIS are well known and the solutions are well known—what we're really missing is action.

I would echo Ms Deane's words. I would say that these problems and these issues do keep recurring in the NDIS inquiries that we are conducting, and these are issues that create great stress and great pressure on NDIS participants and their families.

There are a number of recommendations; as I said, there are 14. The first recommendation—and it is an important recommendation—really does go to the heart of the problems that have been stated time and time again not only by advocates, providers and participants but by the very people and families that the NDIS seeks to support. The recommendation is that a fully costed, detailed draft plan be made available to participants at least one week prior to their meeting with the official who has the authority to approve the plan and that, at the meeting, the participants have the opportunity to rectify that plan. We've been very careful in the way the committee has put that recommendation forward because what has come out of the hearings is that around as many as eight out of 10 participants don't actually have a meeting or a conversation with the delegate who is responsible for approving the plan. This is very important for people to understand, because, quite frankly, some of the information that we have been getting from the NDIA has confused this point. What we've heard is that many of the participants—approximately 80 per cent—are dealt with by LACs. They build the plan and then they send it up to the NDIA. So many participants may never ever see or speak to the person who is going to have the fundamental power to enable them either to have a good plan under which they are able to live the goals that they have put forward, or to have a bad plan. Unfortunately—and I say 'unfortunately' because this is not the way the NDIS was supposed to be operating—we have many examples of people who have had unfortunate meetings and have come out of those meetings feeling more stressed than when they went in.

In my home state of Tasmania, we had a town hall session where a number of people came in to tell their stories about their interactions with the NDIA. Unfortunately, some of the information that was provided was heart-wrenching—and avoidable. In regard to unspent funds, one mother said:

There appears to be an emphasis on the unspent funds and plans, particularly at the moment, given the underspend evident in the budget recently. In our case we would have loved to have been able to spend all of our allocated funds, but the reality is that we have to book therapy 12 months in advance. There's no flexibility, due to the severe skills shortage of allied health professionals in Tasmania …

This goes to the crux of the issue around the government's underspend. It's not, as they would like you to think, because the demand isn't there. The demand is there, but there is an issue around services that people can actually access.

There also is an issue around the staffing cap. It's not just the Labor Party and advocates who are calling for the lifting of the staffing cap; it's the Productivity Commission as well. But this government will not budge. This is an important measure that the government can do to get the NDIS working as it should.

I would like to end on what was a very heart-wrenching statement that one of the mothers at the Hobart hearing gave. She gave a highly emotional contribution about her interactions with the NDIS. She ended by saying:

… I haven't even touched on the emotional burdens that attach to this damn system! There's a lot of work that needs to be done. It's hard, it's emotional and you just keep going, because you can't give up.

All I would ask of the government is to listen. Read this unanimous report. Again, it has recommendations that go to the very heart of the problems that are occurring with the NDIS. It provides solutions, just as participants, families and advocates have. I ask the government to please start acting on these recommendations.