Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak to this MPI raised by my colleague Senator Keneally. The NDIS is such an important reform for people with disability in this country and, quite frankly, I'm disgusted that the Morrison Liberal government is delaying the provision of essential services to people with disability just to prop up an artificial surplus. Those opposite really should hang their heads in shame. I've seen firsthand so many times how the services that are provided under the NDIS can make life better and more comfortable for people with disability, give them dignity and assist them in day-to-day living. These people deserve a government that respects them, not short-change so the government can reach their goal of a budget surplus.

We've seen recently a letter by the New South Wales Liberal and Victorian Labor governments to the minister responsible for the NDIS, Mr Stuart Robert, trying to access around $1.6 billion in funds that the federal government is deliberately withholding. This isn't about politics; this is about doing the right thing. It is about the government doing the moral, right thing. New South Wales and Victoria have governments from across the political divide, but they can see that the people with disability in their states, and in other states and territories, are being deliberately short-changed by this Morrison Liberal government.

Mr Gareth Ward, the New South Wales Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services said:

I want to make sure that money doesn't sit in a bank account offsetting the Commonwealth's budget, which is what it's doing.

And I agree. The money just shouldn't sit around in the federal government coffers in some kind of cheap accounting trick. It should be used to improve the lives of people with disability.

We're still seeing tens of thousands of families with family members who deserve support being given the red tape run-around, not being able to access modest services to improve the quality of their lives. In such a situation, to deliberately delay funds to meet an artificial goal of a temporary budget surplus is just plain cruel.

We've also seen some serious allegations of fraud in the NDIS. It's yet another example of this government's mismanagement and incompetence when it comes to running its agencies. The government needs to investigate the alleged fraud and ensure that the NDIS funds are being put to good use, because the government's failure to correctly administer the NDIS is impacting on the people who rely on it.

The latest Council of Australian Governments quarterly performance report into the National Disability Insurance Agency's operations showed that in Tasmania 67 per cent of participants rated satisfaction with the agency's planning processes as 'good' or 'very good'. This isn't a particularly glowing figure, especially compared to two years ago when satisfaction in Tasmania was at 97 per cent. In Tasmania—my home state and your home state, Madam Acting Deputy President—we have heard that there are widespread issues relating to disability transport and to the availability of NDIS approved allied health professionals.

The joint standing committee on the NDIS held a public hearing in Hobart in October last year. I'll spend a couple of moments highlighting some issues that Tasmanian participants are facing. Representatives of Li-Ve Tasmania told the committee:

Participants are scared of reviews too. We've had participants who've gone for a new commode chair and all of a sudden their community access has been slashed by $20,000, completely unlinked. So you've got a group of participants who are terrified to go back, even though their plans don't meet their needs, because of the negative experiences they've had. Then they've had to go back for another review.

Witnesses from the Office of Public Guardian also outlined some key concerns:

There are unacceptable delays in the planning process… the delays occur in scheduling both initial and review plan meetings, in having plans approved, in sourcing services for plan implementation and, most importantly, for securing urgent reviews. There are inadequately skilled and experienced planners. Some appear to us to have a very limited understanding of the support needs arising from a disability and/or a lack of understanding of cognitive impairments and the associated communication issues that will often accompany those kinds of impairments… The failure to provide for crisis services… is certainly a concern from our point of view and we consider that the NDIS really does need to provide contingency funding to be available for crises when they occur and for clear procedures and processes to access funding and services… provisions need to be established in response to crisis situations but also for market failure situations, particularly for participants who have exceptional needs and challenging needs…

It's up to the government to start fixing some of the issues faced by my Tasmanian constituents instead of delaying payments to the states and territories to prop up their budget. By deliberately delaying these payments to the states the Morrison government is short-changing people with disability and denying them the care that they desperately need. They are causing unnecessary delay and unnecessary suffering.

We're talking about a government in its third term. It's them. They're responsible. They shouldn't be callous, they shouldn't be petty and they shouldn't be downright mean when it comes to targeting vulnerable people, many of whom cannot speak up for themselves. (Time expired)