Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Nobody could seriously question the Morrison government's rock-solid commitment to disability services, yet, here we are. To see this issue being treated as a political football is quite simply offensive, but if Labor insists on inviting us to debate and defend our credentials in cleaning up the mess of the NDIS we inherited from the Gillard government, then Senator Keneally can consider this speech my RSVP.

The latest attacks on our funding commitments to the NDIS conveniently overlook seven years of hard work from the coalition to finish the job started by Julia Gillard with such undue haste. In the dying days of her government she ordered the NDIS to start from 1 July 2013, defying a recommendation from the Productivity Commission to start a year later. As the commission later pointed out, the NDIS was like an airplane being designed in mid-flight. The MPI has no foundation whatsoever and proves a thorough lack of understanding on the part of the opposition about how the NDIS is funded and their ignorance about the purpose of the NDIS Reserve Fund. The government completely rejects any proposition it is withholding funding to the NDIS to the states or to the territories. The government also completely rejects that funds identified for the NDIS Reserve Fund is propping up its budget. The NDIS is fully funded on an ongoing basis for every participant meeting the eligibility requirements. It is fully funded in a way that allows the Morrison government to build a strong economy and bring the budget under control.

Full scheme funding arrangements that have been signed by the Commonwealth and every state and territory except WA clearly articulates that states and territories make a fixed contribution to the NDIS, indexed at four per cent a year, and that the Commonwealth will pay the balance of all NDIS costs, taking into account the contribution of all states and territories.

Since 2013, the growth of NDIS participants has been commensurate with increased spending. In 2017-18, spending on the NDIS was $6.4 billion. In 2018-19 it was $13.3 billion. This year it will be $17.9 billion, and by 2020-21 it will be $22.2 billion. With the budget showing a $4.5 billion increase in NDIS spending next financial year, how can Labor claim a $1.6 billion cut. Labor is already guilty of cynically mischaracterising a highly technical budgeting issue known as an estimates variation and now the deceit continues. Labor's claims that we're somehow under resourcing the NDIS is completely wrong and it's pure mischief.

Once and for all as the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, and the minister have stated repeatedly, the NDIS is fully funded. It is a demand-driven scheme, and if demands exceed our estimates, the funding will be there—a point Labor's Linda Burney was willing to concede on ABC radio before the last election. When questioned if Labor would put more funding into the NDIS if elected, shadow minister Burney replied with this, 'There doesn't need to be a commitment; it's a demand-driven program.' In 2019-20 there has been a $850 million increase in funding through the individual plans of NDIS participants. This boost also reflects an increase in payments to service providers such as personal care workers, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and psychologists. An extra $400 million in NDIS funding has also been provided for administration costs and people supported under existing Commonwealth disability programs before their transition to the NDIS.

Labor is in the scurrilous habit of lying about their social funding programs. We recall their claims of Medicare in 2016. Four years later they're at it again with the NDIS. The NDIS is on track to reach 460,000 participants in 2020. Today, more than 338,000 people have been supported by the NDIS and have active, approved plans in place. Many of these people are kids being supported across areas ranging from health, wellbeing and lifelong learning to support in daily activities. Before the NDIS was established in 2013, families faced an uphill battle to find coordinated quality support. As the mother of a son with autism, I shared the pain of dealing with limited available services and expensive metropolitan best-practice therapies. The introduction of the NDIS has been a great help to many families, including my own, who previously had little to no assistance.

The NDIS is the biggest social and economic reform Australia has undertaken since the introduction of Medicare. The latest COAG Disability Reform Council performance report tells us that 56 per cent of people on an NDIS plan identified with having autism or an intellectual disability. After my son's diagnosis we were completely lost on where to find support and daunted by the prospect of having to scale a mountain of red tape before finding a pathway. Now, in my role as senator, I again recognise the need to reduce the amount of red tape and make processes easier. I'm relishing the prospect of playing my own role in providing long-term, sustainable improvements for many families living with disabilities across Australia.

The Commonwealth and all states and territories that have signed up to full-scheme funding arrangements have agreed the objective of the NDIS Reserve Fund is to improve participant outcomes and manage scheme sustainability on insurance principles by using the Reserve Fund to manage the lifetime risk of participants' supports. The NDIS Reserve Fund is designed to support participants over the longer term. Any suggestion the fund would be spent all in one go or provided back to the states and territories is just pure rubbish. The Commonwealth and all states and territories have signed off on an agreement to establish the Reserve Fund using accumulated cash currently sitting with the NDIA. No government is expected to make an additional contribution to the NDIS Reserve Fund. Accumulated cash set aside for the Reserve Fund remains in the NDIA's accounts and is not being used to balance the budget.

The NDIS plan reaffirms the government's commitment to support people with disability to achieve their goals. The plan reaffirms the National Disability Insurance Agency's commitment to deliver world-leading NDIS to an estimated half a million participants over the next three to four years. The plan is all about establishing the NDIS on to a business-as-usual footing and long-term success. The plan focuses on quicker access and quality decision-making, increased engagement and collaboration, market innovation and improved technology, a financially sustainable NDIS, equitable and consistent decisions, and improving long-term outcomes for people with disability, their families and carers. The government asked what the NDIA what they needed to deliver, and we listened. The NDIA is currently filling an additional 800 APS positions capable of exercising delegations under the NDIS legislation, bringing the total NDIA workforce to more than 11,000.

One of the key deliverables is the implementation of the participants service guarantee. The independent review of the NDIS Act by Mr David Tune to inform the development of the guarantee has been complete and sets the foundations to establish the guarantee. The government will use the findings to update and clarify the legislation and remove barriers to a better NDIS, with a government response to be released shortly.

The government's NDIS plan is already having a significant impact. There are now 338,982 Australians benefitting from the NDIS as at 31 December 2019, including 134,455 people receiving disability supports for the very first time—40 per cent of the total number of participants. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants are up to 7.8 per cent. Culturally and linguistically diverse now represent 11.1 per cent of participants who received a plan in the quarter. The average wait time for children zero to six years to meet NDIS access has been reduced from 43 days in June 2019 to an average of fewer than three days in December 2019. The average time for children currently awaiting a plan has reduced from 104 days at 30 June 2019 to 44 days as at 31 December 2019.

We are all in this together—and frankly, we owe that united front to people with disabilities, who deserve so much more than having to listen to gratuitous, unfounded and feeble accusations from a Labor Party that deliberately ignores the truth.