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

I want to say at the outset that the Labor Party will never resile from putting this government in the spotlight regarding the NDIS, because currently what the government is doing is wrong. To prop up their budget, they are banking money that is meant to go to the NDIS and to participants. That is exactly what they're doing. To come in here and suggest that all it is is an accounting process is just disingenuous. It is downright insulting to participants in the NDIS and their families.

Each and every senator and member of the House of Representatives should know exactly what is happening out there in terms of the NDIS because they should be getting the calls and the emails from participants and their family members. They are coming to, ringing and emailing their offices for assistance. If they have got a plan, they can't access the services, get the equipment or organise for somebody to give them occupational therapy. There are huge issues in terms of the NDIS and how it's being run.

A number of issues were raised by the previous Liberal speaker, Senator Hughes. I know Senator Hughes is well aware of some of the issues that the NDIS has, which of course go to the fact that there are delays and underspends. We know why there are underspends. We know why there are delays in reviews and in plan building. That goes also to the fact that there is a staffing cap on the NDIS. It is easy for the government to remove that staffing cap. The government has been called on by numerous disability advocates to remove the staffing cap to enable staff to be put in place to go through the plan building and to reduce the delay that is currently happening in the NDIS. But it's fallen on deaf ears. I don't know whether that's because in this government we've had about six ministers in this critical area, six ministers that just seem to hand it over as soon as they can. It's just not good enough.