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

Well, it is true, Senator. As I said, the Labor Party will hold this government to account in terms of the NDIS. As this MPI states, we will also hold them to account around the issue of withholding NDIS funds. I want the Senate not to take my word for it. We know this is the view of both the Victorian and the New South Wales state governments. The federal government wants to hold on to the $1.6 billion worth of funding for the NDIS to try to make their books balance, despite the many people with disability throughout Australia that desperately need the money to be spent on care and support. The New South Wales minister for disability, Mr Gareth Ward—a Liberal minister—has said: 'I want to make sure that money doesn't sit in a bank account offsetting the Commonwealth's budget, which is what it is doing'. That's what Mr Ward said, the New South Wales minister for disability. Mr Ward went on to say: 'There's $1.6 billion sitting on the Commonwealth's balance sheet that we want to spend on people with disabilities.'

I also would like to remind colleagues that the $1.6 billion is part of the appropriation we voted to give the NDIA with the passage of the last budget. This $1.6 billion comes on top of the $4.6 billion underspend in the NDIS last financial year. That is a total, over two years, of $6.2 billion ripped from the NDIS to help the government manage their deteriorating budget position. As Senator Bilyk said in her contribution, quite rightly, this is cruel and heartless in the extreme. This latest $1.6 billion underspend on the NDIS will cause heartache and despair every day for the very people it was intended to help. People living with a disability are missing out on care and support because this government is not putting out there the measures that need to be undertaken. I mean, as I've already said, lifting the staffing cap, acting on recommendations of a very good committee, a bipartisan committee, the Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS, who have put forward unanimous recommendations, which need to be acted upon by this government and will help to reduce some of the delays and the issues around plan building and trying to get equipment for people.

Also, what we now see causing huge delays is the fact that there isn't the professional workforce available. I am talking about allied health professionals. We don't have enough allied health professionals who are able to do the work that they have to do prior to the participants going out and sourcing equipment, whether it be a bed or a chair or whatever piece of equipment, that they have been able to source through their plan. This is a real issue. We really have not yet seen anything from this government that's going to fix those issues.

As I've already said, the New South Wales government have highlighted their concern that it will be people with disability in regional areas, and Indigenous Australians, and those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, who will miss out on support and services, thanks to the withholding of this $1.6 billion. Just this week in my home state of Tasmania it's been revealed that New Horizons, which is based in Mowbray in the seat of Bass—Ms Archer's seat—was unsuccessful in its bid for funding under the NDIS ILC grants scheme, even though there were, I think, 300 applications—28 were successful, but, of course, none in Tasmania. New Horizons has been there for more than three decades, doing a wonderful job leading the way in inclusive sport and recreation.

As I said when I first started my contribution, the Labor Party will always highlight issues around the NDIS. The NDIS is a transformative scheme. It is transforming people's lives and we need to ensure that the funds that have been set aside for the NDIS are used for the NDIS and not used to prop up the federal government's budget.