Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's interesting to hear the comments from Senator Henderson. There is an underspend of $1.6 billion. There are numerous examples of poor performance of programs of the NDIS because of being underfunded and under-resourced. There are staff freezes. It is a third-term government managing this, yet we're still seeing, consistently, problems with the NDIS and how it's performing. We see the government using some of Australia's most vulnerable people, people living with disabilities, as an accounting trick to convince the Australian people it has a budget surplus. Leaving aside the question of whether this government, through its economic mismanagement, does or does not have a surplus, the fact remains that there is currently $1.6 billion sitting on the Commonwealth balance sheet. That is $1.6 billion—