Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think I want to call this speech, 'What happened while you weren't watching,' because there are so many Australians out there trying to do the very best they can with their lives, particularly people who are caring for those with a disability. While every hour of their day is spent on caring and advocating for someone they love with a disability, this government went through the most extraordinarily deceptive set of motions to take money away, from people with disability, to the tune of $4.6 billion. They euphemistically called it an 'underspend' and then they decided to shuffle it off to the side to try to balance their books—to balance their books on the back of people with a disability.

This is an absolute disgrace. I wholeheartedly endorse the comments of my fellow senator from New South Wales Senator Sheldon, who revealed that the Liberal government in New South Wales is well and truly alive to the problems of this federal government and its deceptions around the matter of disability, and those of Senator Polley from Tasmania, who put on the record in the closing moments of her speech the fact that 1,200 people died while waiting for a package to give them some support on NDIS.

I'd like to let this chamber know about a remarkable group of people with whom I walked, on Sunday, at the Gough Whitlam Park in Earlwood. I found out about this particular group by a great leader in the trade union movement in New South Wales, Graeme Kelly, who's the head of the USU. Thirty thousand members got information from Mr Kelly, and 20 of his executives walked with him having decided that they would support the Save Our Sons Duchenne Foundation in their quest to try and give a decent life to young boys—in particular, but some girls—who have been diagnosed with Duchenne, a motor neurone disorder that sees young people who reach about the age of five or six suddenly present with muscular difficulties that very much limit their lives without adequate support.

I want to pay respect to Mr Kelly for the leadership that he's showing there, and his executive, and his commitment to try to help this community. But the reason that help is being wrapped around charitable work is that this government has failed every test in the rollout of the NDIS. I want to acknowledge Elie and Nancy Eid who set up the Save Our Sons Duchenne Foundation in 2008, and their son Emilio who they are caring for. I also want to acknowledge Michael Galderisi who's a general manager. He was outraged and shocked—many of the parents were shocked—to find out that the reason their kids are waiting for vitally needed resources, including wheelchairs, is that this government set up so many barriers and impediments to them that they couldn't access the care they need for their children.

There are families that I walked with on Sunday who despairingly talked about the next round of participant planning that they will be forced to do every year. Every single one of those parents who spoke to me was really very concerned about the permanent erosion of any support that they might receive. They talked about a completely untrained workforce, about somebody being sent to them by this government—and not enough sent because they had a cap on it—somebody ill-prepared and ill-educated, to create a plan that didn't even acknowledge the needs of the illness. So ill-prepared were they that they didn't even know what the disease was or what the real needs of the young person were. This is parents fighting a system that was organised by this government, constructed by this government, but not delivered to the people of Australia. Rather, they used it as an ATM, a bank machine, to get cash to prop up a headline where they wanted to declare a surplus.

We cannot believe a word they say, because ordinary, hardworking Australians who want to believe in some of the things we heard Senator Henderson say, who want to believe that this government will look after people with disabilities, have been failed. While they weren't watching, and were living their lives, this government let them down. (Time expired)