Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

Let's be under no illusions why we are debating this legislation. It is a sad indictment on us all that we are usually only moved to strong action to improve care for vulnerable Australians when appalling cases of neglect or abuse are brought to light. Australia was shocked by the story of Ann-Marie Smith when it broke in April last year. She is one of about 34,000 Australians living with cerebral palsy, a permanent, lifelong physical disability caused by brain injury for which there is no known cure. Living with cerebral palsy is not easy. One in two people with the condition suffer chronic pain, one in two is intellectually impaired, one in three cannot walk, one in four cannot talk, one in five is tube fed, one in 10 has severe vision impairment and one in 25 has severe hearing impairment. Many people living with cerebral palsy need full-time care. As an NDIS patient, Ann-Marie Smith received funding for six hours a day of care. She was not in financial difficulty, like many other participants. She had a nice home in Adelaide's affluent eastern suburbs. Her neighbours saw little of her but noted her carer's vehicle always parked outside the home promptly at 9 am. They, understandably, assumed this vulnerable woman in their community was being cared for properly. The truth was horrifying. Ann-Marie Smith died in hospital from septic shock, multiple organ failure, severe pressure sores and malnourishment. Police called it disgusting. It appeared Ann-Marie Smith had been confined to a cane chair for the last year of her life, living in squalor. Her carer has since been convicted of manslaughter.

Will any Australian, especially those with family members receiving NDIS support, ever be able to assume with confidence that vulnerable people needing care and support are actually getting it? I certainly won't be. Twenty years on from the kerosene bath scandal, it appears we have learnt very little about caring for vulnerable Australians. Ann-Marie Smith was failed by her carer, but, more importantly, she was failed by a system which did not independently verify she was receiving the care she needed. We must do all we can to prevent this from ever happening again.

This legislation is a step in the right direction and has One Nation's support. The bill aims to strengthen support and protections for people living with a disability. It seeks to achieve this by providing a clear legislative framework for powers exercised by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission in relation to at-risk participants in the scheme. The legislation also seeks improve outreach by the National Disability Insurance Agency and the commission to participants. It will cast a wider net to capture more reportable incidents. It seeks to ensure that the commission and the NDIA have clear authority to share protected information so as to better carry out their core functions. It will remove qualifiers like 'serious' and 'necessary' to ensure that any threat to the life, health or safety of a participant is sufficient grounds for recording, using or disclosing protected NDIA or commission information. It will clarify provisions for disclosing protected information, including making it clear that information published on the provider register is not protected and for purposes like screening workers or publishing historical compliance and enforcement action.

An important aim of the legislation, which has my full support, is the clarification and extension of the powers of the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. It will empower the commissioner to place conditions on the approval of quality auditors and make it absolutely clear that the commissioner has the power to vary or revoke the approval of auditors. It will enable the commissioner's decision in this area to be reviewed. The legislation clarifies the commissioner's power to obtain information from other persons to ensure the integrity of the NDIS, specifically with respect to the present and past conduct of service providers and workers. It also clarifies that the commissioner can ban a person from providing NDIS services and support if they are not considered suitable. This is a critical part of the bill, which also includes a clear pathway for the review of decisions to ban a person, issue a compliance notice or revoke a provider's registration. It comes to late for Ann-Marie Smith, but I'm hopeful these strengthened powers will enable the commission to make sure that participants are being looked after properly and safely. I hope they will enable the commissioner to quickly detect when things are not right and to act swiftly and effectively to protect vulnerable Australians living with a disability. These safeguards must be robust. They must be an effective deterrent so as to ensure every single person providing support and services to disabled Australians under the NDIS is fully suitable and in strict compliance. Australians expect nothing less, and Australians living with a disability deserve nothing less.

One Nation will not be supporting amendments proposed by the Greens. We don't consider that there is a need to legislate a review of the framework, as this work is already being done and funds have already been allocated for it. We don't believe a sunset clause is appropriate, because it may risk these additional protections being dismantled. We don't support the playing around with the definitions of 'current', 'past' and 'future' threats to participants' safety. These amendments fail to meet the recommendations of the Robertson review. People who witness or become aware of noncompliance need to be confident they can make a prompt disclosure that will be investigated quickly or gather information that will help a participant avoid future threats to their safety. One Nation does not support the Greens' erroneous record-keeping requirements for people disclosing information. This would be a waste of resources and would leave the commission with limited time to carry out its important function of safeguarding NDIS participants. The proposal that disclosers must notify the person to whom the information relates creates the very real risk that critical information could be destroyed or hidden. There is no need for the Greens to put their personal stamp on this legislation. They should just let it through.

I remind senators that the NDIS was a necessary response to a situation where many disabled Australians were falling through the cracks. Operating properly, the NDIS should be able to look after the needs of generations of Australians. We need to ensure the NDIS is sustainable in the long term, but recent figures show that the costs of providing support and services to more than 466,000 participants are climbing fast. Total participation costs in the quarter to June this year were 33 per cent higher than for the same period last year. The projected total cost of the scheme is expected to rise from the current $25 billion per year to $40 billion in 2025, which is only four years away. And I must say that, in the next couple of years, the 466,000 participants in the NDIS will actually cost more than Medicare for the whole of Australia. We don't want participants receiving anything less than the care, support and services they need. However, One Nation is putting the government on notice—to address the rising costs of the NDIS, to ensure its sustainability.

Let me explain where some of the funding has gone, and you will be shocked and disgusted. There is no means test applied to receive NDIS funding, unlike every other taxpayer service, so a multimillionaire can receive NDIS. Of the 466,000 NDIS recipients, there are 450 people receiving $1 million each per annum, and 5,100 participants receiving over $500,000 per annum and less than $1 million per annum.

A barrister who lost his eyesight put in a claim to have his back deck extended to the river and a fence erected around his swimming pool. Thankfully, this has now been investigated. People buying homes that don't suit their needs apply for NDIS funding to add a room, an internal staircase or other improvements to their property, at the taxpayer's cost. A gentleman who made poor health choices lost his leg below the knee and now receives $190,000 a year. An obese woman with lipoedema received $653,000 for a six-month period. Some of these funds went towards a corporate box at the AFL grand final, $12,000 went on a week's holiday at a six-star penthouse on the Gold Coast, and she sent her sister $20,000 so she could return to Australia last year. In addition, her family were showered with expensive gifts, including a $300-plus bottle of whisky. In short, her funding only lasted three months before she applied for a review for more. Speech therapy for an adult with a mild speech impediment was funded at $40,000 a year. NDIS participants are also entitled to access the services of prostitutes, again paid for by the taxpayer. And that helping hand? It is costing millions. Oh, and there's more—but I think you have a good idea why I am furious.

I have been writing to the current and former ministers to rein in the blatant overfunding and poor policy attributed to Julia Gillard's Labor Party and supported by the states, who are somewhat reluctant to work with the ministers to rein in this spending. On the other hand, I am disgusted with the minister and the government for not backing my second reading motion, which states:

", and in view of the projected cost of the scheme, the Senate calls on the Government to do more to rein in costs so that the scheme is sustainable for those Australians who rely on its support to lead a reasonable quality of life"—

reasonable.

Also of concern are the wages paid to aged-care workers and nurses. A carer under the NDIS can be paid $90 to $100 an hour on a Sunday. Also, under the NDIS nationally, registered nurses can be paid more than $100 an hour on a weekday, which doubles if they're in a regional area and more if they're remote. Most nurses working in the public or private sector earn around $45 an hour on a weekday. These extraordinarily high wages lead to staff and skills shortages in the private and public sectors, taking away much-needed services from others not on NDIS. The wages, services and costings are excessive and unsustainable in the long term. It has become a milking cow for too many. The NDIS is top heavy, costing over $2 billion a year—and growing. That is just the administrative cost.

I am aware the minister's hands are tied by the states, so I am calling on Australians to register your concern and disgust. The NDIS will do no-one any good if it doesn't have a sustainable funding model and doesn't do what it can to rein in costs without compromising support and services. This must be a priority for the review work currently underway. The review must ensure the NDIS is meeting its original intention of helping people with a disability and helping only those who need it. One of the markers of an enlightened and compassionate society is how we treat the most vulnerable among us. Let's make sure the NDIS can deliver. As advised by a minister, if nothing changes in NDIS policy by the 2030s, it could cost $130 billion a year. I warn Australians: the NDIS in its present form has the capability of bankrupting our nation.