Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

N () (): I move:

That the Senate take note of the documents.

As citizens in a democracy, it is reasonable to expect a high level of transparency around decisions that governments make, particularly in relation to decisions that shape the lives of people affected by the programs that it runs. It should go without saying that disabled people deserve the very same. The NDIS and its participants deserve to know the full details of the financial sustainability framework that all state premiers, chief ministers and the Prime Minister agreed to. Every single one of the hundreds of thousands of disabled people who are participants in the scheme, who rely upon the scheme for daily support, for the funding to get out of bed in the morning to have a shower, to meet with their friends and family, to go to work, deserve to know the details of the framework that was signed up to by their Prime Minister, by their premier and by their chief ministers.

This refusal to provide basic transparency to the Senate reeks of a captain's call that is being covered up. It is designed to serve a narrative crafted by government politicians who seem intent upon using the 4.4 million disabled people that call Australia home as a football to be kicked across the country.

Now, let us recount how exactly we came to be here. In April, state premiers, chief ministers and the Prime Minister met to secretly agree on the NDIS financial sustainability framework, which would map out the financial future of the NDIS. And they are refusing to release this document. In May, the Senate formally requested that the Albanese government table the framework. The government's response was that that document did not exist. To put it into more meaningful terms, the government admitted to having no actual foundational basis for their decision in May to impose budget cuts on the NDIS. For all we know they could have picked the eight per cent target out of the sky.

In June, the Senate again ordered that the government table the framework, the framework which in their budget they booked no less than $59 billion of cuts against. So something exists somewhere in Treasury or in Finance, because on the basis of that framework you booked $59 billion worth of cuts to our NDIS. Yet, you refuse to reveal the basis of that measure to the community. In June, the Senate again ordered that the government table the framework. It is, after all, suppose to be a document upon which the government planned these so-called saving measures. This time we were informed, as we have heard again today, that to reveal this framework would be to damage relations between the states and territories. Rubbish! Rubbish! All that would be damaged by the release of this information would be the Prime Minister's credibility.

We all know what is actually happening here. The Labor Party were more than happy to march arm in arm with disabled people, to proclaim their willingness to defend the NDIS from the slashes and the cuts of the former government. They were so happy to take the votes of disabled people at the election on the basis that they would protect our NDIS. In fact, now what we are seeing is the laying of the groundwork for them to implement the very same cuts, the very same measures, that were being cooked up by the previous mob. If I am wrong, if there is nothing to fear from this financial sustainability framework, then cough it up; share it with the public. (Time expired)