Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The alarm bells are ringing for the NDIS, and there are large numbers of disabled people in Australia who can hear them ringing loud and clear. One of the clangers that they and many others can hear is Labor's decision to cut about $59 billion out of the NDIS over the coming decade. That was the largest single so-called savings measure in the budget that the Labor Party handed down this year. We know that. We also know that at the April National Cabinet meeting a financial sustainability framework was agreed to and adopted by all state premiers and territory chief ministers and the Prime Minister. But what we don't know is exactly what is contained in the financial sustainability framework. That is the issue here, and that's why so many people are so worried about what Labor is proposing for the NDIS.

Of course, disabled Australians had no idea that this was coming down the line—no idea at all. People would expect cuts to the NDIS from a Liberal government, but they didn't expect them from a Labor government. I remind the Labor Party that they promised to co-design with disabled Australians. The four million Australians who are disabled have the same right to a good and dignified life as anyone else in the country. That's what they expect. That's what they demand, and rightly so. It's our job as policymakers to make sure that we deliver on that right.

The NDIS review had input from many disabled Australians, so people were hopeful that the scheme had a clear trajectory for positive change. Instead, it looks like big decisions—big budget decisions—that are going to impact on the future of the scheme are actually being made without considering the inputs into the review. That is simply not good enough, and it is particularly not good enough from a Labor government.

The NDIS provides large numbers of disabled Australians the opportunity to participate fully in the community—to go to work, to have basic supports that many of them need, to have their houses cleaned, to keep themselves clean. There are massive social and economic benefits to the NDIS. Money invested in the NDIS has a positive return for our economy, but more importantly, it actually supports people positively to maximise the potential of their lives and to be able to lead good and dignified lives. That is what is at risk here from a Labor Party who simply don't seem to understand.

We need some clarity out of the government about exactly what is going on here. It is not good enough to keep any Australian in the dark, but particularly when so many disabled Australians rely on the NDIS for critical supports in their lives. The government has to be upfront, and it could start by releasing the financial sustainability framework and all of the associated information and documentation around it so we can all understand the way the government is taking this issue forward and what the government's plans around this issue are. People are worried, and worry causes stress and ill-health. The NDIS wasn't designed to cause ill-health; it was actually designed to help people and support people. That's what it was designed to do.

So I say to the Labor Party: if you want to stay faithful to the principles of the NDIS, if you want to stay faithful to the fundamental rationale behind the NDIS, come clean. Take this stress and this worry away from the large numbers of disabled Australians who are worried—rightly and understandably so. We need transparency and we need a full commitment to supporting the NDIS.

Question agreed to.