Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on this motion, and the first observation I would make is that everybody in Labor should hang their head in shame. Six hundred and ten thousand Australians with serious and permanent disability and their families rely on this scheme, and increasingly they are getting very nervous and upset at the lack of transparency and the uncertainty that that is causing them. We've seen the utter contempt. Last week Senator McAllister stood up on behalf of the minister and spoke for about 10 seconds, and today it was less than five seconds. That is utterly unacceptable and is nothing more than a two-fingered salute to every Australian who relies on the NDIS.

But let's go into a bit more detail about what they're hiding and why they are hiding this data. As Senator Steele-John said, the Labor Party came into government. Minister Shorten, as opposition spokesman on the NDIS, said: 'There will be no cuts to any plans. There's nothing wrong with the scheme. There's no sustainability issue.' He raised the expectations, knowing that what he said was not true. It was a cruel hoax, because in the last budget the Labor Party cut $74 billion over the next 10 years from the scheme, and they have progressively shut down all transparency on the scheme.

So what have they done? In February, they cut the monthly financial statement reports that I implemented as a response to requests by the Labor Party and by many others in the sector to have more frequent information. The monthly reports are gone. As to the quarterly reports, the last one that came out was in June, so they haven't even got the next quarterly report out. The quarterly reports have a lot of data which would enable us to identify where they are making the cuts to the scheme. The most important document at all for budget transparency is the annual financial sustainability report, which they are now refusing to release. We have a very short report. In fact, we have four pages only in the annual report, with big text and lots of white space, to replace a 270-odd page report that provided the detailed actuarial data. So they have completely denied the Senate, the sector and the Australian public any transparency at all on where they are making the $74 billion worth of savings.

Not only that—they're showing complete contempt to everybody in this chamber with this public interest immunity claim. What they're actually supposed to do for a public interest immunity claim—as they well know, because they reminded us all the time when we were in government—is two things. One is to provide a statement on the grounds for that conclusion. The ground that they provided is that it would cause problems with state and territory governments, which it simply couldn't do. But what they haven't even bothered to do is the second test: to specify the harm to the public interest that could result if the information is provided. They haven't done that either. Again, Senator McAllister has shamefully come into this place and spent five seconds speaking to the 610,000 Australians with serious and permanent disability. Shame on you all.

Here is what they're trying to hide, and I say to them: you will not get away with this. You will not get away with this breathtaking lack of accountability and transparency. There are only two ways you can cut $74 billion from the NDIS. There are two drivers of cost: participant numbers and average cost per participant. One or both of those have to be cut. There was a very short statement from the Australian Government Actuary. It must have galled Minister Shorten that he couldn't avoid putting the government actuarial report in here, and the Australian Government Actuary has let the cat out of the bag, because he said:

Amounts included in the Baseline projection are then reduced to allow for initiatives in the May 2023 Budget …

So somehow the $700-plus million is over time going to make $74 billion worth of savings to this scheme. It is completely and utterly ludicrous, and those opposite should hang their heads in shame. (Time expired)