Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Steele-John, I said we'd be back. It's 'Ministerial Lack of Accountability Monday', and every Monday we'll be back, asking for these documents. That this government is hiding behind a public immunity claim is just shameful. This government said during the election campaign that they would be all about transparency. They said they'd be all open. But we also had Minister Shorten out there talking about the demand driven scheme, saying that there would be no cuts. He said he was a friend of the disability community. That is farcical. We are seeing this campaign ramping up, ramping up and ramping up, with Minister Shorten now getting into an almost threatening position with the state premiers as we head into a disability ministers' meeting this week—and we know National Cabinet will probably meet this week—and we are going to see the Bonyhady review presented. The Bonyhady review was actually due in October, and we were told that we would have the Bonyhady review in October. But, actually, during the last round of estimates, we found out that no-one was going to get the review until it had been through National Cabinet, and at that stage no-one could tell us when National Cabinet would meet. Thankfully, I managed to find out during estimates that it would meet in the week of 4 December. So it was to be buried until the end of the year. They were hoping that they could, fundamentally, put this review out with the trash. They could put it out just before Christmas, hoping no-one would notice. Shame on all of you.

I can tell you that, on the weekend, I've been getting messages from a number of families whose concerns are increasing about their child's access within the NDIS. These are kids who were diagnosed long before the DSM-IV became the DSM-5 and who were not diagnosed autism level 1, 2 or 3. They were diagnosed as 'classical autism'. They weren't given PDD-NOS or global development delay. They weren't given a diagnosis of Asperger's or any of the diagnoses that now don't exist anymore and fall under autism level 1. They actually were given 'classical autism'. They also had delays. Many of them had an intellectual disability tied in with that. They are now concerned because, as their kids have got a bit older, in some areas they're now being classified as autism level 2 and some as autism level 3. These parents don't understand whether or not their child is still going to be covered by the scheme because autism is being used as the catch-all for where they're saying that they're going to cut from this scheme. But we wouldn't know. No-one knows where they got these figures from. We know that the transparency they promised is a complete myth. We know that the transparency they proposed was a slogan, a bit like the promise of $275 off your power bill. It actually had nothing to do with reality and how they were planning to govern; it was just a slogan they put forward.

The claim is that the reason for not providing us with this document—this framework for how they were going to cut billions and billions of dollars out of the NDIS—is that this would upset our relationship with the states. I will give you a tip. Have a look at any of the newspapers today and even some over the weekend, and you will see that the premiers aren't that happy with you guys anyway. They're already not that happy. They're not that happy when it comes to your infrastructure cuts. They're absolutely not that happy now that Minister Shorten is not really being upfront with them. We've actually got Jacinta Allan, the Premier of Victoria, saying, 'It's completely irrelevant, Mr Shorten,' because she's only going to deal with Albanese anyway. And Albanese is the one who, I understand, said to Shorten, 'Just go and cut a whole lot of autistic kids out of the NDIS.'

This is going from bad to worse. It is a farce, and this is just compounding the fear that families of children with severe, significant, permanent and lifelong disabilities are facing, because they know that this government doesn't actually want to provide services and assistance for people with a disability. What they're more interested in doing is providing job opportunities for those that will join the HSU.

All they're interested in is boosting the service providers who will join their mates' unions. It's not about the participants, for those over there.

Now, I'm the first to say that the states have vacated the field. But that was because, when Prime Minister Gillard negotiated the NDIS, she said to all the states, to get them on board: 'Hey, don't worry about any increases in costs. The Commonwealth will bear those.' So, as the scheme has continued to grow, it has been the Commonwealth that has been picking up the tab. But, to boost that, the states have vacated the field; they've taken away community health and the supports they'd provided in the education services—which is their responsibility; constitutionally, that is their purview. They have vacated the field.

Not only are Mr Shorten and Prime Minister Albanese treating the ministers and premiers of states with contempt; they're treating this Senate with contempt and they are treating the Australian disability community with contempt.