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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the explanation.

I thank the minister for their contribution. I hope that the conversations between our offices can bear fruit and result in the satisfactory compliance of the government with the orders of the Senate. Once again, we find ourselves collectively here today demanding an explanation from the government as to why they continue to refuse to release basic documents requested by this Senate, for the simple reason that these documents have a huge bearing on the lives of the over 610,000 Australians who rely on the NDIS for support.

Let's be really clear: the NDIS independent review, released by the government before the end of the year, is not, in and of itself, a document that is relevant to the request of the Senate, because it is a document created, published and given to the public months after the decision taken by the National Cabinet to agree to a so-called eight per cent sustainability measure in relation to the NDIS.

Disabled people and the disabled community across Australia are razor focused on attaining the information that was given to the National Cabinet as they made those deliberations because that very decision came in the middle of the conduct of the so-called independent review of the NDIS, right in the middle of a moment in time when the disability community were asked in good faith to participate in a so-called one-of-a-kind opportunity to reset the future of the NDIS. When we were assured that co-design and consultation would lead the way, the heads of every state and territory came together with the Commonwealth government and, it appears, decided where the destination of that co-design and consultation would end up—that being an eight per cent target for the growth of the scheme. This significantly undermined the community's trust in the independence of the review and the genuine openness with which the government, and the states and territories, would consider the recommendations of the review. We are not fools, disabled people. If you tell us to come into a co-design process and then, halfway through that process, decide one of the key end points of that co-design process, we know exactly what is going on.

The government have continually claimed that the decisions made in this National Cabinet meeting did not undermine the principles of co-design with which they set out and communicated the independent review. To that, I say: If that's the case, show us the documents. Show us what you agreed. Comply with the orders of this Senate and end the insecurity, the uncertainty and the genuine fear that exists within the heart of the disability community. It's a genuine and founded fear that, after tossing out the Liberal government, after electing a new parliament and a new government that committed to genuine co-design and consultation with disabled people, in fact what we ended up getting was a government that was simply better at messaging the way in which it worked towards achieving outcomes it had already set for itself.

This is what is at the heart here. How authentic was this government's commitment to co-design? How authentic was this government's commitment to consultation? If you want us to believe that you are genuine about it then you have to demonstrate exactly what decisions that you made—(Time expired)