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

Every time I stand up here and speak to a motion like this, I think Labor couldn't sink any further towards the bottom—and yet they manage to do so. As Senator Steele-John has so passionately and correctly articulated, not only are they refusing to provide transparency within this chamber regarding the basic documents which go to the financial sustainability of the scheme but at additional estimates we saw the absolute disgrace—with an agency that had a very large additional estimates variation—of the CEO of the NDIA, at Minister Shorten's direction no less, refusing to provide the additional estimates data for the agency. They refused. And why did they refuse? Because the figures happened to be replicated in a quarterly report which had been produced and was sitting on Minister Shorten's desk and the desk of every state and territory disability minister. But, because the agency CEO couldn't manage to go down to Minister Shorten's office and grab the information, or the information she had on her laptop, she said the information wasn't available. That was clearly a lie. It was available. So they didn't provide the data on the scheme. But guess what? The very next morning, they published the quarterly report.

This lack of transparency is not just a disgrace for how Labor treats senators and, through senators, all Australians who fund the NDIS; as Senator Steele-John has said, there are over 650,000 people now on the scheme, and those with serious and permanent disability whose lives it has changed are now incredibly worried about what they are going to do with the scheme. What was this data that they were hiding at additional estimates? The number of participants as at 31 December was 646,449, which is half a per cent higher than the June 2023 projections. They were hiding the fact that the scheme continues to increase, in both participant numbers and the average cost per package, which are the two drivers of the scheme.

On behalf of the minister today, Senator McAllister says, 'We've done another review, and everything is going to be fine.' That is simply not true. Understanding the problem was never the issue with this scheme. Before this two-year review, there were at least 30 reviews. The problems are well known. But there are no easy solutions to reforming the scheme so that it survives for those with serious and permanent disabilities in our nation. Admiring the problem from every which way has never been the issue—yet that's what they've done.

Clearly this is a union agenda now, and also, sadly, an agenda from the big providers. Have a look at what the review is recommending to change the legislation. They want to remove choice and control from NDIS participants. That is one of the fundamental tenets of this scheme, that people with serious and permanent disability, for the first time, have choice and control over their own lives—how they live their lives, what service providers they get. But this government now wants to destroy that fundamental tenet of this scheme. Not only do they want to do that; they also want to go back, essentially, to block funding for large providers and destroy independent contractors in the sector by making them be registered, which will of course not drive down the costs. Anybody who knows anything about economics knows that it will drive the costs of the scheme up further.

I will finish on this. The other thing we found in the third quarter report, after an hour of the most painful questioning of the NDIS actuary, is that this government has $60 billion worth of savings already booked in the budget over the next nine years. That's $60 billion worth of savings that they have ripped out of the budget. And guess what? They're spending $720 million and saying that that will realise those savings. That cannot happen, and it will not. It is the biggest fraud. Shame on you for everything you're doing to those on the scheme.