Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024 and support comments made in this chamber about having a much more sustainable NDIS system whereby the money goes to the people who need it but isn't wasted on people who don't need it. It is interesting. I actually read an article yesterday online in Brisbane's Sunday Mail about how the National Disability Insurance Scheme is now being gouged by private equity owners. Let me tell you that the moment you hear the words 'private equity' you really need to find yourself a very good proctologist, because these people gouge the system. It doesn't matter whether it's public or private. I am sure that the NDIS system wasn't set up so that we could make wealthy billionaires wealthier.

I have always been of the belief—and I have said this in regard to banking and everything like that—that the best system to have in any country or any particular part of the economy is a private sector that encourages efficiency and productivity et cetera but also a backstop with public competition as well. In the health system, we have public and private hospitals. In the education system, we have public and private schools. I, myself, am advocating for a public bank because I believe that since we privatised the Commonwealth Bank we've seen the private banks gouge the market. We haven't got greater competition; what we've got is greater market concentration. I think that, in the NDIS system, we must have a backstop in the public sector, as well, that can provide ethical, solid—