Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024. I'm very proud to be part of two Labor governments which have presided over the NDIS. The Gillard Labor government founded the NDIS, and now the Albanese Labor government is getting the scheme back to where it was intended to be, to help people living with disabilities and the people that are caring for them.

In the years before the NDIS was established, Australians living with disabilities were left in the dark with little support. People with disability, and their carers, had a very fractured support base, and a lot of the time they were disengaged and entirely absent from fully participating in our society. This lack of support, together with discrimination and social exclusion, failed millions of Australians. The NDIS was created to remedy this. It emerged from the collective work of people with disabilities, the advocates and the organisations that supported them. It was a federal Labor government which was committed to not only listening to those concerns but taking the necessary action.

One of the great achievements of the NDIS has been the bringing together of the state, territory and Commonwealth governments to ensure that people across the country receive the same level of support and the same level of care. Today, over 600,000 people with a disability are being supported by the NDIS. Thousands of providers have served their participants, allowing people with disabilities to live a very full life. But there is still more work to be done.

While many people's lives have been improved and transformed by NDIS support, there have also been frustrations. Despite the usual bleating from the Greens about no-one ever doing enough and that they're the only ones who can support people with disability, the reality is that they will never form government and have the responsibility of balancing our budgets to support Australians, whether they're people with disability or they're homeless, or whether it's through our education system, our universities or our health system. It's easy to come in here and just knock the government of the day. That's what they do best. They want to scaremonger and nitpick at everything instead of getting behind us and helping to make the lives of people living with disabilities better.

The 2023 independent review into the NDIS demonstrated the need for reform. The goals of the review were to put people with disability at the centre of the NDIS, to restore trust and confidence in the scheme, and to ensure that the scheme can continue to operate into the future. The review recommended 26 overarching changes to the scheme that will result in better outcomes for those participants. This reform is the first of many amendments that will bring this vision of a stronger NDIS to life.

Recommendation 3 of the report of the independent review calls for a 'fairer and more consistent participant pathway'. This amendment will go a long way towards achieving that goal. This measure creates a new definition for 'NDIS support' that ensures funding received by participants is focused on the vital need for support resulting from their impairment. Through its many other changes, it also clarifies the process of review, bringing more certainty to individuals and carers during the often very stressful application process. As the Minister for the NDIS, the Hon. Bill Shorten MP, who was one of the original architects in our former government, noted in his speech, the time for reform is now. Making things right for people living with disabilities requires a mature and respectful dialogue between all levels of government and a spirit of cooperation that puts the interests of Australians living with disabilities first. The time for us to act is now, and this bill will help make the NDIS fairer and, most importantly, more transparent.

Getting the NDIS back on track means more certainty and transparency for participants and for carers. Getting the NDIS back on track means more money going towards the support that actually make the largest impact on participant mobility, community inclusion and quality of life. Getting the NDIS back on track will place Australians living with disabilities at the core of the NDIS. After all, the formation of the NDIS was always about the people. It was for those living with disability. But it was also to help and give support to carers.

Unfortunately, though, when the former Liberal coalition government came in a decade ago, they took their eye off the ball, like they did with the aged care reforms that we set in place at that time, because the NDIS was done at the instigation of a Labor government. They did that in aged care—that's why they had to call a royal commission into their own failings when they were in government—and with the NDIS they lost focus. They didn't have the interest, obviously—otherwise we would not have seen the deterioration of the prime focus, which was always about providing support for those with a disability. They lost focus on that because, basically, they don't have the same commitment. It's not in their DNA, as it is with a Labor government, to ensure that those people who need a helping hand get a helping hand. Those people who have a disability have access so that they can have a fulfilling, healthier life with the support that they need to fully participate. We know and understand and appreciate the valuable contribution everyone makes to make our community better, to make our country stronger.

The National Disability Insurance Agency workforce was left understaffed by the Liberals and Nationals for years and years. We know that there are many places, including in my home state, where those people that have already got a package of care have not been able to access the care that they need because there were no service providers. They took their eye off the ball and they did nothing to ensure that those people who needed those very important services—and I'm talking about millions of dollars that weren't and haven't been spent because they couldn't get any services provided to them. We also know that it was under their watch—when the Liberals and Nationals were in government, there was waste, there was mismanagement, there was unethical behaviour, there were unscrupulous providers, and, dare I say it, there were even some family members who were taking advantage of that money that was being allocated to look after a family member with a disability. That money wasn't necessarily always going where it was needed. What happened? You had to wait till there was a Labor government elected again to come in and, again, clean up another mess left by those opposite.

The core value of people on this side of the chamber, of Labor people, is to make life better for our fellow Australians—to make life better for those people living with a disability. We want to see every dollar go to where it is meant to be, and that is to the care of those people with a disability. We want to stamp out the fraud and the mismanagement, and to make sure that those people who are assessed and who have a package can get the support that they need. There will be zero tolerance for those who would take money away from those who are in need of that support.

This bill and Labor's further reforms will help support the more than 13,000 Tasmanians, from my home state, benefiting from the NDIS by creating a more just and efficient scheme. The Albanese Labor government will not only help support participants but also encourage the growth and skills of services that make the NDIS possible. This will create many opportunities for Australian workers, from direct support roles to medical specialists. In that way, the NDIS reforms will help all Tasmanians thrive. Just one other way that we are helping to support the NDIS and people with disabilities is by helping to fund a community care project in Launceston, where they are building a respite centre that will be a respite and training centre for carers, whether in the aged-care workforce or in disability. I'm hoping that will go on and be a project that can be emulated around the country.

I will always stand in this chamber—and elsewhere—and support, and advocate on behalf of, Tasmanians living with disabilities. I'm very proud to be part of a Labor government which truly cares about all Australians—not just the lucky few, not just the wealthy and not just the big end of town. We actually have empathy, respect, and compassion. They are our key, core Labor values. It took a Labor government to introduce Medicare and the NDIS, and it takes a Labor government to manage these programs correctly. Australians can trust Labor to fund and support those living with a disability. We will help deliver life-saving and life-changing programs.

The promise of the NDIS is that all Australians who are born with, or who acquire, a disability have peace of mind, knowing that that support will be there for them when they need it. People living with disability should never be left behind by any government or society. Labor's vision for the future is one where everyone can fully participate in our community life and have the freedom to pursue and fulfil their own needs and desires. That's our vision of the NDIS. We are not there yet. We still have a way to go before we reach that, but we will be working to ensure that the model which we had from the outset, and which was fundamentally going to be there for people with disability to support their carers and families, will be world's best practice. We will do everything we can to ensure that that is delivered. I understand those opposite will support this bill, and I urge those on the crossbench not to just come in and attack a piece of legislation for the sake of it or to exaggerate some of the concerns that they have in order to make political points. This should not be about politics. It should be about providing the support that people living with disabilities should be able to expect in a country as rich as ours.

Ultimately, this amendment is a first step in a long journey of changing the NDIS for the better. Progress, as I said, will not happen overnight, and amending the scheme fully will require cooperation between the states, the territories and, most importantly, the community. While we have a long way to go, this amendment is a welcome move in the right direction. It is a step that will deliver better outcomes for those with disabilities, those who are caring for them and those working in the sector. Importantly, it's a step in the right direction for Australian taxpayers. I commend the legislation to the Senate.