Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

In the 2019 federal election campaign, when the now member for Corangamite was a candidate, she, very regrettably, decided to run billboards around the electorate when I was the assistant minister for disability services. Those billboards said, 'Libby Coker: putting the heart back into the NDIS.' This was an example of the shabby way in which the Labor Party has a very dark history of politicising the NDIS—crass politicising of people with disabilities. And I say shame on the member for Corangamite for the way that she attempted to use my role as assistant minister to score cheap, crass political points.

We have a really proud history of caring for people with disability. But right now, in this chamber, I say, and the coalition says, putting the heart in these changes to the NDIS means ensuring there is proper consultation with the sector. We have seen a gross shortfall in that respect. The coalition will support sensible measures in this bill—measures which the coalition sought to implement when it was in government but which Labor actively campaigned against. That is the height of hypocrisy.

So, at the appropriate stage, the coalition will move amendments to improve this scheme, to preserve the scheme's integrity, to ensure the sustainability of the scheme, and to allow it to continue to improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable in our community. However, as we have made very clear, thorough consultation with the sector is absolutely vital. We recognise the critical need to put the NDIS back onto a sustainable footing. It was very much our focus when we were in government, and all that Labor and the now minister, Mr Shorten, could say then was that we didn't know what we were talking about.

It is very concerning that the Senate community affairs committee was not given the opportunity to consult the sector on government amendments tabled on the day of the public hearing. This, in itself, shows the need for further consultation. The 2½ days of hearings conducted by the committee pointed to significant concerns from the disability community about the lack of detail and the potential unintended consequences of the current legislation without significant amendment. There is broad consensus in the disability community about the need for greater consideration of this bill. While the coalition is willing to work constructively with the government—in stark contrast to the shabby politics we saw from Labor when we were in government—it is disappointing that the government has opted to reject a reasonable request for an extension to the reporting date for the committee, and for a meaningful hearing day, particularly with the National Disability Insurance Agency.

The NDIS is changing the lives of more than 660,000 Australians, and the coalition has a very strong record of support for the NDIS. The coalition was and is committed to a fully funded NDIS as a demand-driven scheme, and has always been clear that the NDIS needs to be sustainable to ensure it delivers for many generations to come. There is no doubt that Labor underinvested in the NDIS when it was established, failing to invest in the unmet needs of people with disability. In fact, just before the 2013 election, then Prime Minister Julia Gillard rushed the NDIS through, contrary to the recommendations that were made, because it was all about getting runs on the board rather than getting the legislation right.

We reflect on the shabby way in which the Labor Party stood in the way of the coalition's attempts to put the scheme on a sustainable footing when we were in government. Mr Shorten even accused the coalition of pearl-clutching Kabuki theatre, claiming the NDIS was tracking just as predicted, and that the coalition was hyping fictional cost blowouts. When Mr Shorten was the shadow minister for the NDIS, he said, 'You can't move around the corridors of parliament in Canberra without tripping over a coalition minister whispering, "The scheme is unsustainable".' I am here to tell you today that that is a lie. When the Labor Party were in opposition, they were grossly irresponsible, because, unless this scheme is sustainable, it will not survive. This scheme is incredibly important for tens and hundreds of thousands of Australians, but it has to be put back on track.

In the lead-up to the 2022 election, Mr Shorten tried to argue the former coalition government made cuts to the NDIS, even though the coalition rescued the NDIS by investing a record $157.8 billion over four years to support what was then more than 550,000 Australians living with disability. Mr Shorten went to the election promising that no plans would go backwards under his watch and the scheme was sustainable as it was. Now he claims the scheme is growing in its cost base too quickly. In government and mugged by the reality of a complex, growing scheme, Mr Shorten now not only questions the sustainability of the NDIS but blames young people with autism and those with psychosocial conditions for these cost pressures, which is completely unacceptable. What people with disability, NDIS participants and their families need is real honesty from this minister, not just to be used as part of a crass political campaign.

Under Labor we saw a very poorly designed scheme allowing the states to walk away from providing key services to those with disability. As I mentioned, when this was first implemented, it was rushed for purely political purposes and, in doing so, the scheme was botched. It was implemented in the dying days of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd fiasco of a government for purely political purposes, and we are now all praying the price for that.

Imagine implementing legislation which effectively imposes all the liability on the Commonwealth for cost increases while capping the liability for the states. That's all well and good, but, of course, any change in the legislation requires the consent of the states, more or less. From the very beginning, this was very flawed.

We've recently seen many media reports highlighting stories where serial sexual abusers, rapists and paedophiles are receiving substantial support from the National Disability Insurance Scheme, sometimes worth more than $1 million, to live under supervision in the community after they're released from detention. Urgent review is needed to disclose how many individuals with serious criminal convictions are receiving NDIS funding. How many of those people are on self-managed plans? During a Senate estimates spillover in March, we learned that you 2½ thousand NDIS participants have interacted with the justice system.

This NDIS minister, Mr Shorten, needs to come clean on how many NDIS participants have serious criminal convictions and how many of those are on self-managed plans. This is vitally important not just to protect the safety of carers and providers but also to preserve the integrity of the scheme.

There is no doubt that there is widespread abuse and there is widespread fraud. That includes giving NDIS participants seemingly unlimited rights to access a range of services, including sex therapy and the like. During February Senate estimates, we asked questions probing what specific criteria or guidelines the NDIS has for determining which animals qualify as support animals. Upon ongoing questioning about this, the NDIS officials could not and would not categorically rule out that a participant used NDIS funds for the cremation of their pet rat. We heard, 'We don't have personal details by which we're able to verify or validate that.'

Now, I don't want to reflect in any way on the incredible work that this scheme does. It is changing lives. It is profoundly providing support to those who most need the support. All Australians, including the families of those with disability, want to make sure that the very substantial investment that we are making in the NDIS is made for the right purposes—it gets to where it needs to go.

In looking at the bill itself, there have been a range of very serious concerns raised by the bill. It's not clear from the bill what a participant can do if they do not agree with the outcome of the needs assessment. NDIA decisions are notorious for being inconsistent and variable, and there does not appear to be any avenue for review. The new definition says the NDIS will only fund eight categories of supports, and these are based on selected elements United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. However, by leaving out other elements the bill also excludes some supports from NDIS funding. Insofar as the transparency of that decision-making, we have really very serious concerns.

The review's recommendations contain numerous contentious recommendations. The drafting of the bill lacked opportunity for consultation. Our position and those we represent is that without examination and scrutiny of the full and complete proposed changes, the bill would deliver results in the future that just look not only uncertain but provide essentially the scope to deliver injustice for people disability who really need support. So there is an enormous amount of work to do to make sure that this bill is fit for purpose.

We have raised deep concerns about the lack of a co-design approach to developing the bill. It's unclear who has been consulted in its development, and apparently, some disability representative groups were consulted and not others. That is just not good enough. If we are going to make these major changes to the way the NDIS operates, we need to make sure that we have properly consulted. There has not even been a formal government response to the disability royal commission or the NDIS review, so we're even surprised about the release of the bill at this point in time. There is much work to be done, and that is why the coalition is calling on further consultation rather than what we are seeing in recent days from the minister, which is a tantrum. He's having a tantrum because his hypocrisy is being exposed. He wants to try and bury this hypocrisy, and we will not cop it.