Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Child Protection and the Prevention of Family Violence) Share this | Hansard source

If the Albanese government had been listening and fulfilling its promises of transparency and leaving no-one behind, there would been proper consultation with the sector and the community on this bill. The Prime Minister came to office vowing: 'We are going to be an open, transparent and accountable government. We are going to let the light shine in.' Wow. What has actually been delivered is that the shutters are down, the lights are out and they are not listening. For evidence, look no closer than the unwillingness of the government to extend scrutiny by the Community Affairs Legislation Committee and establish parliamentary process to interrogate issues associated with and informing this legislation. It is the job of the Senate; it is the job of senators. It is about bringing the diversity of Senate representation to propose legislation, but time is needed to do that properly.

The parliament and, indeed, the Senate should be a place where unintended consequences of legislation are exposed and rectified. An effective upper house is critical to democracy. A crucial part of the Senate succeeding as the house of review is it being respected by the government of the day. Sadly, the Albanese government lacks that respect. Even the sector has said there was insufficient time for proper consultation with them, the participants, their families and the community on this bill. With a lack of detail, it's little wonder there are widespread concerns about this legislation. Legislative instruments and rules are still under development.

The NDIS is a demand driven scheme. We know the NDIS has changed the lives of about 650,000 Australians for the better, including more than 55,000 recipients in my home state of South Australia. The coalition are proud of our strong record of accomplishment in supporting the NDIS, having taken it from fewer than 50,000 participants to more than half a million participants in our time in government.

Bill Shorten is a 17-year political veteran. He is the current NDIS minister and, as a member of the Labor government back then, was an architect of the NDIS. Yet, with all this commentary on the NDIS in opposition and with his two years as NDIS minister, we get, after much hand-wringing, only to this point and this bill. And now reports in the media are saying that Minister Shorten, just to avoid scrutiny, blames the committee for cost blowouts. How pathetic! Minister Shorten promised that the NDIS was a massive priority, and that promise included a promise of co-design.

The Australian disability community has been let down. Families have been let down. The opportunity for thorough consultation is important in bringing the NDIS back onto a sustainable footing, but in a manner that does not disadvantage or negatively impact participants who are most in need. Of all policies, amendments to the National Disability Insurance Scheme require the greatest of scrutiny. It is a scheme that affects the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of some of our most vulnerable Australians. Members of this place, regardless of where in the chamber they sit, are passionate about the NDIS, I have no doubt. This scheme is about delivering for the people it is intended to support.

My coalition colleagues in the Senate Committee Affairs Legislation Committee could not provide fully informed feedback and could not consult those most affected by these changes. Of course we are disappointed, so how must NDIS participants and their families feel? They have every right to feel let down. One look at emails to my office proves that Australians care about the NDIS working effectively and efficiently. Over the past month I have received many, many unique emails—they're not form emails—from individuals across the country, all with similar remarks. Their messages are simple and similar: the bill won't induce the positive change it was introduced to effect.

As my colleague Michael Sukkar said in the other place, it's as if this government and the minister have gone into the bunker and decided: 'We're going to reverse our position from the election. We're going to do the opposite of what we said before the election. So let's just put the flak jackets on, get into the bunker and do this—not consult intelligently, fairly, openly and transparently with the people whom these changes will most significantly impact.' It's an accurate analogy.

Let me provide some examples of emails to my office. I've changed the names for privacy, but their stories are real. Take Laura, who has been diagnosed with autism, complex post-traumatic stress disorder and multiple chronic health conditions. Since being diagnosed and gaining access to the correct supports via the NDIS, she has moved out of her parents' house, maintained steady employment as a face painter and balloon twister at kids parties, volunteered with her community at tree-planting events, established a regular exercise routine and participated in art classes to meet new people, and she's also been working on making new friends. It's about enjoying greater freedom, independence and agency. She says that the bill has the potential to severely limit choice and control. Laura said that the appeal and review mechanisms are unclear and that the bill limits creative and cost-effective support and access, and she is critical of the assessment process. She says it's just plain wrong. A Melbourne university academic shared that the proposed changes to the NDIS are terrifying for her friends, who report looking at losing control of their own destinies, dramatic cuts and losing the benefit of selecting and training their own support workers. This is a real issue for them. This is really important for them. Control and agency for people living with disability is just so important to every single individual and their family. It makes a huge difference to their quality of life.

Then there is the struggle of the 66,000 or so Indigenous Australians living with severe disability, many of whom do not access the NDIS, though there is a plan in place started under the coalition to address that. In September 2022 the NDIS was providing disability support to about 41,000 Indigenous Australians, a rise of 18 per cent on the previous year. It has been estimated that about 10 per cent live in remote and very remote communities, where service access is a significant challenge. The very real difficulty of being a wheelchair user or needing a mobility device in a remote community was among the issues raised during the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability in its hearings last year. The disability royal commission's research report found Indigenous Australians are 28 per cent less likely to receive care via the NDIS than their non-Indigenous counterparts. The research found some disability services could be described as unsafe, traumatising and inequitable. In fact, the report concluded that the lack of available, accessible and culturally appropriate services for Indigenous Australians with disability is a time-sensitive national crisis.

Where is the evidence to suggest that you're not leaving any Australian behind, as you promised when Labor came to office more than two years ago? Where's that evidence? It is clear that spending must be reined in. As NDIS spending blows out towards $50 billion a year, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten is not leading by example, demonstrating instead one rule for Labor and another for everyone else. I was in that Senate committee that heard that, while Bill Shorten says he is cutting costs, he's spending $620,000 on his speechwriter, despite having a communications team in the department of over 100 employees. As minister he has direct access to them. The waste, double standards and disappointment are symptomatic of the Albanese government.

This bill has got an interesting name. We've had a lot of bills come into this place with catchy little phrases that don't actually do what they say they're going to do. This bill is called 'Getting the NDIS back on track'. How about you get this bill back on track? This bill needs to be referred to the Community Affairs Legislation Committee for proper consideration. It's a retrograde step, this bill. Its development has lacked sufficient consultation, and it is not only leaving vulnerable Australians out of its design but also leaving the most important people in this, those living with a disability, to live with the consequences of it. Send it to the committee as proposed by the coalition amendments. That's the right thing to do. That's what's required to get this bill back on track.