Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The government is pleased to be introducing legislation into the Senate today aimed at securing the future of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. I'd like to commence my remarks by adding some context to this bill because we've had an awful lot of information that I think needs some clarity. Before the National Disability Insurance Scheme was rolled out over a decade ago, Australians with disability were often unseen, unheard and living in the shadows. Australians with disability suffered what is called by some the 'misery lottery'—that is, disability support was patchy across the country. It depended on what state you lived in and what suburb you lived in. And so, depending on your postcode, you might be lucky enough to get some funding to help you and your family or, otherwise, you might live a life of uncertainty. Quite often, that would lead to significant disadvantage and poverty.

It was in 2009 that the then Labor government, under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the minister for social services, Jenny Macklin, commissioned a report to help move the analysis and the debate about people with disability in this country. That report was titled Shut outan apt title. What was uncovered through the consultation phase was intensely moving and profoundly shocking. It painted a picture then of people with a disability isolated and alone and their lives a constant struggle for resources and support. An article written about the groundbreaking report at that time said:

Where once they were shut in, now people with a disability find themselves shut out. Shut out of housing, employment, education, health care, recreation and sport. Shut out of kindergartens, schools, shopping centres and community groups. Shut out of our way of life. This segregation is a national disgrace.

It was clear from that report that Australia needed a whole system of disability support and a scheme like the NDIS for people with the most complex support needs.

The nation and the parliament at that time made a decision that we would no longer let a person's postcode or financial situation dictate whether they got disability support or not. The National Disability Insurance Scheme has fundamentally changed Australia. The NDIS represents the best of our country. It fulfils a sense of collective responsibility and the essence of the fair go and it is integral to our national identity. Its value is measured in human terms, not just economic terms. People with a disability should have the support they need to participate in the community and lead an ordinary life. Every Australian deserves peace of mind knowing that they, or someone they love, should they acquire a significant disability, has the NDIS there for them. That is the essence of our country. We can never, and must never, return to the days before the NDIS. I know there are people in this chamber and in the other chamber like me who worked in the disability sector before the NDIS and saw firsthand how awful it was. Treating our fellow Australians who have a disability as second-class citizens—too hard, too costly and someone else's responsibility—reflects an image of ourselves that I don't believe we should ever recognise or accept.

However, despite its life-changing impact, the NDIS has been losing its way. It has not fully delivered on the original vision. While the NDIS has absolutely changed the lives of thousands of people, it's not working well for everyone. There is a variability out there in the system that we can't continue to accept. Participants have spoken about how every interaction with the NDIS can become a battle. That was not what it was designed for. That is not how the original design was constructed. Thousands of passionate champions for the cause tirelessly worked to try and help establish the scheme. Before our NDIS, people with disability were treated as second-class citizens—out of sight, out of mind. We have worked every day with the disability sector to do what we can to make life on the NDIS a better life for people with a disability in Australia. We promised to make the NDIS a priority and not penalise people with a disability for wanting to live fulfilled lives. We promised to put more people with disability on the NDIS board and conduct a root-and-branch review of the scheme. We've done that.

We promised to make the scheme sustainable so that future generations of Australians with a disability could rely upon it and have confidence in it. We now have more people with lived experience on the NDIS board than in the entire history of the scheme. We have our first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander board member, and we are getting more people with a disability who are eligible for the NDIS and fit for discharge discharged from a hospital rather than waiting in bed when they are medically fit to go home. We've slashed the 4½ thousand legacy appeal cases that were languishing in long queues at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. We've established a partnership between the National Disability Insurance Agency and the First Peoples Disability Network to collaborate on the new First Nations NDIS strategy and action plan.

We've established the Inklings pilot with the Telethon Kids Institute in Western Australia to help families with children who are showing early signs of autism with evidence based interventions. Early intervention is one of the key principles of the NDIS, and the world-leading Inklings program takes us from a wait-and-see approach to an identify-and-act approach. Early intervention is crucial for a life with less reliance upon supports later on and a much, much better chance for a child to flourish.

We also promised to make the scheme safer for people with disability and to tackle fraud, waste and overcharging so that every dollar goes towards getting a better outcome. In its first year, the Fraud Fusion Taskforce that we established has investigated more than 100 cases, involving more than $1 billion of NDIS funding. Mr Michael Phelan, a former director of the Australian Institute of Criminology and a decorated former police officer, is now the Acting Commissioner of the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. The commission is part of the taskforce, along with the ACCC and the NDIA, to weed out those charging more for equipment and services simply because you have an NDIS funding package. It is wrong, and it's a breach of federal law, but we've updated the rules of the NDIS so this won't happen. It's similar to the concept of a wedding tax. You rock up to a service provider and, as soon as you say you've got an NDIS package, they immediately ramp up the prices, in the same way they might if you were trying to book an event and you said it was a wedding. I say to service providers who are complaining about our campaign on price gouging: putting unfair treatment by, admittedly, a very small minority of service providers in the too-hard basket undermines the reputation of all of those other excellent service providers who are doing the right thing.

While an enormous amount has been achieved in a short period of time, there really is so much more to do. The independent NDIS review panel undertook some of the most extensive consultations with the Australian community in the history of the Commonwealth, with the aim of setting a new course for the NDIS. The review's final report was publicly released on 7 December 2023, with 26 recommendations and 139 supporting actions for government, all based on what the panel heard from over 10,000 people and disability organisations and what they read in over 4,000 submissions. National Cabinet considered the final report and, as part of the initial response, agreed that the Commonwealth should work with the state and territory governments to implement legislative changes in the first half of 2024.

I acknowledge the goodwill of the premiers of the states. The arguments around the NDIS and who is responsible for what have raged for a very long time, and the engagement with them has been exceptionally positive, with their commitment last December to fund additional disability services outside the NDIS program and the foundational supports that we speak of. I also acknowledge that they agreed to contribute more directly to the NDIS from July 2028.

Since the report was handed down, Minister Shorten has held no fewer than 10 town hall meetings around Australia, where thousands of people attended in person and online to share their views. The town halls were held to provide transparency, to listen and to reassure people. This is a cornerstone of this government's commitment to people with a disability. We have been on the front line with people with a disability and the sector always. The NDIS is testament to this, and we will not waver from this loyalty and this responsibility. We've had 10 years of delay on the NDIS progressing for Australians. Ten years—we hear that a lot in this chamber. Ten long years when those opposite didn't always do the right thing. Australians with an disability shouldn't wait a day longer than they have to for governments at all levels to work together with people with disabilities to improve the scheme.

The Albanese government is committed to engaging and consulting with people with disability, their families, carers, representative organisations, service providers, unions, and the broader community. We've made the promise to co-design with people with a disability as a fundamental tenet of what we are doing. Co-design is the only way forward to make sure we get this right. This bill provides the framework for a broader reform to the scheme, and we are committed to ensuring the design and implementation of these challenges will include extensive consultation to ensure that people's views are heard, that they know that they're being heard. The trust in the scheme is critical for its success and we will ensure that we provide that.

We want people to know that they have a seat at the table and that they will be listened to. We are committed to working with people, not doing things to people. Working alongside, working hand in hand, understanding the challenges and the differences and working together to make a difference. The powerful mantra that anyone who's been engaged in the disability sector will have heard over many, many years is 'nothing about us without us', and we are sticking to that. This bill will enable new and expanded rule- and instrument-making powers. This is why we have committed to co-design.

The debate on this bill has been raging. I get that people all have very different views, but, as a Senate and as a parliament, we need to come together. We need to chart the way forward. We need to find a way to ensure that the NDIS will provide the services and the supports that people in our community need, that they rely on, that enables them to live a full life, that gives them choice, that gives them opportunities, and that is what we will continue to fight for.