Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

Before I respond to that contribution, I table an amendment to the explanatory memorandum relating to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024. The addendum responds to matters raised by the Scrutiny of Bills Committee and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights.

There were a number of assertions in that contribution, Senator Hughes, that I want to respond to. The first is about the consultation that has been undertaken by the government in relation to this bill, beyond the two Senate committee inquiries which have been undertaken. Of course, the changes themselves made by the bill address some of the key recommendations from the 2023 Independent Review of the NDIS. There has been deep engagement—not selective engagement; deep engagement—across the disability community, across Australia. It heard not just of people's responses in relation to the recommendations but of the experience of people with a disability, to inform their recommendations. The panel itself heard from over 10,000 people and organisations. It received over 4,000 submissions. It spent over 2,000 hours listening to the stories, ideas and feedback of people with a disability. The panel had regular meetings with Commonwealth, state and territory disability ministers. The panel used findings from other reviews and inquiries, like the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. And the voices of people with disability will stay at the centre of designing and implementing the changes to the NDIS. What Australians can expect—what Australians with a disability and carers and families of Australians with a disability can expect—is that the government will take the same deep consultation approach, as it implements the provisions of this bill, as it has taken in terms of the whole process.

Senator Hughes asks us to look at the number of days that were allocated by the Senate committee—a matter for the committee, I suppose—but also to look at the number of days spent. I'd just say: there have been thousands and thousands of days and thousands and thousands of submissions. There has been deep consideration of those issues, when developing the panel report, the government's response to the panel report and the bill that is in front of us today.

In terms of foundational supports, the NDIS review recommended that governments invest in foundational supports to bring fairness, balance and sustainability to the ecosystem supporting people with disability. That is at the Commonwealth and state and territory levels. The review defined 'foundational disability supports' as disability specific supports that are available to all people with disability and, where appropriate, their families and carers. In 2023, National Cabinet agreed to the design of foundational supports that will be engaged by the Commonwealth and states and territories, to create more pathways outside of the NDIS for young children and people accessing the scheme. Foundational supports will work towards a model of care that incorporates mainstream services. Foundational supports will be evidence based supports and services that will better connect people with disability with supports and services that the NDIS itself is not necessarily best placed to provide. It's the intention of the government's approach to foundational supports to create an inclusive and accessible disability ecosystem.

The decision to bring forward the legislative changes and associated rules was made by National Cabinet in December 2023. It was a decision of Australian governments to respond to key recommendations around restoring the scheme to its original intent. The experience of participants was clearly heard through the NDIS review and, while governments are considering their responses, a key initial step in responding to the NDIS review is developing the new budget based planning framework. While it's important to ensure that there is careful sequencing of other key recommendations from the NDIS review, such as foundational supports, the bill establishes the framework to allow the time that it will take to carefully co-design and develop the detail in subordinate legislation. Participants will be carefully transitioned to the new approach over time. The phased approach will provide the NDIA with appropriate time to design and test operational changes and provide governments with time to develop the system of foundational supports outside of the NDIS.

I listened carefully to Senator Hughes's contribution. Indeed, when I was responding to Senator Steele-John about the question of co-design, I appreciate very much that the language around co-design is language that is used by government, by participants in the scheme and particularly by stakeholder organisations to describe the kind of iterative process that we've set out. It is not language that people in the street would normally use, and it is prone to being described in the way that Senator Hughes described it. It is important, though. It is important to hold on to the ordinary meaning of this idea in terms of the way that the government sets about this kind of important reform. That is why the minister, the department and the agency have set out on the website what those principles mean: it is important for participants and stakeholders to have confidence in the scheme.

I make this point as well. It was the Labor Party and, in fact, this minister and this government, who established the scheme. It was the previous government, over the course of the nine years when it occupied the Treasury benches, who administered this scheme. Now we have responsibility as a parliament, and I just say this: we could spend the next few hours or days hearing people defending their legacies, blame-shifting and pointing at each other. But, actually, when a sensible set of reforms is put in front of it—reforms that will make the scheme more sustainable, that will moderate the growth of the scheme so that it is sustainable, that will make the processes in the scheme fairer, that will set up not in two minutes but over the course of time a proper process of reform, that will set out that process of reform and enable that process of reform—I do think it's the job of this place to support that legislation in the interests of the Australians we are here to represent.