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

Of course, Senator Hughes, I can't comment on the individual case of the young man to whom you've responded, but it is clear that his mother was fortunate to have your mobile telephone number. It's a reminder, in my view, that, as we seek to improve the rules and the processes and the scope and the relationship of the scheme to the work of the states and territories, including the foundational supports, at the end of all of this there is always a person. There are always their carers or their family. There is always the community around them. And there are inevitably tough stories. There are inevitably tears. There are inevitably difficult outcomes. That is the truth of it. As we continue to reform and refine, we should not expect that the kinds of things that you described will never happen. The case is that it is our job as a Commonwealth government to continue on a pathway of reform to improve all of these things. These principles of co-design, of dealing with the foundational supports offered by the states and territories, are going to be crucial over time to the sustainability of the scheme and improving the outcomes from the scheme.

But it's also true that, at the end of this, as we reform it, there will still be, whether it's at the Commonwealth level or the state and territory level, silos and bureaucratic decision-making, and we have to improve that over time. The truth is that, if we are honest about it, these are problems that existed at the foundation of the scheme. They existed in 2013 too, and in 2014, and in 2015, 2016 and 2017, all the way through to 2022, and they exist today. It's the job of this parliament and this reform process to tackle those challenges. Senator Hughes asks: what would it cost? Of course, one of the founding principles of the NDIS was that it was about providing for social justice and also that it made economic sense. She is exactly right to point to better outcomes in terms of more efficient, effective and impactful spending if we get the architecture of the scheme right.

In relation to reforms in terms of plan managers, there is more to come. As I said in the second reading speech, and as the minister has indicated in the parliament and publicly, this is the first step in terms of legislation. It begins its own enabling reform process itself, but there will be more to come over time because this is a big scheme, it is an important scheme, it is important to the welfare of Australians right across Australia, and it is going to require attention to detail and a lot of sustained work to keep the scheme sustainable and effective for ordinary Australians.