Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the minister's statement.

At the election, the Labor Party promised the Australian community transparency and accountability. To the disabled community of Australia and our families, the Labor Party pledged collaboration, co-design and a return to a national disability insurance scheme that worked to uphold the dignity of disabled Australians and to support their communities and their families.

What Labor have delivered since winning that election and coming to government is a seemingly endless series of broken promises and betrayals. They promised transparency and accountability, yet they refuse to reveal the details of a deal that they did behind closed doors to cap and cut our NDIS. They promised co-design. They pledged co-design, consultation and a return to dignity, yet their sole focus right now in relation to the National Disability Insurance Scheme—the goal that they are most seeking to achieve—is to cut $14.4 billion that funds vitally needed supports to disabled people across the country. That is their goal. That is what they are working to achieve in this Senate right now—to cut as much as they can and to remove as many of the protections that disabled people and our families are currently guaranteed under the law.

Just this week, we have seen exactly where these types of policy decisions end up. We have seen exactly what will happen if this bill passes. We have been given a rare opportunity, as a community, to see exactly what the end result of a government policy will be before it has passed. One of the most significant removals of rights and protections contained within Labor's NDIS bill is the removal of the principle of reasonable and necessary individualised supports being guaranteed to every participant—that is, the right to make the case for the individualised, specific supports that you need as a disabled person or that your family needs in order to live a good life. The bill removes that and replaces it with a list created by politicians, by ministers and by bureaucrats, and, if what you need is not on that list, you will not get it.

This week we have seen the draft of this list published by the government, in which they gave the disability community two weeks to provide feedback and two weeks to provide consultation. I have milk in my fridge with a longer expiration date than the time the government gave the disability community to give feedback on the vital, necessary supports we need to live our lives.

Worse than that, they created a category of things they wouldn't support, because they were 'lifestyle choices', and on that list of 'lifestyle choices' they placed period products. A government led by a bloke decided that period products are a 'lifestyle choice'. I want to thank Share the Dignity and the excellent journalists who have called this out. Every person who menstruates who needs specialised period products should be able to get them, and this bill grants the power for any future government to take back off the list what we as the community might force them to put on the list during this process. This bill cannot be allowed to pass.