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

I think we're very close to the time for the debate expiring. In closing, while I strongly disagree with many of the assertions in Senator Steele-John's closing speech, I do thank him for making a contribution to this debate. I think that it's very important that some of the injunctions in the last three contributions, taken together, are what we must focus on as this legislation passes the parliament and as we go on with the work of implementing this vital piece of work.

I do say to Australians who are participants in the scheme and their families that what the passage of this legislation means is that participants, their families and future generations can have confidence that the government and this parliament are committed to making the scheme stronger, to making it sustainable and to improving the experience of Australians with a disability and their families and their communities, and that the government and, indeed, the parliament recognise how important this NDIS set of reforms have been for Australia as a country. It will be the work of this government and future generations to continue to focus on improvements and to continue to mobilise community support for the scheme. Every Australian, whether they participate in the scheme or are a family member of somebody who participates in the scheme or have no relationship with the scheme whatsoever, benefits from a strong, universal National Disability Insurance Scheme and from a government that continues to focus on improvements to the performance of the scheme, the sustainability of the scheme, the long-term viability of the scheme that is founded properly in its original purpose. These issues should be the subject of contest because they are vital for the interest of Australians, about whom we should care very deeply indeed.

There will be amendments to the scheme, and I don't, in the short amount of time left, want to deal with those amendments in detail. Some of them here are matters that the government has determined, in response to discussions with the states and territories, will improve the governance and co-governance of the scheme. It is a good thing that the states and territories, as a response to those changes, have deepened their public commitment to the scheme. There are amendments there that are a response to the parliamentary debate and the inquiry's processes and also to representations made directly to the government by senators and also by community organisations that represent disabled people. They go to ensuring that foundational supports are comprehensively defined and implemented in states and territories.

The government will deliver a formal response to the disability royal commission and the NDIS review. And some of those amendments do go—I've heard Senator Steele-John's final contribution in this debate—to some of the matters that Senator Steele-John raised. I respect the fact that he does not believe they go to them satisfactorily, but they do go, for example, to that precise issue of allowing for the kind of care, where it is appropriate, in terms of services like hair washing, and to a process that deals with that in an effective and dignified kind of way.

It is important to make sure that that work with the states and territories and the disability community around the broader reforms that are required to support the effective operation of the scheme continues, including to develop foundational supports agreed by National Cabinet to commence from 1 July 2025. It's important to ensure that there is careful sequencing of the other key recommendations from the NDIS review and the disability royal commission, and the bill establishes the framework to allow the time that it will take to carefully co-design and develop the detail in subordinate legislation.

We are not going backwards here on these questions. We are going forwards. We are not going backwards to the bad old days and the kinds of things that happened to disabled people in group homes or in any other context. There is nothing in this bill that does anything but aim forward at a scheme that offers decency and dignity and better services and at a more sustainable scheme that's in the interests of all Australians but particularly in the interests of disabled people and their families. While I recognise, and the minister recognises, that there should be contest over these questions, let's be very clear as a parliament that the message that we are sending today with the passage of this important piece of legislation, which does not cover the field of all the reforms that are required but enables progress, is pointing forward, making sure we turn our back on a very difficult past and protecting, building and strengthening this scheme for the future.

Progress reported.