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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the statement.

Once again the government is refusing to comply with the very reasonable order of the Senate to produce documents which it is in the public interest to release. This comes within the context of a Labor government which has profoundly betrayed Australia's disability community, our families and our organisations. Let's look at the pattern of behaviour of this government since the passage of the legislation, which is so relevant to this Senate order.

One of the deepest concerns held by the Greens in relation to Labor's NDIS bill was and continues to be the creation of lists which prescribe what can and cannot be accessed by a disabled person or their family. We saw the government initiate one of the most shambolic—I'm trying to find the word because to call it a 'consultation' would be insulting to the entire concept of a 'consultation', but let's just use that word. The Labor government, having done a deal with the Liberals, rammed through this bill against the will of the Australian disability community, commenced a shambolic consultation which excluded large elements of the NDIS community of disabled people and their families, because the government couldn't do basic things like provide easy English examples and explanations of what they were actually doing, and then they published the list of what would and would not be available for access mere days before that list came into effect.

The fear and the uncertainty that they have unleashed on people's lives by the way they have done this is shameful, as is the fact that it is quite obvious to any MP with an inbox that the government and the agency they run are engaged in cutting people's plans. There comes a point when, having passed the 100th or the 150th example of an email hitting your inbox from a constituent pleading for support because something vital they need has just been cut, you have to face the reality that there is a gap between what the government may claim and what is actually happening on the ground. This, combined with a ridiculous process, the agency's so-called 'reaching out to check on you' process, has all been turned into yet another source of anxiety for people.

This bill, driven by these documents—these budgetary decisions which this government, sitting after sitting, continues to keep secret from the Australian people—is resulting in precisely the uncertainty and the fear that the Greens, the Independents and others who voted against this bill predicted, yet they come in here every single time when the Senate insists on this basic information and refuse to give it. Not only do they refuse it; they refuse to give the basic pieces of corroborating evidence to back up their claim. There have been no letters from the states and territories detailing the ways in which the release of this information would compromise state and territory relations—none—in over a year now.

What will it take for this Labor government to realise that they owe the Australian disability community better? I don't think they are going to come to that realisation until they are facing an election, because let me tell you: disabled people and our families are not going to take this treatment anymore. When it comes to election day, we will send a very clear message to you by the way that we vote.