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

Here we are in 2025. The Senate, on behalf of the disability community, on behalf of disabled people and our families, is once again asking this government to provide the community with the truth, with the documentation, with the actual agreement that this Labor government made with states and territories to cut our NDIS, and once again this Labor government refuses to come clean. Once again, they hide behind ridiculous arguments that have been disproven and which they have failed to back up with evidence.

The Senate can now see, in real time, that the community is experiencing, in real time, the impact of this government, supported by the Liberals, cutting our NDIS. In the last estimates session—the last opportunity the Senate had to question the government directly—we were able to extract from them a couple of pieces of information. The government admitted that in the months of July, August and September of 2024 they performed no fewer than 11,500 eligibility reassessments upon NDIS participants. To place that in context, during the financial year 2023-24 a total of 8,000 eligibility reassessments were performed. Then there were 11,500 in three months!

What was the result of those eligibility reassessments? The result was that 52 per cent of the disabled people who were reassessed were kicked off the scheme. How much money was ripped away from them? It was $125 million in three months. That is $125 million of support hours, of the ability to get out of bed, to go to the shops, to go and see your friends. Think of the pieces of assistive technology, think of the therapies, think of the supports that have been taken away from people because they have been kicked off the scheme by this government.

Where are they meant to go? Labor says, 'Don't worry: there'll be something called a foundational support.' They've been saying that for years. What is a foundational support? The government still can't answer. Who will pay for it? Labor doesn't know. How will you get it? Labor doesn't know. What safeguards will there be? Labor doesn't know. None of these questions that keep disabled people and our families up at night have been answered by this Labor government, yet they continue to cut supports; they continue to kick people off their NDIS packages and supports. Then they have the audacity, whilst celebrating the establishment of the National Autism Strategy—something that has been called for, for many years, by advocates and experts—to say, 'Wow, look at us; we're so great for implementing this strategy and we are very excited about the good it will do for the community,' while at the same time kicking autistic kids off the scheme. How are we meant to implement the National Autism Strategy if, at the same time, thousands upon thousands of autistic kids are having their supports removed?

Every single dollar that Labor, with the help of the Liberals, rips away from a disabled person or from their family member will be repaid to you in kind after election day, through the ballot box. A vote for the Greens is a vote to protect and save our NDIS.