Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Hansard source

This might actually be the last time I rise in this place to speak about the NDIS, and I do acknowledge Senator Steele-John, the work that we have done over the past six years on the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, work that we have done through the community affairs committee and the work that we have done on every occasion in here demanding this information. With the chamber's indulgence and the chair's indulgence, I'm going to go through what the lack of clarity means for families and means for families like mine. I leave here in great trepidation for what will happen to the NDIS as the parent of a participant who is someone who actually needs the scheme to be sustainable because, when I'm no longer around, when his father is no longer around, my son will need lifelong supports. He has a significant, permanent, lifelong disability, so I need it to be sustainable. I am frightened beyond words that, when I leave this place, no-one will care about that. People will not care because, if you are not part of the NDIS, it's just something that's overblown; it's just something that's costing too much money. But if you, or a loved one, are relying on it to have a quality of life, this is one of the most important issues you and your family face.

I had my son's plan meeting a couple of months ago. It took us over three weeks to get the new plan. His plan was due to expire when I sent a message to someone at the agency to say: 'Hey; his plan expires tomorrow. I still haven't got the new one. What happens?' Then it miraculously arrived that afternoon in the new PACE system. It arrived with a cut. So, for everyone playing along at home, just know that it doesn't matter if you're the Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS, it doesn't matter if you're the shadow assistant minister for the NDIS, it doesn't matter if you've been an advocate for your son for in excess of 13 years and an advocate in the space of children with profound autism and it doesn't matter how well you know the scheme and understand the scheme; participants who need support, participants with permanent and significant and lifelong disabilities, are having their supports cut. We were told by Minister Shorten that there would not be cuts to plans. That was a lie because I can tell you that my son's plan was cut.

We had an incident yesterday at his special needs school that absolutely demonstrates why he needs the supports that the OT wrote into the report that cost me a lot of money to have done. The CEO of the NDIA told us at estimates just a few weeks ago that they don't read the reports, so it was a waste of time, effort and money, and the people who are going to suffer the most from this are my son and his family because of the impacts that these changes are going to have on him. Now, I will make it work. I'll fund what I need to fund and do what I need to do to make it work because I know how hard it is for families to go to the tribunal to get appeals and to go through the review process. Quite frankly, after six years of advocacy in this place and, honestly, hitting my head against a brick wall, I don't have it in me to go to the tribunal. And it's not worth it; the cut is not worth doing that.

What I do know as well is that millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars are being spent on lawyers, on fighting families who are not getting the supports that they need, for only three per cent of cases to ever go to the tribunal or to not be settled beforehand to give these families exactly what they were asking for in the first place. So the agency is spending millions upon millions upon millions of dollars to fight families who are not getting the supports that they need only to ultimately give them what they want on the steps of the tribunal. It is a disgrace.

When we talk about efficiencies, which is part of the framework that we're looking at—how they are going to get to the growth—let me tell you that, when moving from the old system to the PACE system, something as simple as bank account details did not transfer over. So, when I went to put in the first of Fred's claims for his new plan, the bank account details didn't transfer. In the old system, you could just go in and update your bank details or change your bank details, but, no, now you have to call the agency and speak to them. They told me: 'We hope that works. Try again in 24 hours.' If that is an efficiency move, I am speechless.

I am afraid about what will happen to this scheme when I leave. Senator Steele-John, you and I don't agree on everything, but we do agree on sustainability. We need this to be for the people it was intended to be for, we need it to support the families that need it the most, and there needs to be transparency and support for this vital scheme.