Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with a great deal of sadness that I rise to speak on this motion for the 19th time. I rise with sadness because I reflect on the fact that, four years ago, as the Minister for the NDIS, I saw very, very clearly that this was a scheme that needed significant reform because the original legislation was deeply flawed. The federal government, who was responsible for all of the cost overruns, not the states and territories, had no way of impacting the levers of the insurance scheme—that is, the number of participants in the scheme and the average cost per participant. We also needed to fundamentally reform the intergovernmental agreements with each state and territory so that they had the financial incentive to ensure that this scheme was sustainable.

I reached out to Bill Shorten, the shadow minister at the time, and I said: 'These are the reforms that we need to do. Will you work with us?' He agreed to two tranches of reforms for participant protections, which were very important, as long as we didn't tell anyone that he'd actually agreed to them. I'm very proud that we got those pieces of legislation through, but I'm deeply saddened that Bill Shorten instead took the option that he always takes, and that is to play the basest of politics with the lives of the now nearly 700,000 people on the NDIS and their millions of family members. Had Bill Shorten and the Labor Party had the political courage and the decency to work with us to genuinely reform this scheme to ensure that it was sustainable, today, four years later, it would be a very different scheme. It would be a scheme for those it was designed for, the 350,000 or so Australians who had permanent and serious disabilities. They were treated appallingly, largely in state-run facilities, where they were abused. They weren't treated with dignity or respect, and they lived the most miserable of lives. The scheme was designed for those Australians.

I think both sides of the chamber have responsibility for the flawed design, but equally we both have a responsibility to fix this scheme. Instead, 19 times the minister has come to this place and said, 'We've run yet another review of this scheme.' There had already been thirty reviews before the government spent the last three years reviewing this scheme. So what have they done? Instead of reforming the scheme, they have made huge, extraordinary, arbitrary cuts to people's plans. They are no further along in dealing with the states and territories in terms of the intergovernmental agreements.

As this is likely my last speech on the NDIS, I implore those opposite: after this election, stop taking the easy and politically expedient way and actually work on a multipartisan basis on this scheme. We and the Greens have always been willing to work together with you. Do not allow the political pollution that Bill Shorten has brought into this scheme. Work with us to reform the scheme. Ensure that those who need the scheme the most have certainty for the rest of their lives and, as Senator Hughes so poignantly just said, that their families understand that their children will be taken care of. They are the most terrified people at the moment, as a result of the politics of those opposite. They are desperately concerned that this scheme will implode and they will be back where they started over a decade ago.

Yes, we need to make sure that the 12 per cent—in fact, closer to 15 per cent under those opposite—of young boys with autism are on the scheme. Those with the severest form of autism, of course, should be on the scheme, but, with so many other disability types, they should be getting the support in their communities from the state government. After this election, every level of government has to stand up and do the right thing together.

Question agreed to.