Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Senator Wong, and I preface my question by acknowledging that the National Disability Awards will be held in Canberra tonight and that the International Day of People with Disability will be observed on Monday. Minister, given the draft National Disability Insurance Scheme legislation was publicly released on Monday by the government with the intention of introduction to the House tomorrow, will the government also announce this week the funding required to deliver a full National Disability Insurance Scheme?

Honourable Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! When there is silence, we will proceed. The debate that is going across the chamber is just slowing the rate at which question time will proceed. Order!

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question and his ongoing interest in the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and I wish him well in his work inside his party room to get the opposition to take a more mature and bipartisan approach to this issue rather than playing politics with it.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You are the ones who suggested the committee!

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will take the interjection from Senator Abetz.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Wong, ignore the interjections and address the question.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Abetz is insisting on interjecting that his gold standard for bipartisanship is a committee and that what people with a disability in this country need is a committee that makes Senator Abetz feel good because he can say he is talking about it.

Honourable senators interjecting—

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on a point of order. Senator Wong is misleading the Senate. The opposition does not have a policy for a committee, full stop. The policy is for a committee to oversight the implementation of an NDIS on a bipartisan basis.

Honourable senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is not a point of order. Order! If you wish to debate the issue, the time to debate it is after three o'clock. Order on both sides!

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a Labor government that is getting on with the job of building a National Disability Insurance Scheme. We understand how long people with a disability in Australia have been waiting for change and we understand the importance of delivering this for them. That is why this government, in a budget where we saw more revenue downgrades and more savings, delivered $1 billion in new funding for the first stage of a disability scheme. This is why the government has established the transition agency and agreed launch sites in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT. That is also why this government is introducing the legislation to which the senator referred in the question.

We have made clear our commitment to this issue. I note that those opposite, despite the fact that they said it is not real unless we can show costings now, are nevertheless going out and campaigning on a National Disability Insurance Scheme, notwithstanding they have never shown how they can get anywhere near their $70 billion of savings or cuts that they need nor how they would fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme. We have said very clearly that we understand the importance of this policy. We understand the importance of ensuring that it is fiscally sustainable and we will have more to say about this before the next budget. (Time expired)

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask another supplementary question. I am glad that the minister mentioned launch sites, because many people with disability have asked me to inquire of the minister in the absence of funding certainty from the government, what guarantee is there that the NDIS launch sites will not become isolated pockets of opportunity.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I was saying, the government has already said that we will have more to say about the plans for a National Disability Insurance Scheme next year. I would anticipate, as we have also said, that you should have regard to the sorts of savings decisions we have already made to see the approach that we would take to funding a whole range of priorities. Let us recall that this government has: delivered: an increase in the age pension, delivered the first statutory Paid Parental Leave scheme, increased child care, doubled school funding and increased funding to universities and research and infrastructure. We have done so by ensuring that we made savings in the budget—many of which have been opposed by those opposite—and we will continue the same responsible approach to funding priorities that we have demonstrated to date.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, won't the NDIS legislation be seen as a hollow gesture if the government does not provide the necessary funding certainty in the same week that the NDIS legislation is introduced into the parliament?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do I glean from that that the opposition now will take the NDIS off all of their campaign literature, because they are refusing to say anything about how they would fund it or any of their policies? The hypocrisy of this! It is not hollow. We on this side—and I will give the senator the benefit of the doubt because I think he is one on that side—care deeply about this issue. We are the party that built Medicare twice because those opposite and their predecessors tore it down.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on a point of order on relevance. The question was very specifically in relation to whether the government would announce the provision of funds for the NDIS in the same week that the legislation is introduced into the parliament. It is a straightforward question. People with disability want to know whether in addition to the legislation they are going to get the money to back it up and deliver an NDIS.

Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on the point of order: with respect, Senator Fifield, that was not the question. The nature of the question was how we could be taken seriously if we did not do it in the same week. Of course, it is relevant for Senator Wong to highlight how inconsistent any such suggestion is. It is relevant for her to highlight the countless opposition policies—indeed, those being canvassed by Mr Abbott this week—for which there is no funding commitment.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order. Senator Wong, continue. You have 30 seconds remaining.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I remind those opposite, if they want to talk about commitment to this issue, that whilst they were in government, funding for disabilities went backwards. In fact, it grew at less than inflation. So for the opposition to come in here and run the sort of partisan gamesmanship that we have seen on this issue really demonstrates their lack of commitment to this issue. (Time expired)