Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government continues to reiterate its view that it cannot agree with the assertions made in this motion. We do, however, acknowledge the interest in the chamber in continuing to reform the NDIS to get it back on track and ensure its sustainability for future generations. I also acknowledge the support of the opposition in working together with the government to this end and voting in support of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024, which passed the parliament on 22 August 2024. The NDIS bill received royal assent on 5 September 2024, which means the new laws will come into effect on 3 October 2024.

On 8 February 2024, the government tabled the final report of the Independent Review into the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which was publicly released on 7 December 2023. In producing this report, the independent NDIS review panel travelled to every state and territory, including regional and remote communities. It heard directly from more than 10,000 Australians, worked with disability organisations to reach out and listen to more than 1,000 people with disability and their families, recorded more than 2,000 personal stories and received more than 4,000 submissions. The review delivered 26 recommendations and 139 supporting actions to respond to its terms of reference. In delivering its recommendations, the review provided exhaustive analysis and proposals to improve the operation, effectiveness and sustainability of the NDIS. The independent NDIS review panel has said its reforms can improve the scheme and meet National Cabinet's annual growth target of no more than eight per cent by 1 July 2026.

The NDIS bill was the first legislative step by this government to ensuring this annual growth target is achieved. Following the passage of the NDIS bill, discussions will continue with senators across this chamber, as well as members in the other place, to address questions about the government's NDIS reform agenda, which it is pursuing together with the disability community. We look forward to continuing to work with senators in this place to get the NDIS back on track and ensure its sustainability for future generations of Australians.

In relation to the order being discussed, the government have previously outlined that we have claimed public interest immunity over the requested documents as disclosure would prejudice relations between the Commonwealth and the states and territories. The Minister representing the Treasurer has already tabled key documents for the benefit of the Senate, in addition to the aforementioned review.

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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the explanation.

The Australian community feel deeply disappointed, frustrated and downright angry with this Labor government. These feelings exist in our community not only because, in this cost-of-living crisis, the government has failed to respond to people's pain in the way that the community rightly expects but also because this Labor government has failed to keep its commitment to the Australian people to act with accountability and transparency. This failure to act with accountability and transparency is on display again today as, once again, this government uses its powers to attempt to keep secret information which disabled people as well as our families and organisations have the right to be able to see, engage with and know about.

The information they continue to keep from the community relates to precisely what they have agreed with the states and territories in relation to how many participants will be thrown off the NDIS because of the cuts they have agreed to and the legislation they have rammed through. It has been almost a year since the Australian Senate began to request the government to provide this information. In making these requests, we have continually made it clear that, in using their powers to keep this information from the community, they are breaching their commitment to transparency and that, in order to rebuild the trust with the disability community created by that breach, they need to set out clearly and precisely, as is required of them by law, the grounds upon which they continue to withhold this information. And they've failed to do it.

What we see here is a tiny window into why people are so frustrated, disappointed and angry. Right here, the government have been given the opportunity to be honest and transparent, and they are instead choosing secrecy and the use of their powers to keep information from the community that the community have a right to know. These types of actions deeply undermine the trust of the community not only in this Labor government but in all governments—a trust which is already justifiably low. The Australian community do not trust people in positions of power in parliament because, decade after decade, decision after decision, people in positions of power have lied. People in positions of power have used the protections of parliament to mislead the Australian community as they have pursued their own personal political goals.

One of the reasons disabled people are particularly angry and particularly disappointed right now is that this Labor government explicitly committed to honesty, transparency and accountability. When they went to the election, Labor said that the Liberal government had been dishonest and untrustworthy and had sought to do the Australian disability community harm, and that a vote for them would mean an end to those practices. Labor delivered the precise opposite. They've cut the NDIS. They've continued the culture of secrecy and dishonesty and to this day refuse to provide disabled people with basic information on what Labor committed behind closed doors when they agreed to cap and cut the NDIS. This is shameful behaviour, and we cannot let it pass.

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

I'm actually really over this. It's been a year that this government has been required to provide these documents, and yet again we come in here with this mealy-mouthed statement claiming that, somehow or other, announcing or sharing the framework around sustainability is going to damage relationships with the states and the territories. We wake up to news this morning that Minister Shorten is now proposing a new tranche of reforms. This is not something that has been discussed with the opposition. As Senator Farrell just acknowledged, the opposition is working with the government for reform, and we do want to see reform. There are too many people on the scheme. The scheme is blowing out.

But we wake up this morning to news about registration. It's something that the opposition actually put forward as an amendment, saying there should be scalable registration within the scheme, which would ensure that sole providers—sole traders—are able to be registered but would not face onerous audit costs that would thin an already thin market. But we're now learning the minister is looking at not only complete registration of all providers; he's also targeting self-managed participants. I find this extraordinary, and perhaps, if he'd bothered to pick up the phone to me or to Mr Sukkar in the other place, who is the opposition NDIS shadow minister, I certainly could have told him that the CEO of the NDIA explained at estimates that the lowest level of fraud is actually within the self-managed sector. That is because people who self-manage plans, either for themselves or their loved ones, have direct contact with the service provider. Those service providers tend to provide better customised services because they're not part of mass, previously block funded organisations, who quite often deliver nothing but glorified babysitting services. Again, this government is looking at the wrong people to see where fraud and misconduct is occurring.

But the minister is also looking at the wedding-tax style of increasing costs for NDIS services, particularly for what we refer to in the scheme as 'consumables'. That's things like wheelchairs and walking sticks, or needing rails put up in your bathroom for access and support. We know that the reason these costs blow out is the regulation around how these are provided. Someone explain this to me, because basic economics tell you that, when you add more red tape, costs go up. The NDIA has listed registered providers who are the only people who can deliver these consumables, rather than someone who is managing a scheme, like the parent of a participant who requires support rails. I know of a story around this. For support rails in the bathroom, they were quoted in excess of $3,000 by one of the NDIA's registered, approved providers for these sorts of materials. As they were waiting—because there's a time to wait, because there are so many people requesting these kinds of services, and there are limited registered providers, so they can charge whatever they want—a father had had enough, went to Bunnings and put them up himself for $50.

What the minister is now trying to do—from what we see in the paper, because it's not being discussed with us—is to increase the burden on participants to use these registered providers, of which there'll be a limited amount. Supply and demand tells you that if you can't access a service then the price is going to go up. This is now making the scheme worse. We want to work with the minister to cut costs, we want to make it sustainable, we want to make it accessible and we want to make it fit for purpose. Yet this minister is barking up every wrong tree and will not provide the information to let us work with him constructively.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm just going to speak very briefly, because I am keen for the people in the gallery to know what's happening in this debate on the NDIS sustainability framework. More than a year ago, a majority of this Senate passed a resolution that certain very crucial documents in relation to the NDIS should be produced to this Senate so that we would have the benefit, as senators representing the people of Australia, to review that documentation. The government refused to provide that information. The basis on which the Labor government refused to provide that information included that it would prejudice relationships between the Commonwealth government and the state governments. But the one point they can't answer—that they refuse to answer—is how. How is it going to prejudice relations between the Commonwealth government and state governments? Second, have they actually asked the state governments whether they have any objection to the Senate having access to that information?

It totally undermines the credibility of the Labor government, refusing to provide these documents to this Senate, a majority of whom, representing a majority of the Australian people, requested the production of these documents. That is the shameful situation you're witnessing today, where a majority of the Senate has requested information for over a year, and the Labor government refuses to provide it.

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As citizens of a democracy, it's reasonable to expect a high level of transparency around the decisions that govern our lives. It should go without saying that disabled people deserve no different. NDIS participants deserve to know the full details of the financial sustainability framework that all state premiers, chief ministers and the Prime Minister agreed to. This reeks of a captain's call designed to serve the narrative of politicians by using 4.4 million disabled people across this country as political footballs.

Let's recap how we got here. In April, state premiers, chief ministers and the Prime Minister met and secretly agreed to the NDIS Financial Sustainability Framework, which would map out the financial future of the NDIS. They are refusing to release this document. In May the Senate formally requested that the Albanese government table the framework. The government's response was that the document didn't exist. To put it in more meaningful terms, the government admitted to having no long-term financial basis for their May decision to impose budget cuts on the NDIS. For all we know, they plucked the eight per cent figure out of the sky. In June the Senate again ordered the government to table the framework. It is, after all, supposedly the document upon which the government's plan to slash billions from the NDIS originated. This time we were informed that the National Cabinet made a commitment to establish this framework but that it would remain under wraps.

Folks, one of these things is not like the other. How can the same demand one month apart yield such different responses? A few days later, the Senate again ordered the Minister representing the Treasurer to produce the framework. Still the government refused to comply. And just last week it was revealed that a freedom-of-information request for the framework by an Australian media outlet was rejected. It was rejected by the Treasury, rejected by the Department of Social Services and rejected by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

The purpose of the NDIS is to serve the interests of disabled people who need and want to access it. It is not to protect the interests of government. Major party politics pales in comparison to the right of every disabled person and their family to understand the decisions that affect them. They deserve to know how the Labor government came to its decision to cut around $59 billion from the NDIS over a decade. Recently, Labor and the Liberals teamed up to push the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill through this parliament. We are seeing those harms materialise now, with participants' plans being cut and their supports defunded. My inbox is bulging with concerned constituents. They're stressed and feeling anxious about what these cuts mean to their plans and their ability to live a decent life. The changes set out in the NDIS bill are intended to cut $14.4 billion from the NDIS, which can only be achieved by removing supports for participants.

The financial sustainability document and the NDIS bill are two examples of Labor putting their bottom line before the welfare of disabled people. I urge the Labor government to listen to the constituents who are reaching out and expressing their deep sorrow, anxiety, stress and uncertainty about what the future holds for them and about what is potentially coming down the pipeline. If these sorts of cuts can be made without genuine, meaningful input from the disabled community, then what's to stop further erosion of this critical piece of social policy in the future? I implore the government to honour its commitment to building trust with the disability community and to release the NDIS Financial Sustainability Framework so we can have the full picture of what their intentions are for this scheme.

Question agreed to.