Defence Portfolio

Mrs McINTOSH (Lindsay) (18:31): To every person on the NDIS and people with disabilities across our country: I just want to let you know that the two ministers for the NDIS are not here to listen to this speech and answer questions. They've sent in their assistant minister. Right now, people with disability who rely on the NDIS are terrified about what their future holds.

Just last week I heard from a man who's been in a wheelchair for 27 years— Government members interjecting— Mrs McINTOSH: Those opposite are interjecting. They might like to listen to this story about this man in a wheelchair who's been there for 27 years. He has an acquired brain injury and very limited movement in his arms and needs 24/7 care, yet he's fighting for his slashed supports to be reinstated.

He's been told his plan is in the implementation stage and it can't be internally reviewed until that process is complete. When he spoke up about his unsafe wheelchair tyres, do you know what the planner said? 'Use the wheelchair less.' This is what participants on the NDIS are dealing with today, and, if this is what's happening today, before the Albanese Labor government's changes happen, is it any wonder they are scared?

Senate documents released last week now reveal the changes proposed by the government to the eligibility rules will result in around 346,000 fewer people on the NDIS by 2031. Of that number, 240,000 people are already receiving support through the NDIS and will be moved off the scheme. This is a far cry from the 160,000 fewer participants Minister Butler has allowed the media narrative to run on, and only after pressure by the parliament to provide modelling has the Albanese government provided the sparsest three A4 pages.

The changes proposed by the government are significant, and three pages of data hardly constitutes providing the economic modelling or being transparent about where the $185 billion in savings will come from. If this is the extent of the modelling the government has undertaken, it is no wonder the disability community are concerned. Minister Butler, who is not here, where will the 346,000 people who will no longer be supported by the NDIS go?

This is the question I and my team are being asked each and every day by participants and their families, who are scared of what their future will look like. And I've got no answers for them, because the Albanese government doesn't know. State and territory ministers have the same questions, and they are pushing back.

The New South Wales Labor premier, Chris Minns, says: … we can't provide equivalent care in the state system, and it's not because we're mean or stingy, or we're trying to push people away. It's because we're flat out providing basic health care in our schools and our hospitals. The South Australian premier said their health system 'doesn't have the capacity to take on an additional burden'.

Burden? These are the words being used to describe people with disability. These words are a dismissal of people's needs and take us back to dark times where people felt unsafe, unheard and unseen—a time before the NDIS was established.

While the Albanese Labor government has spent the last few months shuffling numbers on a spreadsheet to try and make their near-trillion-dollar deficit look more manageable, they have failed to consult with the disability community or state governments about how and where people will be supported moving forward. Hot tip, Minister: good governments consult before, not after, the fact, and good governments do the hard work before they announce changes that will have far-reaching consequences for vulnerable people.

There is no denying that the NDIS has grown far beyond what was originally expected 13 years ago. A scheme designed to support 410,000 Australians is now supporting 760,000. A scheme originally expected to cost $13.6 billion is now approaching $50 billion a year and growing.

We need to be honest about that, but this is now the Albanese government's third attempt to rein in spending. They promised growth would be reduced to eight per cent—they failed. Then it was five per cent—they failed.

Now it is two per cent, and growth is currently sitting at over 10 per cent. Whilst addressing growth is necessary, so too is addressing the rampant fraud. So I want to ask the minister: when will you provide the disability community with the answers they are so desperately seeking, and what are you going to do to address the rampant fraud through the system?

The NDIS must be there for Australians with significant and permanent disability, exactly as it was intended. But the Albanese government has left the disability community fearful, while criminals are ripping off the NDIS and getting off scot-free.