National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026
Mr GEE (Calare) (11:27): I wish to support the amendments moved by the member for Fowler. They are important amendments not only for the member for Fowler's electorate but for all electorates across this country. I think all members here want the NDIS to be as effective as possible and to actually ensure that participants have effective access to the services, and that's why these amendments are so important.
They speak to the NDIS being linguistically and culturally accessible, and that is something that all of us should be supporting. But they also speak to a person's geographical location, and I commend the member for Fowler for raising that issue in this House. In country electorates, we face the tyranny of distance in so many different ways, and that includes delivery of services like the NDIS.
There just aren't as many providers in country areas, and participants and providers often have to travel long distances in order to meet and get those services delivered—and to help country Australians on the ground. So I will be supporting these amendments. I think they are very important for the modern Australia that we live in.
They encompass situations that affect all of our electorates, including the member for Fowler's, and they also have an element that recognises the barriers to accessing NDIS services that country people face. They are serious barriers, I will be supporting the amendment for those reasons, and I commend it to the House. I would ask all members to support this because they cover not only city electorates like the member for Fowler's but also country electorates too.
We should be doing anything that we can be doing to bridge that tyranny of distance—that Great Dividing Range that we call the sandstone curtain divides us in so many different ways. It divides us in health outcomes. It divides us in education outcomes.
It divides us in wages and how much people earn. It also divides us in the delivery of services such as the NDIS. The member for Fowler has my backing 100 per cent on this, and I would urge all members to support these important amendments.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Dr Freelander ): The question is that the amendments moved by the member for Fowler be agreed to.