Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think that the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill 2012 is a very important piece of legislation and I am certainly pleased to rise and speak on the NDIS, which is an area of considerable debate in the community. I think it is an issue in which the community is looking to people in this House to participate in a fulsome and wholesome way, having waited so long for this issue to actually rise to the top of consideration for governments.

I have to acknowledge the very heartfelt and honest assessment of the member for Hughes's own commitment to the disability sector, and I acknowledge the personal journey that he is on. Around this entire chamber there would not be a person whose life has not been affected or impacted in some way by disability, whether that was at the moment of birth or a disability that has been acquired in some shape or form during the course of one's life—so I think that all of our hearts might be in this. But before I become, perhaps, too gentle on the member for Hughes—I know he is sturdy enough for the critique that I would like to offer—I would just like to focus in on a couple of words that he has mentioned.

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