Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

One thing I can guarantee the member for Wakefield is that when this government makes a decision, we will consult fully. We are not a government which, bang, brings in legislation, policy decisions or knee-jerk reactions as his government did for six years. When we do make a decision, we will fully consult with stakeholders. The government will consult further with hearing impaired Australians, their families and other key stakeholders before making a decision on ownership options for Australian Hearing.

I do thank the member for Wakefield for his question. I appreciate the fact that his grandfather did military service—he must be very proud of that—and I take on board his comments about the rubella outbreak which also led to the establishment of this organisation, which he quite correctly has pointed out is a public institution that has done some great things for this nation.

The relevant minister put out a media release about this on 8 May this year. I will inform him that the government has deferred making decisions in response to the scoping study to allow sufficient time for consultation with hearing support groups and industry about any impacts of the National Disability Insurance Scheme on the delivery of hearing services and what that could well mean for Australian Hearing. While the government had indicated that we would take decisions in light of the scoping study in the 2015-16 budget, it was clear to us that more work needs to be done to ensure that stakeholders understand what the delivery of hearing services through the NDIS would look like. And that is important—that the implementation details for the NDIS and hearing services have been worked through. Were the government to consider privatisation—I will repeat that: 'were' the government to consider privatisation, and I do stress that the Commonwealth has not made any decision to privatise Australian Hearing—then access to hearing services would be enshrined in a community service obligation.

And I do note that some 70 per cent of Australian Hearing's funding already comes from the provision of services for which it has to compete with others in the sector. Regardless of its future ownership structure, Australian Hearing will need to focus on building its capacity to perform and to deliver services in an environment of increasing contestability. The government has announced consultation with the hearing community about the findings of the scoping study, amongst other things. It is appropriate that the sector learns first the key findings of the scoping study, directly from the government, and that is important. As I said, consultation is important. We saw all too often knee-jerk reactions, policy on the run, from the last government. We do not want to be a government that falls into that trap.

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