Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Hansard source

I want to join with the member for Menzies in particularly thanking all of those who participated in this inquiry. I also want to say to the member for Menzies that we strongly agree with all of the remarks that he's just made about the committee's work and this inquiry. I think it has been a very successful inquiry, with a large number of submissions, particularly from the mental health sector, but the committee also conducted a number of public inquiries, and a large number of people came and made very clear their views about the issues that people with mental health conditions have with the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

I want to join with the member for Menzies in thanking all the members of the committee. I particularly want to thank the staff who did such a great job in preparing this report. The report makes clear that there are around 64,000 people with psychosocial disabilities related to a mental health condition who will come into the National Disability Insurance Scheme by 2019-20. We all hope that each and every one of them will see this as a significant opportunity to increase the support they get and to improve the outcomes for Australians with psychosocial disabilities. Each and every one of us in this House has a responsibility to make sure that the National Disability Insurance Scheme delivers on that promise. That, really, is the promise of the NDIS—that people with psychosocial disabilities will see their circumstances improve as a result of the NDIS. Unfortunately, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that this is not always occurring. It is for some people, but not always.

I am very pleased with the way in which the recommendations of this report have come together, as the member for Menzies outlined, unanimously agreed by everyone on the committee, setting out a clear way forward so that we might see the strengthening of support for some of Australia's most vulnerable people. There still remains uncertainty about what psychosocial services will be available as the National Disability Insurance Scheme transitions to full rollout. This is for people in the scheme, but many of the representative groups and many people with psychosocial disabilities are especially concerned about what is going to happen to those people who are not in the National Disability Insurance Scheme. We share those concerns.

As the member for Menzies outlined, there are 24 recommendations. I will touch on a couple of them. One of the most important is this question of permanency provisions. The way the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the act, is written, it does require that a person's condition be permanent. We had a lot of representations from the mental health sector that this runs counter to the principle of recovery oriented practice for people with psychosocial disabilities. So I'm very pleased that the committee is recommending that the act be reviewed to assess the permanency provisions and that we assess—we're asking the government to do this—the appropriateness and effectiveness of including the principle of recovery oriented practice for psychosocial disability. This is a very complex issue, but one that would benefit from a very carefully considered review.

There is a related issue that is very important, something that the mental health sector asked for, and that I'm pleased that the committee is recommending. We're saying the National Disability Insurance Scheme, in conjunction with the mental health sector, should develop and adopt a validated, fit-for-purpose assessment tool to assess the eligibility of people with psychosocial disability, focusing on people's functional capacity for social and economic participation. This is a very significant issue as well. It is not be a focus on diagnosis; it is a focus on what people can and can't do, and the supports they need to lead a good life. Once again, I very much hope that the National Disability Insurance Agency will pick up this recommendation and develop this tool in conjunction with the mental health sector so that services can be better delivered to people with psychosocial disability.

I want to touch on another issue, which the member for Menzies also highlighted, and that is just how important it is that those people who are currently getting terrific services through Partners in Recovery, including the Personal Helpers and Mentors, Day to Day Living and Mental Health Respite Carer Support programs—all of these excellent programs that both sides of this parliament have supported for a long time—continue to do so. It should not be the case that people who are outside the National Disability Insurance Scheme lose access to these sorts of supports that they have relied on. We do want to make sure that people who are in the scheme also have a guarantee of continuity of support and access to services.

I want to mention recommendation 7, which refers to the National Disability Insurance Agency developing and proactively marketing resources and training for primary healthcare professionals about the National Disability Insurance Scheme, particularly for people with a psychosocial disability. There just isn't enough information that those professionals have, so it would be very helpful if that was done.

Another issue that I know is very, very important, particularly for those who support and care for young people with psychosocial disabilities, is to make sure that people who are not participants of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, young people in particular, have access to early intervention services. We're all aware that a lot of people get mental health conditions in their late teens and early 20s. We certainly don't want to wait until it's seen to be permanent for those young people get adequate early intervention services. So that recommendation is extremely important.

Finally, I want to really reinforce the call of the committee for the Australian government and the state and territory governments to make sure the services that people with psychosocial disabilities need, either in the scheme or outside, are there when people need them. I think we all agree that mental health is a huge issue for this country, and that's why I'm so pleased that we've been able to work together cooperatively to produce this report, and I hope we see all the responsible governments, and the National Disability Insurance Agency, responding positively.

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