Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill 2012. There are not many in this House that do not have some understanding of the hardship families experience in caring for those with a disability. My electorate of Wright is quite remote. It starts at the top of the Toowoomba Range and borders Robina on the Gold Coast. In an area like that we do not have an enormous amount of infrastructure to help or support families. As a rural and regional community we rely heavily on neighbours, friends and family to support those people in their hours of need.

We will not be opposing the National Disability Insurance Scheme. I remind the House that we support this bill, as we do 83 per cent of legislation when we come into the House. This government would have you believe there is a relentless negativity from the opposition. That is factually not true. Public documents from the Parliamentary Library state that we have supported over 83 per cent of bills that have come before this House. What may not be known to those in the gallery today is that the coalition has requested a bipartisan committee to be formed on the National Disability Insurance Scheme so that we can move forward collectively with this. But no—as we move through, they will continue to take the single headline, the single grab, that 'the coalition are opposed to this' and that it is only Labor that will provide and deliver an NDIS. I say to you, Madam Speaker and those in the gallery, that nothing could be further from the truth. There are no lows to which this government will not go to hide the truth when it comes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

I also take the opportunity to acknowledge where the pilot projects are being rolled out at the moment, in Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia and the ACT—

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