Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. Let me say categorically that the government responded with speed when COVID occurred. February was when planning commenced and 5 March was when engagement with the agency occurred. There were four meetings of the Disability Reform Council. All ministers got together to work through the planning and response. The first meeting was on 18 March.

The government made $90 million available to support people with disability as part of a broader community support package. There were $660 million in advance payments to more than 5,000 providers. Over 280,000 masks from the National Medical Stockpile were provided. Over 81,000 calls were made to individual vulnerable participants to ensure that they were managing and coping well.

I'll give an idea of the results. Tragically, 907 Australians have so far lost their lives. That is a tragedy—something everyone in this House shares. Of those 907, nine were NDIS participants. This represents less than one per cent of the tragic loss of life, but participants are 1.6 per cent of the population. The response that this government had to NDIS participants saw the loss of life half that of the national average. Look at infection rates. There were 179 NDIS participants infected, compared to 27,854 across Australia. The infection rate for participants is 0.6 per cent, and they are 1.6 per cent of Australians. That is one-third. These numbers are testimony to the speed at which the government—

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