Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) | Hansard source

I would also like to acknowledge the role of the member for Menzies. I think that's his penultimate report, but, if I don't get the chance next time to say it, I'll say that the member for Menzies takes his responsibilities as a parliamentarian very seriously, and I think this committee and the work it's done over the course of the last 2½ years demonstrates that some things in parliament are working pretty well. This is certainly one of them.

Turning to the NDIS workforce report, I think it's fair to say that the workforce of disability carers in this country feel that they have been insufficiently supported through COVID, and I'll come to the specific recommendations in a moment. But the story of the disability workforce during COVID has, I think, highlighted some of the deeper problems and the lack of forward planning for the workforce that has marked the development of this sector during the NDIS.

Disability sector workers were left in the dark at the beginning of the pandemic when they were at the front line of the COVID-19 crisis. It's fair to say the workforce is burned out. They're exhausted from non-stop work to ensure that people with disability don't miss out on critical care. People with disability and their workforce have had to navigate the relentless strain of isolating from work and life when identified as a close contact, often without pay. And many, many disability workers have caught COVID themselves, putting their own health, their families and the people they care for at risk. Despite caring for some of the most clinically vulnerable Australians, they found it too hard to access appropriate PPE material which would have kept them and the people they care for safe. I have heard firsthand many stories of families of participants and care workers desperately trying to find PPE material so that the people who enter the houses of the participants can be properly cared for.

I sat next to disability workers getting vaccinated on their own time because they can't get paid time to even go and get a test or to get vaccinated. Like the people they wonderfully care for, too many people have waited too long for vaccines and then for boosters. Rapid antigen tests in the month of January and first part of February should not have been like searching for needles in a haystack. The disability workforce are required to have rapid antigen tests, but in January many people working in the sector could not find one for love or money. They got no discounts on the rapid tests, and NDIS participants they care for have had to pay for them out of their own NDIS plans.

Right now, down the hallway, I'm meeting with 20 disability workers, some advocates and service providers who have come to Parliament House today, fortuitously at this time of this report, to raise awareness of the difficulties they have faced. Some of the stories of the disability workers are harrowing. Mabel, who works in Canberra, caught COVID in December, which put her in isolation for Christmas. Then the people she cared for also caught COVID, with some ending up in hospital. Her workplace had little PPE and no rapid antigen tests, and, to top it off, she didn't get any paid leave for the time she couldn't work.

We've just heard from another disability worker, Asham Asham. He caught COVID at work during the delta outbreak. His workforce, again, had little access to PPE at the time. Asham's family then caught COVID off him, and he ended up being in isolation for three weeks. He had to go through workers comp to try and get paid.

Then there's the story of Ruth, a long-time worker in the sector; it's the same story. Adrian; same story. Leanne speaks about the exhaustion of people in her workplace. They've used all their leave entitlements due to the spring seasonal hayfever, followed by actual COVID and close isolation requirements. Disability workers are going poor and using up their savings just so they can help the people they care for.

There's Esther, who's down the hall. She worked with a COVID-positive participant who she lived with in a house on site. She lived there with the person for the 14 days and then had to isolate at home for a further 10 days; this was during the delta outbreak. She only got paid a COVID care allowance for her active shifts during this period. The list of the participants who were there goes on.

I believe that we can do more for the workforce. The disability workforce has 270,000 workers across 20 different skill sets or occupations in disability. The government has observed that by 2024—so within two years—we'll need to grow an extra 83,000 support workers to support the predicted half a million participants in the scheme. But we don't provide careers and we don't provide incentives for people to move into disability care. People don't become disability carers for the search of their first million dollars. The nation doesn't sufficiently value their work. They work physically and they work mentally, but they also deliver on an emotional form of labour. These are people who, like all of us, have their own lives and their own stories at home, but they can never come to work being down, being upset or being angry, because the people they care for are in tune with how their disability carer is. These people work with their brains, their hands and their hearts.

We shouldn't be asking disability care workers to subsidise the safety net of disability care in this nation. There's no doubt in my mind that, if we want to attract more people, it's not just about providing skills and training; it's also about providing a well-remunerated career path. That doesn't mean they have to be paid as princes or kings, but it does mean we're going to have to do more and fund disability even better to attract people to this sector and keep them there.

I think the NDIS workforce report tabled today offers some signs, some directions, for how we can grow the workforce. I promise the member for Menzies and I promise people with disability, people who work in the sector, advocates and service providers that these eight recommendations won't gather dust after the next election if Labor is elected. We certainly need to consult with the sector. We need a targeted strategy. We've got to upskill the workforce and we have to value them better. I, for one, thank them for everything they've put up with during COVID. I understand that, for people with disability and their carers, COVID is not over—not by a long shot.

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