Mary Aldred (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme pricing for providers on travel charges. These charges have reduced physiotherapy funding by $10 per hour and halved travel funding for allied health professionals. For regional communities like Monash, these cuts threaten the sustainability of specialist support services for people who need them most. I want to thank people living with a disability in Monash who have met with me to discuss how these changes will impact them, along with local providers, allied health professionals and plan managers. On 8 July I wrote to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Disability and the NDIS, outlining how these changes will hurt regional Australians living with a disability and those who support them. There has been 'crickets' from the government on this, despite the coalition very reasonably asking for a modest three-month pause on the implementation of these changes, which were due to come into effect from the start of the financial year, to be able to properly account for their impact.

I commend my colleague the member for Herbert for his compelling advocacy on this issue. It represents the hurt and anxiety many people in my community are experiencing about these changes. These are not hypothetical case studies and numbers on a spreadsheet; the consequences of these changes are to real people. Among the stories that have most impacted my view on this issue are those of the teenage girl from the Latrobe Valley receiving weekly physiotherapy, without which she would return to being confined in a wheelchair, and the non-verbal child who cannot communicate that he is in pain. His speech therapy is the key that makes the difference every week. The reduction in travel funding poses a significant risk to the provision of necessary and ongoing care for people living with a disability in regional communities. It limits the ability of therapists to reach participants, thereby reducing access to vital services. The cuts jeopardise the essential care of people living with a disability in our community. They deserve better from our government than that.

I support meaningful and practical efforts to ensure the NDIS is run efficiently, but disproportionately impacting regional communities is not the way to achieve this. Many of these providers are small businesses; they are not huge corporations and simply cannot absorb the cuts. They will close their doors or not travel to towns where their services are needed the most. In regional Australia, we lack the market density of city and metropolitan areas. This extends to services like the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

I passionately believe your postcode shouldn't determine your potential in life. By its actions on this issue, the Albanese Labor government appears to disagree. I will continue to advocate for my community on this issue in the strongest terms possible because they deserve better.

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