Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to rise to speak on this motion. Whenever I start a conversation about the NDIS, I say, 'The right person with the right package and the right service provider is life changing.' I have seen that over and over again for people with disabilities who are now on the NDIS. The shame of it is that this vital program or scheme is now costing the economy, the taxpayer, around $40 billion a year. The current trajectory is that, by 2035, it will cost $120 billion a year, which is simply not sustainable. We cannot put that on the Australian taxpayer, but we must look after people with disabilities.

There is a definite need to be able to find cost savings in the NDIS. All of us in this place would have heard stories about rorts or cruisers or abuse of the system, where somebody is charging to care for a participant at three different locations on the one night. That is where we need to find the savings. That is where we need to root out the people who abuse the system—not do what this government did on 1 July and cut payments to service providers in allied health. We are already stretched thin on the ground trying to get allied health professionals to be able to service the clients—particularly in regional and rural Australia, where I live and where my colleagues in the National Party live—because it's hard enough to find those allied health services without cutting what they pay. I've met with those professionals in physiotherapy, occupational therapy. They're saying: 'Look, it's not always about the money. We care about our clients, but we just can't continue with our businesses.'

On top of that, those opposite cut their travel payment by 50 per cent. That might be okay in the city, for somebody who drives five kilometres to go and see their client. But what about somebody in Port Macquarie who has to travel to Willawarrin, an hour and a half away, to see their client? To have their travel costs cut by 50 per cent—they're simply not going to do it. There are those who say, 'Why can't the participant get in their car and drive to Port Macquarie to get those services?' The person who says that doesn't understand how hard it is out there for these people. Not only are they struggling with disability; they're struggling with the everyday cost of living, just like most people out there. And I'm already being told by the service providers: 'Pat, we have to leave the scheme. We can no longer afford to run our practice when the government is cutting our travel time by half and reducing what we get paid.' And the data which the government used to cut these payments was flawed.

What I'm asking the government to do is reconsider your decision. Suspend it for three or six months and actually consult with the industry, which is something you didn't do before you made this decision to cut the payments to service providers. Go out, have the consultation and actually see the impact of what your decision is doing right now. Look at how many people have left the scheme. Look at how many service providers are no longer there. This decision is hurting the most vulnerable in our community, and it needs to be stopped now.

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