Rowan Holzberger (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

If I could address what the member for Bowman is concerned about, he was talking about, on one hand, the scheme continuing to blow out while, on the other hand, cuts are being made. I'd like to make the point that I did have a life outside of politics—I had a life in construction and in farming—but for the last few years I was working for a senator. In 2018, we saw the NDIS grow under the former government. All of the problems that we saw in 2018 and beyond, when the scheme was small and manageable, just scaled up and got bigger as the former government took their eye off the road, took their hand off the wheel and let the NDIS career completely out of control. He mentions the growth of 10 per cent. It was more than double that when we came to government. It was 22 per cent when we came to government—totally unsustainable. Either it was deliberate negligence or it was incompetence. Either way, it has totally undermined the scheme and undermined public support for the scheme.

For the opposition to come up in here and say that they actually support the scheme really does make me wonder what their motivation is. They talk about fraud as a sort of way to get at it, but the most stunning number that I've come to learn recently is that this government conducts more inquiries and reviews more claims every single day than the former government did in an entire year. You talk about fraud in the scheme and you talk about mismanaging the scheme, but unless you're prepared to put those resources into rebuilding the Public Service--which this government has done—that fraud is going to go completely unchecked and you're going to see it grow at 22 per cent.

The problems around this scheme were evident in 2018, when they chose to do nothing about it. It has taken a lot of guts by this government, because the stories that the member for Bowman mentioned are heart-wrenching stories. They are stories that, as MPs, we deal with all the time, but they have only happened because problems have been allowed to fester.

The one thing that I think needs to be made clear is that if we get this right, if we maintain public support for the NDIS, then it is going to grow. This isn't about throwing people off. It's not about cutting the NDIS. Ultimately, in the medium term, if we can grow it at about eight per cent, but get it to start to grow around that four or five per cent, then it is going to be sustainable. There are a couple of other things that do need to be stated as fact here: over the two-year period to September 2025, average plan budgets actually increased by 4.7 per cent per annum and the average payment per participant also increased, by 3.3 per cent.

These are the sorts of increases which are sustainable and which are in line with inflation. These are the sorts of increases that, if we can get this right and if we can keep it sustainable, will maintain that community support. But, for the opposition to come in here and move this motion—it's an exercise in total incredulity. The hypocrisy to come in here and move a motion really deserves to be condemned by the Australian people, just as their mishandling of the NDIS for so many years also deserves to be condemned.

It is without doubt the single biggest issue that we, as MPs, see when it comes to that constituent work. In Forde, I think we have one of the single biggest cohorts—we've got about 7,000 people—on the NDIS. We need to get it right. But the opposition's way of playing politics and playing division—and not looking at what they did—is not the way to handle this.

See this speech in context