Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a paediatrician, I believe in the NDIS. I believe it's one of Australia's most important social reforms. It's a proud Labor reform. I spoke to Julia Gillard about it and its importance long before I came into politics. It was introduced by Prime Minister Gillard in 2013 following crucial advocacy from disability groups. As a paediatrician, I saw that the one thing that families worried about, about their kids with disabilities, was who would care for them in the long term when the families weren't there. The NDIS provided that certainty, and it has been revolutionary. It does great things.

The intention of the Gillard government was for the NDIS to support Australians living with severe and permanent disability with dignity, independence and opportunity. These were kids with severe intellectual disability, non-verbal autism, severe physical disability or chromosomal disorders such as Down syndrome. These families needed to be supported. They hadn't been for a long time, and it was revolutionary legislation by the Gillard government that brought this in. I was very proud to be a member of Labor when we introduced this, long before I entered parliament.

Unfortunately, under the coalition, the scheme was set up without proper safeguards. It was set up in such a way that it could be manipulated by unscrupulous people. And we saw that happen time and time again. I went to Stuart Robert, who was the minister for the NDIS when I first entered parliament, to try and get some change in that regard. He ignored my advice and my pleas.

The dysfunction in the scheme was built upon the very poor way it was administered by the coalition government from those times. The scheme drifted from its founding principles, as costs skyrocketed, without proper oversight or accountability. We saw exploitation by private providers who saw it as a cash cow for their own personal wealth growth rather than the personal growth and development of the recipients with a severe disability. We saw it become all things to all people. As a paediatrician, I was often coerced into making diagnoses to try and get kids into the NDIS who didn't have a severe disability. The rise of NDIS rorting was a blight on the coalition, and they should be the ones that hang their heads in shame about it. Too many bad actors made a good living off taxpayers' money whilst recipients were seen not as people but as profits. For too long, the coalition failed to act decisively. However, when we came to government, Bill Shorten, as the NDIS minister, started to put in place ways of screening providers and screening recipients. The scheme was being brought back to its roots, if you like.

Let's be clear. When our Labor government came to office in 2022, we did not inherit a system in good order. We inherited a system that had been neglected, distorted and in some cases exploited from nearly a decade of coalition mismanagement. We are changing things, but change can't occur overnight. The NDIS, believe me, is doing wonderful things. It's providing people with a certainty that their relatives with severe disability will be cared for. We have not allowed the rorting to continue. We have instituted inquiries into the NDIS and mismanagement and criminal activity. We've established a multi-agency taskforce to crack down on fraud and exploitation, and we've introduced stronger powers and reforms to ensure those abusing the NDIS can be held accountable. We've also introduced the Thriving Kids initiative to look at ways that children, particularly young children, with concerns about their development could get access to early intervention. That means early intervention. It's not diagnosis specific, and it doesn't require huge amounts of money to be spent on therapists and paediatricians et cetera to get them the support that they need. This is very important.

We are doing the right thing. We are improving the NDIS, but there's still a long, long, long way to go, and that's because the scheme was set up in a way that it has become all things to all people. That cannot continue. We must make sure that kids with severe disability and all people with severe disability get the support that they need. It's a Labor scheme, and I'm proud of it.

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