Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Hansard source

The Albanese Labor government was elected with the Prime Minister repeating his mantra: 'Nobody held back. Nobody left behind'. Yet here we are, being left behind in regional Australia. Labor's promise is ringing increasingly hollow. Nowhere is Labor's scorched earth approach to regional Australia more evident than in their administration of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, very sadly.

There is no doubt the NDIS has been a nationally transformational reform for Australians living with significant and permanent disability. It has enabled greater dignity, independence and choice. But the success of the scheme depends on public confidence in its sustainability, its governance and its integrity. On those measures, this government is falling short. Labor has struggled to improve fiscal sustainability without undermining service quality or participant trust.

In regional Australia that failure is being felt most acutely. I regularly hear from constituents across my electorate of Mallee about their experience with the NDIS. More often than not, they are seeking advocacy after being overwhelmed by a system that feels remote, inconsistent and unresponsive and that, frankly, does not work. Participants and families come to me distressed not simply because of funding outcomes but because of how decisions are made and how long they take to be made. Names have been changed to protect privacy, but the experiences are all too real.

These changes come at a time when allied health access in regional Australia is already under strain. Labor's changes to travel payments for health professionals have made it harder for providers to service regional clients, and that was before fuel prices surged. Allied health professionals are already withdrawing services they can no longer afford to deliver. Without providers, NDIS plans are meaningless. Access on paper is not access in practice.

Regarding the bill at hand, the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Integrity and Safeguarding) Bill 2026, it purports to strengthen integrity and safeguarding, but it avoids the most obvious integrity failures in the system. The government has been unable to clearly quantify the scale of fraud in the NDIS. The bill introduces no direct regulation of the 94 per cent of providers who remain unregistered, and while it moves toward fully electronic claiming, it provides insufficient safeguards for vulnerable participants who face real digital barriers, particularly in regional and remote communities. If electronic systems are expanded, they must come with human oversight, alternative access pathways and clear enforceable rights of appeal. This bill does not provide that assurance. This legislation is titled the Integrity and Safeguarding bill, yet for too many participants, especially in regional Australia, it delivers neither.

People with disability are not data points. Their lives cannot be flattened into computer generated budgets and automated decisions. Integrity is not achieved by centralising power and removing accountability. Safeguarding is not achieved by forcing vulnerable people to navigate opaque systems simply to access the supports they need. A sustainable NDIS depends on trust, trust that decisions are fair, transparent and grounded in real understanding of disability and place. This bill fails that test. The coalition supports an NDIS that is compassionate, accountable and sustainable, one that respects professional expertise and puts people before processes. That is not the NDIS being delivered by the Albanese government.

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