Carol Berry (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Integrity and Safeguarding) Bill 2026 as someone who worked alongside people with disability in various roles for over 15 years before I became a member of parliament. I'm therefore particularly passionate about upholding and promoting the rights and interests of people with disability.

At the start of my working life, I worked as a human rights lawyer for the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. In that role, I worked alongside people with disability to have their rights upheld through the courts and by promoting systemic law and policy reform. I later became the CEO of the New South Wales Council for Intellectual Disability, where I advocated for people with intellectual disability and their families to be able to get access to better supports and services. The job I had immediately before I became a parliamentarian was CEO of the Disability Trust, which is one of the largest providers of disability services in Australia and has been so for over 50 years. We worked hard to ensure that we supported people to fulfil their dreams and aspirations. So I worked alongside people with disability for many years before the NDIS was introduced and I saw firsthand how sorely it was needed.

It's been amazing to watch the difference that the NDIS has made to Australian society. It's a world-leading scheme that reflects the fair-mindedness and decency of the Australian people. Importantly, it provides life-changing support to around 750,000 Australians, so it's vital that we protect the NDIS for the long term by making sure it's sustainable, effective and safe and that it operates with integrity. The vast majority of NDIS providers deliver quality services and do the right thing, but there are, unfortunately, some who do the wrong thing. Our government continues to take action to ensure that all providers who operate under the system do so with integrity.

A review by the Australian National Audit Office found that the systems set up by the previous government lacked prevention controls and also did not appropriately account for fraud and non-compliant activity. The Albanese government has acted quickly, determined to address these significant gaps. We are making significant investments to tackle fraud and noncompliance, including setting up the Fraud Fusion Taskforce and passing laws to place the scheme on a sustainable footing.

The core purpose of this bill is to strengthen the regulator, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, and to support both the commission and the National Disability Insurance Agency to do their jobs more effectively. The bill specifically responds to calls for improved and enhanced quality and safety regulation for NDIS participants. The amendments in this bill do the following. We're strengthening penalties to ensure a fit-for-purpose framework that deters people from doing the wrong thing, including from providing and delivering poor-quality and unsafe services and supports. It ensures unsuitable people can be excluded from providing services in the NDIS by expanding the categories of people against whom a banning order can be imposed. The bill restricts a person from engaging in promotional conduct in connection with the NDIS where that conduct undermines the objects or the principles of the NDIS Act. It also strengthens the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission's powers to obtain relevant information from NDIS providers and other persons within appropriate timeframes. It also ensures that we can provide participants who wish to withdraw from the scheme with additional safeguards and additional communication options.

The Albanese government is committed to ensuring the National Disability Insurance Scheme provides essential supports for people with permanent and significant disability, both today and into the future. We want the scheme to be fair, consistent and empowering for people with disability. The NDIS must operate with integrity, and this bill upholds the government's commitment to strengthen compliance within the NDIS. It also addresses findings from the disability royal commission and the NDIS review, by strengthening the NDIS commission's powers.

Our goal is to build a system in which agencies have the powers to investigate the worst offences and providers are deterred from doing the wrong thing because they know they will face consequences. We know that more needs to be done, and we will continue to work closely with relevant agencies, law enforcement and the disability community. This bill is an extremely important part of that work, and I commend it to the House.

See this speech in context