Alison Penfold (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Integrity and Safeguarding) Bill 2025. The NDIS is one of the most significant social reforms in our nation's history. It represents a solemn promise—that Australians living with disability will be supported with dignity, care and opportunity. But that promise is under pressure, and, unless we act decisively to restore integrity to the scheme, we risk undermining its long-term sustainability.

This bill introduces a number of sensible measures. It strengthens penalties for wrongdoing, expands the powers of the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, broadens banning orders, introduces antipromotion orders and improves information gathering to detect fraud. These are important steps, but they are not enough, because the reality is this: the NDIS has become a target for exploitation.

Across communities like mine, constituents are raising serious issues and concerns. They're seeing providers charging exorbitant fees, billing for services not delivered and aggressively targeting vulnerable participants. One constituent told me of a provider boasting about pocketing thousands of dollars for basic outings, employing unqualified staff, charging the taxpayer heavily and exploiting the system. Another raised concerns that participants are being signed up to services that they rarely use but are still charged for because, in their words, 'Free services will always be abused.' Perhaps most concerning are cases like that of Vanessa from Largs, who described deeply troubling behaviour by a provider: disputed invoices, lack of transparency and even legal action against a vulnerable participant. These are not theoretical or abstract concerns. These are issues that are happening now in my electorate, and this is what Australians are experiencing. And it's compounded by the scale of the problem.

The NDIS is projected to cost around $46 billion this year and is growing at approximately 10 per cent annually. The rate of growth is simply not sustainable. Every dollar that is rorted is a dollar taken away from someone who genuinely needs support—a child requiring early intervention, a person with profound disability or a family relying on respite care. Recent findings of the ACCC highlight just how serious these issues are—false advertising, unfair contracts, charging for services not delivered and misleading claims about eligibility. This goes to the heart of integrity in the scheme.

We on this side of the House strongly support the NDIS, and I believe it is universally supported. This is not a political issue. This is an issue about how we best serve and support people with disability in this country. We believe in it, we fought for it and we want to see it protected for generations to come. But supporting the NDIS does not mean defending the status quo. It means ensuring the scheme is sustainable, fair and focused on those who need it most.

And that is where this bill falls short. It acknowledges the problem, but it does not fully confront it. Where is the comprehensive plan to restore integrity? Where is the decisive action to crack down on systemic rorting? Where is the accountability for the failures that have allowed this to occur? This legislation could have gone further. It could have introduced real-time auditing and data matching, strengthened provider registration requirements, improved transparency around pricing and delivered faster enforcement to shut down dodgy operators. Instead, we have a bill that makes incremental changes in the face of a systemic challenge.

If we're serious about protecting the NDIS, we must act with urgency. We must ensure regulators have not just powers but the intent to act. We must ensure that those who exploit the system face swift consequences, and we must restore confidence for participants, for families and for taxpayers. The NDIS cannot become a blank cheque. It must remain a targeted, sustainable system that delivers real outcomes for Australians living with disability.

This bill is a step in the right direction, but it is not the leap that is required. The Australian people deserve to have their taxes spent judiciously and meaningfully, and, most importantly, Australians living with disability deserve a system that works for them, not for those who seek to exploit it.

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