Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Energy Security and Affordability) Share this | Hansard source

I should have bought the coffee. You're right. The member for Page is right. He scolds me appropriately. We had a coffee and came back in, and he calls the same occupational therapist. He says, 'I'm on the NDIS and I'd like to talk to you.' They say, 'Come in next week.' That's a true story. The gentleman's name is Scott May. We did it. That was heartbreaking to watch. We have created a scheme that has lost the confidence of Australians. I sat there looking a veteran in the eye, someone who has served this nation, someone who'd come back with injuries, and in his eyes he was being neglected and the battle for funding was being lost. What a terrible thing to do—to lose confidence in a project as important as this.

There is no-one I talk to who doesn't agree with the point that part of the tax that we pay should go towards helping Australians with significant disabilities and with significant vulnerabilities. We're proud to do that. That's what makes us a good nation. We like doing that. It's something that we should always continue to do, and the NDIS was set up as a conduit for achieving that. But, sadly, because we've been too timid to talk about reforming the NDIS, we've got to a point where that scheme no longer holds the esteem of the nation.

I've talked about the eligibility concerns we've seen. Clearly at that point in time 15 per cent of young boys being on a disability scheme—I can't imagine the impact that has on a young boy's life. He's going through maybe learning difficulties and being told that he has a disability. I think that would have a profound impact on someone. But we've seen so many unfortunate stories about where the money that is being poured into NDIS has gone. We've heard stories about it being used for holidays. We've heard about it previously being used for sex work. We've heard about fraud and organised crime. I saw the figure that about 10 per cent of claims raise concern for fraud.

It's important now that I don't do what those opposite did when we engaged with them in a conversation on reform. It's important that I say quite clearly: I want to be part of this. I'm open to a conversation about reforming the NDIS, and I'm willing to work with the government on this. It's important that we do it. It's going to be very difficult work because we've got ourselves into a very bad way. This scheme, which should be about doing some of the best things that we can do as a nation, sadly, has been designed in one of the worst possible ways. I hate to think what happens if we aren't able to do this and if we find ourselves creating a situation where we don't have confidence and we stop funding something like this. A future where the NDIS loses out is where Australia loses out.

I'm very much of the view that for many of the cases I've talked about with misuse of funds through the NDIS we should be taking a very strong law-and-order-style approach. We should be looking for every opportunity to track down those who are taking this money, which should be used for good purposes, and pocketing it themselves. I think we should be taking a law-and-order approach. We should be cracking down on those who are defrauding the scheme. We should be doing that. That would be appropriate.

I note the concerns of many previous speakers. I'm not going to repeat their concerns. Clearly there is an issue of uncertainty that these changes have made. What the changes to eligibility will do—I've heard from many local constituents who've reached out and raised their concerns. Mostly, it's parents raising their concerns about their kids and how their kids will continue to have the service they've had. So there is an issue here that the government needs to address very quickly. Again, I'm happy to work as closely as possible with the government to address those concerns and to hopefully come up with a solution to the anxiety that people in my electorate and around Australia are facing.

I'll finish on this. One of the problems, I think, in this place is that we get to a point in a debate where we refuse to acknowledge the truth that's in front of us, and the longer we find ourselves in that situation the worse the situation gets. Sadly, if we ignore a problem for long enough, it has a huge impact. At over $50 billion a year now on NDIS, we are seeing a huge weight on the Australian economy, and we are not seeing an equal and opposite benefit being given to those who most need it. That's the sad truth. If I could stand here, hand on heart, and say that that $50 billion was making the lives of people with disabilities better, that'd be a different conversation. But that's not where we are.

We can't ignore these things. We should be able to speak out about them. I think that's an important part of being in this place. I'm very grateful that the government is listening—mostly to solutions that we put on the table years prior, in some cases, which they wouldn't support back then.

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