Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I remind the member for Blair that he is in fact in government and can do these things. He does not have to rely on the opposition's blessing.

I rise to speak on behalf of and in favour of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The only time that all four candidates in the election for Herbert last year were in the one place at the same time was at a disabilities forum at the RSL in Townsville. The four candidates for Herbert were there in front of a disabilities audience and were asked to explain our positions on disability. Scott Stidson was one of the key movers. One of the big things that came out of that meeting, the one that really got to me, was a lady who stood up and said it was her first afternoon off in 14 months and she had chosen to take it to come to the forum. During the cyclone she rang me and said that she had tried to hook up her husband's bed to a generator to enable him to tilt and to move. One of the lessons that we learnt from the cyclone was that there are not so many disabled people in a suburb that the council or the SES cannot go round and knock on the door and just say, 'Are you okay?' That alone stood out as to how important disability is in North Queensland and how seriously all sides of this House take disability.

Since then I have been besieged with people that have come to see me—people from Cootharinga North Queensland. I was the very first and still have been the only MC at the Cootharinga North Queensland—it used to be the North Queensland Spastic Welfare League—cocktail party, which is held every year and raises up to about $40,000 or $50,000. I am chief MC and auctioneer. I am not very good but, by jingo, I am cheap. That organisation has grown a great deal and does a lot. The cocktail party is now one of the must-go-to events in North Queensland.

The NDIS is going to cost this country a lot of money, but is it money that we need to spend? Is it money that we should spend? Is it money that we can spend? I would say yes to all three. I am sure members on both sides of this House say would that as well. As I have said to everyone in the disability sector in North Queensland, it is not so much whether we get it in or not but how it is implemented that will be important.

I was at a disability morning tea the other day organised by Cootharinga North Queensland and at that morning tea every state member of parliament had ticked yes, they support the NDIS. Every councillor had ticked yes, they support the NDIS. I was the only federal politician that had ticked yes. Other people had obviously either not been canvassed or not given a response. I stood up at that morning tea and said that the problem we have is not so much whether it will be implemented or not but how much of a noise we can possibly make. I made the point to the people there that I hold the seat of Herbert by 3,124 votes. If you get 3,125 people to change their mind on one single issue, and that is disability insurance, I am gone. It has to be done seat by seat, area by area, state by state, nation by nation until we get this across the line. That is how serious this is. I said to the councillors who were there, 'It is all very well and good to be in favour of the NDIS now, but what if the system comes up and it is going to be levied through your rates? Are you still going to be in favour of it?'

The question is: how is this thing going to be implemented? It is not a matter of whether it is going to be implemented or not but how it is going to be done, and that is what has to be done.

We have a guy in Townsville by the name of Garth—I will not give the guy's full name—who was in a workplace accident and is now in a wheelchair. When the ABC radio was doing the cross on the NDIS, they were talking to the Spina Bifida Association, the Endeavour Foundation and Cootharinga. We are all just 30 seconds—one bad accident—away from being in a wheelchair. We have to keep that in mind. Garth is trying to raise money to buy an all-terrain wheelchair to roll around Australia. I have said that I will help him with that. If nothing else, it will get him out of Townsville and out of my hair for the next six to eight weeks, because every time I see him he says, 'How are we going with that NDIS?' I say to you, Mr Deputy Speaker: we in this House need to be fully supportive of that.