Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last year in this place there was a strong commitment to the Australian people from all sides of politics to implement a national disability insurance scheme. The then Labor government understood the need for fiscal discipline and took over $180 billion in responsible savings to invest in hospitals, schools and vital national programs like the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Ongoing funding for the NDIS was assured through the increase in the Medicare levy. That increase was not an easy decision to make but it was the right one and Labor made it.

In terms of equity, there is no question that the NDIS delivers. People with disability have been disadvantaged for far too long by funding systems based on borders and programs based on mass delivery rather than need and choice. Economically, the scheme will also deliver, with an increase in productivity and employment participation delivering an increase of approximately one per cent to Australia's GDP. To not roll out the scheme in full as scheduled would be a betrayal of people with disability, their carers and their families across the nation.

Some 1,800 people in Newcastle are already benefitting from the scheme, but I would like to finish with the words of one, James Bailey, who made a submission to the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme in Newcastle last week. He said:

Every morning I wake up and smile because I know my life is better now, I get to choose what I want to do and that makes me feel responsible … I am happy NDIS funding supports me to live a happy and full life.