Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 1 July this year the NDIS celebrated its first anniversary. It is an anniversary that is worth celebrating because it has made such a difference in the lives of so many people. I would like to give special credit to the previous minister and now shadow minister, Jenny Macklin, for the work that she did in bringing this scheme to fruition. I would also like to acknowledge the state governments in the various states that have signed up to the NDIS and the member for Kingston, who also made an enormous contribution.

I am very fortunate in that the NDIS trial site in New South Wales is in the Shortland electorate. I have been able to see firsthand the difference it has made in the lives of those people that have been accepted as clients of the NDIS. It has made a really profound difference to their lives and it is interesting to note that as of 1 July the NDIS is being rolled out in Lake Macquarie. Previously the first stage was a rollout in the Newcastle local government area. It is now being rolled out in the Lake Macquarie local government area in the Shortland electorate, and it will subsequently be rolled out in Maitland. I know from firsthand experience how many people have been waiting for it to come to Lake Macquarie. I have been working with the guardian of a woman who is in residential care. Getting proper housing for her has been imperative and the only way that that will happen is through the NDIS, so she will get the support, the incontinence aids and everything else she needs to ensure she has a fantastic quality of life.

On Saturday night I attended the announcement of the Lake Macquarie business awards. Ability Links, which is an NDIS partner, was one of the organisations that were recognised for the excellence of the service they provide in the area. Charlestown, where the NDIS is, has become quite a hub for disability services. They have relocated to that area so people with disability can visit the NDIS and link into the services they need within their local area.

I am also very fortunate to be on the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which has oversight of the NDIS. The member for Kingston is also on that committee. As we have travelled around Australia we have been able to see and hear about the experiences people have had and the way their lives have changed by being able to access the services that the NDIS make available to them. In a prior life I worked with people with disabilities, ensuring that they had the opportunity to live independently in the community and to return to the workforce, but it was always very much hit and miss. There was no assurance that they would receive the services that they needed, there was no assurance that they would be able to enjoy the quality of life that everybody else enjoys and they were always fighting for every gain they could make. With the advent of the NDIS, and being able to see firsthand in my local area the difference it has made, I know that those days are gone. No longer are people with disability second-class citizens. They now have rights and they now have plans designed for them. I would like to finish with a quote from Nicholas Gleeson, who works for Ability Links:

From all the reports I've heard it's definitely helping people to have greater access to services and improve their lives.

We need to speed up the rollout, not slowing it down.

So I encourage the government to make no effort whatsoever to slow down the rollout of the NDIS, because it is making a real difference to the lives of people.