Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on behalf of some of the most vulnerable people in my community: those with a disability; the families, the carers and all those affected by the impacts of disabilities. The launch of the National Disability Insurance Scheme in 2013 saw the beginning of a scheme which would not only give people with a disability, their families and their carers some kind of certainty but would also provide the basis for a new approach to disability in this country. Not only would access to support and funding be improved but these services would be provided from a perspective informed by the idea that people with a disability could strive to contribute. That, with just a little more assistance and more understanding, our community and our government would help to lift the barriers disability puts in place, rather than reinforcing it as an obstacle. Disability can affect us all. Whether through illness or injury, every one of us is only a small step away from relying on the government's disability scheme.

In my electorate there are people in dire circumstances whose hope rests on the promise of the National Disability Insurance Scheme being fulfilled. I want and my community wants Ballarat to be one of the next locations for the National Disability Insurance Scheme in Victoria. Our community is well placed to be able to implement the National Disability Insurance Scheme and it is greatly anticipated in our community. Frankly, we cannot afford to wait any longer. I understand the government is set to announce the new locations in August and I would hope very much—and the expectation is high in my community—that Ballarat will be one of those. As I said, we cannot afford to wait.

One young man in my electorate, who was recently featured in papers, is in desperate need of around-the-clock care, suffering a condition known as Friedreich's Ataxia. He is confined to a wheelchair and is legally blind. Most importantly, he also suffers severe sleep apnoea and requires overnight care in case of a fatal incident. His access to funding and support is so lacking that his carers are staying overnight at his house as volunteers, giving their time for free. That is why I am deeply concerned by the division in the Abbott government about delaying the NDIS rollout. Our most vulnerable people have been promised better treatment, better care and better control over that care. We cannot accept any delay and those people should not have to endure it. Members of my community are giving their time and effort to support those waiting for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The Abbott government needs to understand that any delay is going to harm some of the most vulnerable people in communities across the country.

Already, some 17,300 Australians with disability are getting the support they need from the NDIS. Other Australians with disability, their carers and families should not be forced to wait further. There is no reason for a delay. The recent National Disability Insurance Agency's quarterly report, Report on the Sustainability of the scheme, shows it is delivering in trial sites on time and on budget. Attempts by the Abbott government, and the Treasurer in particular, to slow down the National Disability Insurance Scheme rollout are a direct attack on the most vulnerable people who desperately need this funding. It is inexplicable given how the early National Disability Insurance Scheme trials appear to be a success beyond all expectation.

Again, as the government makes its deliberations and its negotiations with states and territories about the next locations for the National Disability Insurance Scheme—and remember that these are not trial sites for the initial schemes; they are launch sites, and it is meant to be progressively rolled out across the country, and we are now talking about the next phase of progressive rollout—I call on both state and federal governments to make sure that Ballarat is in that next phase of location. We have a very strong disability community in Ballarat, and I note today that the disability sector across the country has said very clearly to the Abbott government, 'If you delay this, if you stall this, we will be out there campaigning in the streets and in electorates on this issue.' So I hope the government has heard that warning. Certainly our disability communities in Ballarat do a fantastic job. They have been positioning themselves. They have been working to change the way in which they practise to be able to offer people with disability much more choice in the support and the care that they receive. As I said, Ballarat is well placed to become the next location for the National Disability Insurance Scheme rollout in Victoria. I understand there are some delays occurring at the moment, but I hope with some anticipation that, when the announcements are made in August, Ballarat will be one of the communities that get the National Disability Insurance Scheme. We have waited too long. People with disabilities in my community deserve to have the NDIS, and they deserve to have it now.