Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to acknowledge the milestone announced by the coalition government this week in rolling out the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and I am pleased to confirm that the Central Coast is among the first locations where the NDIS will be delivered as part of the transition to the full scheme. This landmark scheme will be phased in from 1 July next year through to 30 June 2017. The rollout will provide coverage to about one-third of the population in New South Wales, and by the end of the transition the full NDIS is expected to have around 115,000 participants. The agreement also provides for another 26,000 people who are not currently receiving services to enter the scheme from July 2018. Overall, this gives certainty to more than 140,000 people with disability in our state and ultimately around 460,000 Australians and their families when the scheme is rolled out in full.

I commend Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and New South Wales Premier Mike Baird for signing this agreement yesterday here in Parliament House and thank Assistant Minister for Social Services Mitch Fifield for his work in rolling out this huge project. In fact, he will be aware firsthand of how this rollout will benefit people in my electorate of Robertson and the value of supporting disability services on the Central Coast, because just recently Assistant Minister Fifield joined me in Point Clare for the opening of a new coffee shop run by Fairhaven Services. As we enjoyed some of the wonderful coffee and cake that they provide at Fare Cravin', the assistant minister acknowledged how incredibly fortunate we are on the Central Coast to have organisations such as Fairhaven that are so focused on ensuring that people who have disability have the opportunity to work. He described it as a day for celebration for a wonderful community business, and it is a wonderful community business.

We were also able to announce on the day funding to deliver employment certainty for around 200 people with disability on the Central Coast. As part of our investment of $650 million for Australian Disability Enterprises over the next three years, we confirmed $6.3 million of funding to three organisations in my electorate, including Fairhaven, Terama Industries at Gosford, and Lasercraft Australia at West Gosford. The chief executive of Fairhaven, Jim Buultjens, was saying to me that it would deliver more varied work options for more than 140 employees, such as at the cafe at Point Clare and, of course, also at their factory in West Gosford.

The new contracts will reduce red tape and, vitally, especially after this week's announcement, assist in the transition from current arrangements to the new claiming process on the NDIS. I understand that people currently receiving support through the New South Wales government specialist disability service will be moving to the NDIS first. Importantly, people currently receiving state or Commonwealth supports will continue to do so until they transition to the new NDIS. We are delivering the NDIS on time, within budget and in— (Time expired)