Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is from Andrew Playford from Ballina, who has sent this question via my Facebook page. He asks: could the minister please update the House on the full implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, how successful the trial areas have been and when will the Page community be covered by this scheme?

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Page for his question. It is fortuitous that I have with me the National Disability Insurance Agency quarterly report to COAG—the Disability Reform Council document which came out on 30 September. Of course it is not a coincidence—it is something I carry with me a great deal of the time in this portfolio. It is a very important question and I would imagine that many members would be getting very similar questions on Facebook pages and at other points. It is estimated that around 5,000 people with a disability in the electorate of Page will benefit from the full rollout of the NDIS in July 2017, when the northern New South Wales services district is due to commence transition to the NDIS.

There is a little bit of time to go for the member's electorate and for the people of Page, but his question, and the question from his constituent, goes to two issues, one regarding the success of the trial sites and the second with respect to the timing of the rollout. With respect to the trial sites, we have trial sites in Hunter in New South Wales and Barwon in Victoria, and in South Australia and Tasmania two trial sites that are being conducted state-wide but by age cohorts—those ages are 0 to 14 in South Australia and 15 to 24 in Tasmania—and there are additional trial sites in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and the ACT, with the ACT being a territory-wide trial site. The fortuitousness of having the quarterly report is that it is the document that updates us about the successful nature of those trial sites, or any difficulties that might be arising. I am pleased to say to you, Member, that what the quarterly report says is that at the end of September 2015, 22,960 people had been found eligible for the NDIS—that is across all trial sites—19,758 participants have had their plans detailing their individual support packages finalised, which is obviously a very high percentage of those identified as being eligible, and very importantly the NDIS quarterly report surveys all of those who have come into contact with the NDIS in trial sites and ranks their satisfaction on a scale from minus two to two, and the average level of satisfaction of all those reported was 1.63, which is very high, pleasingly high and indicates that the type of service that is being rolled out in the trial sites is of very high value.

Very importantly, and I think of some importance to the House and to your constituents and all constituents, is the fact that the average package cost of $34,831—that is the average package cost of all those people that I have mentioned going in to the trials and excluding large residencies—is below the benchmark predicted average cost for 2015-16 of $38,600. So $34,831 is below the $38,600 mark and that means it will be sustainable. (Time expired)