Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to raise serious concerns regarding the government's approach to disability support pension reviews. It is causing unnecessary harm and distress and is a waste of public money. Mrs Deb Johnson of Wheelers Hill sought my help given a surprise review of her son Andrew's DSP under the name of the government's welfare crackdown. I have the family's permission to talk about this as they are determined to force change so other families do not have to go through this nonsense.

Andrew, 30 years of age, has lived in state residential care since 1999. Andrew has a severe intellectual disability, severe epilepsy and other diagnoses including autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, Tourette syndrome and ADHD. Andrew is non-verbal and non-communicative and has had a PEG tube inserted for feeding since 1993. These conditions are lifelong. Despite this, government policy has forced a formal review of Andrew's DSP to assess his capacity to work. Under government direction, Centrelink requested current information from doctors on each condition, insisted on an updated IQ test despite the likelihood Andrew would physically assault the tester, and flagged a job capacity assessment and a disability medical assessment. Centrelink advised Mrs Johnson that such audits are random and there are no particular criteria for targeting. Centrelink advised me that the review has been triggered by the government's welfare crackdown and that it could not stop it. I wrote to the minister, but, given the need to provide new evidence, Mrs Johnson wasted over $600 on Medicare and medical costs to gather letters to prove the bleedingly obvious.

The neurologist noted in his letter, 'Requesting this type of correspondence regarding patients like Andrew is a complete waste of time. I have no idea what managers in Centrelink were thinking. He is not in a position to work and will need to stay on DSP until the day he dies.' Managers in Centrelink did not initiate it though; this government did.

Then, on Thursday afternoon, in response to media pressure we had the extraordinary spectacle of the minister calling The Age journalist directly to try and shut down the issue, saying the review was completed. Mrs Johnson had not even provided the requested information when the minister intervened. On what basis was this decision made? Should everyone in Australia run to the media to get sense out of the minister?

It has become clear over the weekend from the emails, Facebook messages and comments that this is a systemic problem. Does the minister seriously believe that Down syndrome gets cured? That amputated limbs grow back? Or that profound intellectual disabilities magically disappear? This government's welfare crackdown is wasting public money by targeting the wrong people and running up Medicare costs to write stupid, pointless letters.

I have a report of a Liberal MP publicly denying that this is even happening. Well, the cat is out of the bag now. I encourage everyone in Australia with similar stories to speak up. An inquiry is needed to get to the bottom of this and find a more sensible approach.