Ross Hart (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the National Disability Insurance Scheme. After much work, Labor created the scheme, as support services were clearly not meeting the needs of Australians living with disability. In Bass the current demand is 1,300, growing to 2,900 participants under the full scheme. The current workforce is 500 to 600, growing to 850 to 1,050. But, left to a Turnbull Liberal government, real gaps in management and service provision have emerged, and people with disabilities are losing out.

People in my electorate have experienced delays and dramas with transitional arrangements for the NDIS. They include families whose approval for the scheme has been delayed up to 18 months, and people who have lost state government subsidies on signing up for the scheme. The Launceston Examiner reported that a teenage boy with severe autism uses taxis to get to school because he cannot use the bus. However, the NDIS will not cover all of the transport that his state taxi concession card would cover. The boy's mother has been back and forth between the Liberal state government and the NDIA to no avail, while state and federal Liberals are both trying to avoid responsibility for cost, despite assurances that no-one will miss out.

This is not good enough. The buck stops with the minister, the Minister for Social Services, to end the blame game and restore confidence in the rollout. The government ought not to blame Bruce Bonyhady and the NDIA board. Labor will fight for the NDIS to be delivered in full and in a timely manner.