Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The National Disability Insurance Scheme is an important reform, and in principle I support budget measures to better fund it. However, my constituents tell me the scheme has many problems. For instance, they talk about an impenetrable and impersonal bureaucracy, as well as hopeless delays with internal reviews, which leads to unnecessary distress and frustration for families. If ever there was a government program that had to be user friendly, this is it. So what will you do to better respond to community concerns? What will you do to ensure the NDIS works effectively for all people with disabilities and for their families?

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

I thank the member for Denison for his question. There are general and specific answers to your question. The general answer is with respect to what has become known inside the NDIA as the pathways review. It is a very thorough, own-motion-initiated review started by the new NDIA board into the experience of all participants and has been conducted and concluded. That involved consultations in the hundreds with stakeholders and individual participants. The more specific answer is that, if there is ever any individual case where you think there has been bureaucratic excess, a problem or a delay, you are very welcome to come to my office and explain it to me. That applies to any member here; and many members see me from time to time. I extend this invitation meaningfully to you, because that will allow us not only to assist the individual but also to feed that experience in a confidential way back into what is an ongoing effort to improve performance and experiences.

As reported at the end of the last quarter, we have moved 78,000 participants into the NDIS. That represents about 82 per cent of the original bilateral estimates, which were very ambitious, as has been noted in many quarters. Initially, problems were experienced with the payment portal. In the first several weeks after we went to full transition, the payment success rate was hovering around 70 per cent. It has now moved up to a much better 93 per cent. The number of participants we have moved in Tasmania represents 97 per cent of the bilateral estimates, so we are actually doing better than the national average in Tasmania. The number of participants who have responded to us and described their pathway as participants as either good or very good is, as noted in the last quarterly report, 90 per cent. That's a good figure, but I am not pretending there are not people who have not experienced that highly consistent level of performance that we would want through the pathway.

I would just extend to the member again the genuine invitation to come and speak with me about individual cases that he might have encountered that can help us continually improve. I would also reaffirm the fact that the NDIA board and the NDIA executive—and there is a new CEO of the NDIA now—are absolutely committed to understanding difficulties that are arising, and, where there are 90 per cent of people in Tasmania saying that their experience is good or very good, we acknowledge there is 10 per cent room for significant improvement. Perhaps we could have a talk about that, but in an overarching way we are very live to issues and problems and are working very hard to improve the experience for all participants.