Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

MURPHY () (): Hannah Maynard is 18 years old. She lives in Mount Eliza with her mother, sister and grandparents. Hannah requires 24/7 care to maintain her airways, nutrition and hygiene. She has spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy. She's nonverbal. She lives in a wheelchair. But Hannah's home is not suitable for her needs and it's not a safe workplace, so she can't get the support she needs from workers or use the equipment she needs to be safe. The house has an outdoor lift, which is the wheelchair access to the first floor. It cannot be used in the dark, in the cold, in the rain, in the wind or in bad weather, which we do have quite a bit of in Melbourne. So Hannah's mother carries her and her wheelchair up and down the stairs, at serious risk to Hannah and her mum, Karen. Hannah's bathroom is not adequate and it's not safe.

Hannah deserves the dignity and the respect of being provided with what she needs to be safe, supported and included, and yet her request for her NDIS plan to include home modifications has been denied four times over the last five years and, most recently, one month ago. The Morrison government sees the NDIS as a drain on the budget. Well, my Labor colleagues and I see it as a way for the fundamental rights of vulnerable Australians like Hannah to be delivered. That's why I'll keep fighting for Hannah and everyone else who needs the NDIS to deliver what it was intended to.