Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to rise to speak on this motion. Whenever I start a conversation about the NDIS, I say, 'The right person with the right package and the right service provider is life changing.' I have seen that over and over again for people with disabilities who are now on the NDIS. The shame of it is that this vital program or scheme is now costing the economy, the taxpayer, around $40 billion a year. The current trajectory is that, by 2035, it will cost $120 billion a year, which is simply not sustainable. We cannot put that on the Australian taxpayer, but we must look after people with disabilities.

There is a definite need to be able to find cost savings in the NDIS. All of us in this place would have heard stories about rorts or cruisers or abuse of the system, where somebody is charging to care for a participant at three different locations on the one night. That is where we need to find the savings. That is where we need to root out the people who abuse the system—not do what this government did on 1 July and cut payments to service providers in allied health. We are already stretched thin on the ground trying to get allied health professionals to be able to service the clients—particularly in regional and rural Australia, where I live and where my colleagues in the National Party live—because it's hard enough to find those allied health services without cutting what they pay. I've met with those professionals in physiotherapy, occupational therapy. They're saying: 'Look, it's not always about the money. We care about our clients, but we just can't continue with our businesses.'

On top of that, those opposite cut their travel payment by 50 per cent. That might be okay in the city, for somebody who drives five kilometres to go and see their client. But what about somebody in Port Macquarie who has to travel to Willawarrin, an hour and a half away, to see their client? To have their travel costs cut by 50 per cent—they're simply not going to do it. There are those who say, 'Why can't the participant get in their car and drive to Port Macquarie to get those services?' The person who says that doesn't understand how hard it is out there for these people. Not only are they struggling with disability; they're struggling with the everyday cost of living, just like most people out there. And I'm already being told by the service providers: 'Pat, we have to leave the scheme. We can no longer afford to run our practice when the government is cutting our travel time by half and reducing what we get paid.' And the data which the government used to cut these payments was flawed.

What I'm asking the government to do is reconsider your decision. Suspend it for three or six months and actually consult with the industry, which is something you didn't do before you made this decision to cut the payments to service providers. Go out, have the consultation and actually see the impact of what your decision is doing right now. Look at how many people have left the scheme. Look at how many service providers are no longer there. This decision is hurting the most vulnerable in our community, and it needs to be stopped now.

David Smith (Bean, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak about the National Disability Insurance Scheme. I'd like to thank the Member for Herbert for bringing the matter forward and sharing with the House the story of his daughter Emery. I do not doubt the sincerity with which the member has brought this matter forward for the consideration of the House. It does afford us an opportunity to explore the matter further. In the context of this debate, I'd like to acknowledge all the wonderful providers in the electorate of Bean who work with NDIS participants every day.

The NDIS is an important piece of our social infrastructure, developed and introduced by a Labor government. It was a product of a long campaign by Australians with disabilities, and the government of the time listened and acted. What I can see today, and what I'm sure most other members of this place see, is that the NDIS continues to make a real difference in the lives of Australians with a disability, their loved ones and their carers. Over 717,000 Australians with disabilities are benefitting from the NDIS, with their participation enabling them to live lives of dignity and independence. I see the difference it makes in Bean every single day. But, like any government program, particularly a program of this size and importance, regular reviews are critical to ensuring both that it's operating as required and that participants are receiving affordable and quality services.

There are important principles at stake. It's not enough for participants to receive care and support. NDIS participants can be vulnerable due to their disabilities, and the purpose of the scheme is to support and empower them. This core principle cannot be sustained if NDIS participants are paying more than any other Australians to access the same services. But, for too long, NDIS participants have been paying more to access services, and we know this because the 2024-25 Annual Pricing Review found that this was the case. This trend has serious implications. When NDIS participants pay more for the same services enjoyed by other Australians, they have less funding to put towards other forms of support. More broadly, when participants pay more, the financial viability of the entire scheme is threatened. It's easy to step over this particular point, but it's an important one. If we can't manage costs—if NDIS spending gets out of control and can't be managed—the viability of the entire scheme is threatened.

The NDIS is far too important to allow that to happen. So, faced with these challenges, the government needed to act on recommendations of the report, and it has. The decision came after a comprehensive consultation process based upon engagement with key stakeholders, virtual information sessions with over 4,000 providers and the review of more than 10 million transactions. In my own capacity as the member for Bean, I engaged a range of service providers across my community. I engaged with physiotherapists, speech therapists and many others. They are all good people who want to continue to support NDIS participants and want to make clear the challenges in doing so. Unlike other shonky providers, they embody professional values we need all providers to model. I listened to what they had to say, engaged with their perspectives and passed on that feedback directly, and I'll continue to do so. It might have been easier for the government to have not acted right now—to have allowed the situation to develop and evolve. After all, change is difficult and not without loss. But, difficult or not, the change needed to take place, and, by grasping the nettle, the government and the minister have ensured that the scheme will continue to grow and flourish.

To conclude and to echo previous speakers, I want to speak to the situation kids with autism face. They and their families face an unacceptable wait for diagnosis and early intervention. Government support for the Thriving Kids program is critical, and it will help kids in this situation across Australia, whether they're in the cities or the regions. That is the appropriate way to support kids and their families, and I look forward to continuing to support them in this place and beyond.

Ben Small (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We arguably have few duties in this place more serious than to support and care for our most vulnerable Australians. When the NDIS was established, built on a foundation of bipartisan support, it reflected a national commitment to ensure people living with a disability have the services and funding that they need to live their best possible lives. But today, under this government's stewardship, this vital scheme, the NDIS, is in disarray, no more so than in regional parts of Australia like Forrest.

The new pricing model and truly unacceptable cuts to travel funding for allied health services implemented by this government have created a crisis of uncertainty and risk in the regions, particularly for families living in seats like Forrest. For these families, the NDIS is far more than an item in the household budget; it is a lifeline for their children, and it is a promise that those children will receive the early intervention and essential therapies needed to develop and reach their full potential. Yet, every day, I speak with constituents locally who are overwhelmed with anxiety that this government's misguided reforms will cause their children to lose access to the services that they so desperately need.

This fear is not just limited to my community of Forrest; I empathise with the sentiments of my colleague the member for Herbert, a father whose five-year-old daughter lives with level 3 autism. He's worried about her future because he sees no clear plan—only cuts and uncertainty. This is not about a budget figure; it's about the future of our most vulnerable Australians. The fact is that these NDIS reforms have been applied with a broadbrush approach that is unsustainable and completely fails to understand that the realities of life are different outside the major metropolitan areas of our country.

When confronted with these concerns, the minister's response has been dismissive. The feedback is ignored, and the cuts are justified as coming from an independent board. Well, I can tell you what this so-called independent decision has done to the providers in my community. Take the case of a valued physiotherapist in the south-west of WA; we'll call her Kelly. She's a dedicated professional who has seen firsthand the direct impact on both participants and providers. She has written to me to advise that the cost-cutting efforts of the government in this space have devolved into stonewalling tactics: blaming participants and therapists whilst cutting their rates to the point of unviability. Kelly has warned me that, if this continues, ethical, high-quality providers will be forced to close, leading to worse health outcomes and placing a greater burden on the public health system. This is not a cost-saving measure; it is a crisis in the making, and this government is ignoring our cries to do things differently.

What about the small businesses and sole traders operating within the scheme? I've received a letter from Courtney at Bayside Independence in Busselton, who is also deeply concerned about the sustainability of service delivery in south-west WA. Courtney warns that the proposed reductions in the hourly rate for travel will make community based services—such as in-home therapy, functional assessments and home modifications—unsustainable. These are not lifestyle choices for participants; they are simply necessary measures to ensure their ongoing safety and wellbeing. Courtney highlights that the cuts to physiotherapy, podiatry and dietetics create a real risk to the continuity of care. The ongoing stagnation of pricing for other critical services like occupational therapy is also forcing providers to operate on the very edge of viability, with increasing costs and compliance burdens crippling their businesses. The risk of market failure in this space is both real and imminent.

Providers are already struggling, and these pricing recommendations from the government may well be the straw that finally breaks the camel's back. That will only cause an increase in hospital presentations of NDIS participants in crisis, and in service gaps, and there'll be an erosion of participant choice and control, which are fundamental to the design of the NDIS. This is a system whereby a person's support is determined by their postcode, and, for people in my electorate, we simply need to do better. So I back the calls for this government to immediately reverse the decision to slash these travel-funding arrangements for allied health services. We owe it to our most vulnerable.

Jo Briskey (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak today on the motion before the House regarding the NDIS service delivery arrangements and to make clear the importance of getting these settings right for both participants and providers. The National Disability Insurance Scheme is one of the most significant social reforms in our nation's history. It is changing lives, helping more than 717,000 Australians with disability to live more independently, to work, to study and to exercise real choice and control over their lives. That is something the parliament should always be proud of. But we also know that, with such major national reform, we must always be working to strengthen the scheme, and I remain committed to playing my role on behalf of my community in Maribyrnong, those who rely on the NDIS, those who work in it and all involved. It is incumbent on all of us in this place to ensure that the NDIS goes from strength to strength, and that is what this government is focused on.

The recent annual price review was about making NDIS pricing fairer, more transparent and more consistent with what other Australians pay. The review analysed over 10 million therapy transactions benchmarked against Medicare, private health insurance and 13 comparable government schemes. It found what we had long heard about anecdotally—that there was an NDIS equivalent of a 'wedding tax' afoot and that people with disability were too often being charged far more for the same services, sometimes nearly 70 per cent more. That's not fair. People with disability should not be asked to pay more than any other Australian for life-changing supports like physiotherapy, podiatry or occupational therapy. It is also not fair that high and unclear travel claims were eating into people's budgets, limiting their access to other vital supports.

Let me specifically address the claims made in this motion about transport allowances. The facts are clear: no other comparable scheme compensates therapists for travel as generously as the NDIS does. Providers can claim up to half the therapy rate for travel time, around $90 an hour, on top of kilometre allowances, tolls, parking and even flights and accommodation for remote areas. To suggest otherwise is simply false. Let's not forget that, when those opposite were in government, they did nothing to fix travel access for participants in regional and remote communities. For them to now cry foul on transport is nothing short of hypocrisy. This government, unlike the coalition, is dealing with the issue honestly, ensuring fairness for participants while still recognising the extra challenges faced by rural and remote Australians. The changes we are making from this review mean that participants will pay fairer prices. They mean our frontline disability support workers will get the pay rise they deserve, and they mean that dodgy providers who seek to overcharge will no longer be able to do so unchecked.

I understand there has been some concern around the speed of these changes and how providers and participants will adjust. More than 4,500 providers attended virtual information sessions in June and July, and peak organisations such as the Australian Physiotherapy Association, National Disability Services and the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation have also been consulted directly. We also know that there are unique challenges in our rural and remote communities. That is why the scheme continues to provide generous travel loadings—40 per cent in remote areas and 50 per cent in very remote areas, well above what is provided under comparable schemes. Where necessary, participants in these areas can agree to cover additional transport costs, such as flights or accommodation, to ensure access to supports.

We should be clear: no comparable scheme, as I said, compensates travel as generously as the NDIS. But we must also strike the balance, ensuring fairness for participants and protecting taxpayer investment and, importantly, the sustainability of the scheme for generations to come. This government will always work in good faith with the disability community. We will consult, listen and adjust where needed, But let us not lose sight of the bigger picture: these changes are about fairness, transparency and strengthening the NDIS for the people it serves. At the heart of this debate are Australians with disability—Australians who deserve the dignity of fair pricing, who deserve to see their budgets go further and who deserve a scheme that will endure for the decades to come. I commend the government's approach, and I commend this House to keep participants, their families and the sustainability of the NDIS at the centre of this discussion.

Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The NDIS is a foundational scheme which is extraordinarily important to those Australians who are lucky enough to be engaged with it. We know that 5½ million Australians live with a disability, but only 700,000 Australians are currently on the National Disability Insurance Scheme. We know that those people who are on it describe it as life-changing. For many people it has offered them an opportunity to exercise the choice and control within their own life that they have never previously enjoyed. It is an incredibly important scheme. But all of us in this place know that the cost blowouts we've seen in recent years threaten its viability. Unfortunately my colleagues on the right have for many years viewed the NDIS as potentially something which could be scrapped and which could go, so the NDIS has been under considerable political pressure for a long period of time.

Those people who work within the scheme—the providers, whether they be allied health professionals or medical professionals—find it to be an endless source of frustration. I can tell you that having worked within the scheme for many years as a medical professional. The government's recent changes to the scheme, which were made far too quickly and without consideration, have caused those medical professionals and allied health professionals undue stress, trauma and tension at a time when there's already uncertainty and anxiety around the future of the NDIS. The Australian Physiotherapy Association, which I'm very proud to have centred in my own electorate of Kooyong, has expressed extreme distress at the speed and extent of the changes the government has made to funding around the scheme. Occupational therapists, speech pathologists and play therapists have all expressed the same concerns.

The reality is that these changes have been pushed through far too quickly. They have caused great distress to the therapists who provide these services, and they've exacerbated the ongoing stress on recipients of the scheme resulting from the sound and fury emanating from the health and disability minister at this point in time. Given the uncertainty about the future of foundational supports and how they can possibly be rolled out in an adequate timeframe to the extent they are required in this country, the speed of these changes to service delivery and supports is just exacerbating a situation of unacceptable uncertainty and anxiety for those people who rely on the NDIS and those people who work within it.

What we need the government to do is give all those participants of the NDIS—and those people who are not currently supported by it but who would benefit from it—the foundational supports the minister has suggested, which are a good idea but for which the current mechanisms are, to be frank, non-existent. What we need is a timeframe and certainty around how we can best support all Australians. We need to give those people who are already struggling with the difficulties, the sadnesses and the loss associated with having a disability or having a family member with a disability the certainty that the government is here for them—that it will always ensure the services they need will be provided and will be funded adequately. The government's recent legislation around NDIS service delivery has not done that. It has exacerbated the uncertainties that consumers, constituents, individuals living with a disability and the people who care for them are experiencing. To that end it has been actively unhelpful, and it is something the government should rethink and remediate as a matter of urgency.

Trish Cook (Bullwinkel, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on a matter that's close to my heart, as a nurse, and to speak about the National Disability Insurance Scheme. This is very important to the people of Bullwinkel, who I represent. The electorate covers both an urban area and a regional area.

The NDIS is one of our country's greatest achievements, made possible through the Labor government. It's a scheme that helps well over 700,000 people with a disability, and it helps them to live a more independent life, to work, to study and to have genuine choice and control over how they wish to live. It's a scheme that fundamentally changes lives for the better, and our government is committed to ensuring it will be the best that it can be. At the heart of our commitment is a focus on fairness and transparency. We are making prices fairer for participants, for providers, for workers and for the Australian taxpayer. We need the NDIS to be sustainable to provide care for as many participants as we can.

Let me be absolutely clear about what this means. It means ensuring that NDIS participants are not being overcharged for the vital services that they rely upon. It means ensuring our significant national investment is going to frontline workers who provide critical support day in and day out. It means cracking down on inefficiencies and dodgy providers who seek to make a quick buck without delivering meaningful outcomes for people who most need them.

A recent independent analysis found that NDIS participants were paying more than other Australians for the same supports. Let me repeat that. Our most vulnerable citizens were paying more. For services like physiotherapy and podiatry, the data found that, in some cases, people with disability were being charged a staggering 68 per cent more. It's not fair, and it's not fair to ask people with disability to pay above the odds for therapies that are essential for their wellbeing and independence. High fees and unclear travel rules were draining their budgets and restricting access to the very support that they need. This is why the independent body, the National Disability Insurance Agency or NDIA, in its annual pricing review, has recommended changes to ensure participants are paying a fair price in line with what other Australians pay for the same services.

This decision also has another crucial outcome. It ensures that our frontline disability support workers receive the pay rise that they so rightly deserve. This reflects the increase to the minimum wage and superannuation in the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award. This is about fairness for everyone. Some have raised concerns, but let me assure the House that this decision is based on the most comprehensive data ever used. The agency—the NDIA—meticulously analysed over 10 million transactions, benchmarking against Medicare, private health insurance and 13 other government schemes, and this was not a decision made lightly but one informed by robust evidence that proves people with disability were being overcharged. I would also like to acknowledge the NDIS providers that have already reached out to me with their concerns, and I do acknowledge that some are struggling with the changes and the transition and acknowledge that providers will need to adapt. Our system needs to adapt to remain sustainable. However, to allow for more Australians from the disability community to benefit from the NDIS, these structural changes are necessary to improve accessibility for the disability community.

In conclusion, our government is committed to making the NDIS a fairer, more transparent and more sustainable scheme for the long term. This decision is not about cutting costs. It's about ensuring every dollar is spent on supporting the people the scheme was designed to help. It's about restoring integrity to the NDIS. It's about empowering people with disability to live their lives with choice, control and dignity.

Alison Penfold (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is the first occasion I'm going to have a go at giving a speech without a written one. We'll have a go. I rise to support the motion moved by the member for Herbert. From listening to the comments from those on the other side, I'm incredibly disappointed by the language used—indeed, offensive language—suggesting that somehow those that are raising concerns about these changes, particularly around the changes to the travel costs, are the dodgy operators. I can assure you, from those that have come to see me, that these are outstanding allied health professionals. Many of them are women, and many of them said to me, 'This is an attack on a largely female workforce.' That is offensive.

I represent the electorate of Lyne, which is16,000 square kilometres, from the north, Rollands Plains, down to the south, basically Maitland and Karuah. I've met allied health professionals from across the electorate, and it was fantastic to meet them because I actually learnt something about the profession that I wasn't aware of—that, with an occupational therapist, a dietician or a speech pathologist, it is not one size fits all. There are some that specialise in supporting children; others, in older patients who are suffering dementia; and others, in people with complex disabilities. In a seat like mine, we struggle to maintain health professionals across the board. We have a very small number of very hardworking professional allied health staff, and they actually have to travel quite a long distance to be able to meet many of their patients. It's not like they can just call up someone in Taree and have them come out to Hannam Vale.

Indeed, I grew up in Hannam Vale, and I was there only yesterday at a wonderful minimarket in the lovely, warm sun in the valley. There is a lovely young girl in Hannam Vale, and the therapy that she is receiving is life changing. The allied health professional I met with said:

To continue to visit this little girl who is still learning to walk will no longer be viable for our practice—

under the Albanese government's changes—

There are no therapists closer that are able to support her. She will now have to spend 2 hours in the car for every therapy session. She will miss half a day of school, which she loves—

and I have to say the Hannam Vale Public School is a wonderful school. The therapist says:

This will make her grumpy and tired and therapy outcomes in the clinic will not be as effective as they could be at home.

Indeed, the allied health professionals said to me on numerous occasions that even the rules of the NDIS said that best clinical practice is in-home support, but these changes make it impossible for these allied health professionals to continue to provide the services that they so rightly want to provide.

I want to read out another circumstance in the time I have left to speak. This is from an occupational therapist:

Mr M* is a 42-year-old man living in Wauchope—

where I live—

with his ageing mother. He has a rare genetic condition and severe intellectual disability … and is completely dependent on 24/7 care. I have been his OT for 7 years and travel a 60 minute round trip to provide vital in home services to him. Due to his rare disability, he requires a wide range of highly customised equipment, including a powered wheelchair, a tilt-in-space commode, an electric hospital bed with a pressure care mattress, a powered lift recliner, and standing hoist for all transfers. He rarely leaves his home, and when he does, it is only with full support. Home based OT services are essential for Mr. M* because assessments and interventions must be carried out using his own equipment in his own home environment.

This allows for accurate evaluation of his daily functioning and ensures that each piece of equipment is working correctly and remains appropriate for his changing and often declining needs.

These are people speaking out about the negative impact that the government's changes will make, and I ask them most sincerely to reverse them. (Time expired)

Claire Clutterham (Sturt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The National Disability Insurance Agency released its annual pricing review earlier this year, making recommendations designed to help refocus the NDIS on its primary purpose, which is to provide funding and support services to Australians with a permanent and significant disability. The provision of funding and support services is targeted towards helping those with disability live as independently and as autonomously as possible, helping them to be able to spend more time with family and friends. It is directed at helping people with a permanent and significant disability access new skills, access meaningful work or access community volunteering opportunities. It is firmly aimed at delivering an improved quality of life.

The NDIS currently supports over 700,000 Australians with disability to access the services and support they need. The services and support facilitated by the scheme are directed at persons with a permanent and significant disability. That is the purpose of the NDIS, that is the entire point and the Albanese Labor government is focused on making the NDIS the best it can be so that dedicated and skilled providers like Lauren from Achieving Abilities and Chelsea from Flipper Academy, both of whom are based in my electorate of Sturt, can continue to provide critical support services to their clients.

The day I met Chelsea from Flipper Academy, I was privileged to witness a water based physiotherapy session that she was running with her young client Lucas. During the session on that day, Lucas—who is non-verbal, with significant limitations—achieved a milestone. It was a small milestone but a milestone nonetheless that he would not have been able to achieve without the care and skill he receives from Chelsea. Lucas's mum was in tears at her son's progress. Children like Lucas are exactly the kinds of Australians the NDIS was designed to support. But the scheme must be sustainable to allow highly qualified practitioners like Chelsea to continue to support young Australians like Lucas and to allow highly qualified exercise physiologists like Lauren help her clients, many of whom have cerebral palsy, develop strength and confidence.

The NDIA's annual price review contained new recommendations with respect to the way travel is charged by those providing support and services to persons with a permanent and significant disability. The updated travel-claiming rules create clear cost expectations for those persons, helping them to get increased value and efficiency from the funding provided to them. The new rules also encourage providers to implement more efficient scheduling and to seek to ensure that travel costs are proportionate to the services being provided. Travel costs must be itemised separately on invoices so that participants, the beneficiaries of the scheme, can clearly understand where the funding provided to them pursuant to the NDIS is being used. The NDIS and the NDIA learned during the annual price review that participants were finding that therapy travel costs were exhausting their funding faster than expected. In this respect, the needs of participants the NDIS is designed to fulfill were listened to and heard. The updated travel-claiming rules do encourage more efficient scheduling by providers and provide clear cost expectations.

A similar motivation exists for the change to increment recording by providers. Displaying therapy price limits in 10-minute increments is intended to increase flexibility in billing and service delivery. It aims to clarify that one hour is not a default or expected service length and that the length of service can vary depending on the agreement between the participant—the beneficiary of the scheme—and the provider based on individual needs and circumstances, which, of course, may evolve. Other travel rules did not change, which means all providers may continue to claim non-Labor travel costs, such as vehicle running costs, parking costs and road tolls. It is also open to providers to negotiate with participants to include costs and accommodation associated with travel to remote or very remote and regional locations. Additionally, remote loadings of 40 and 50 per cent remain unchanged, and this government will continue to work with regional, remote and rural communities to trial different and better ways of delivering essential services to Australians who need them.

Mary Aldred (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to get up and speak on this motion put forward by my friend and colleague the member for Herbert. I know he feels deeply and passionately about this issue and about supporting all Australians with a disability to live their lives to their full potential. I want to go back to the core raison d'etre, or reason for being, for the NDIS, and that is to provide funding and support for Australians with a permanent and significant disability to live life in the most ordinary way possible. I come from regional Australia; I come from regional Victoria. I'm very proud to represent my magnificent electorate of Monash. What I passionately believe is that your postcode should not determine your potential. It should not determine your ability to access the services and support that you need to live your life to your full potential. That is, of course, in line with those core goals and aims behind why the NDIS was set up in the first place.

One thing that really concerns me is the way in which Labor's talking points on this motion have been presented. I've heard, in a number of contributions, references to dodgy providers. In this context, that is a very unfair slight on a great many providers, allied health professionals and people who care for those with a disability every single day, who have raised legitimate and genuine concerns about the impact of these changes on people in many communities, particularly in communities like mine in regional Australia. Unfortunately, these people fall into Labor's no-care zone. I think Labor has demonstrated, very unfortunately, a tin ear to feedback on genuine concerns and on the impact of these changes. Just as one example, I wrote to the Prime Minister on 8 July. I said, 'Dear Prime Minister, I write to express my deep concern about the recent NDIS pricing changes.' Since then a number of people in the coalition, particularly my friend and colleague the member for Herbert, have asked very reasonably for a slight delay on the implementation of these changes to take stock, to actually listen to feedback from the sector and to listen to people with a disability, their carers and allied health professionals about the impact of these changes. But, having a tin ear to feedback, this government haven't taken a moment to do that. They've just steamrolled ahead with the implementation of these cuts and travel changes, which will very adversely and unfairly affect many people in my electorate.

I would particularly like to note Natalie, Amanda, Lynelle, Meg, Helen and Danielle, among many other local support workers, who took the time to meet with me to explain how these changes will impact on their clients. There were two cases that really struck me quite deeply and profoundly. One of them is of a teenage girl from Moe in the Latrobe Valley, who receives weekly physiotherapy sessions. We don't have the market density that many metropolitan and city areas have, so the physiotherapy sessions for this teenage girl come via a provider who does need to travel a distance every week to provide that to her. These changes just make it uneconomical for that provider to continue to travel to this community to provide that care. And if this girl misses out on those weekly physiotherapy sessions, there is a huge impact—and the impact is that she will return to being confined to a wheelchair, because she won't be able to walk in the way that she's been able to develop to. There's another young man who receives weekly speech pathology sessions, and that, for him, is the difference between be able to communicate to those around him that he's in pain, that there's a risk or that there's danger present. If he doesn't receive those pathology sessions, he will go backwards as well.

As for the biggest risk at the moment, we all agree, I think, that the NDIS needs to be run in an efficient and effective manner, but I was most concerned to read recently that up to one in four NDIS workers are quitting every year, which is driving up significant costs. In fact, of the 264 providers surveyed for the workforce census report, more than 15,300 staff left out of a total of just over 60,000. There's a significant cost in replacing those staff. I thank the House for its attention.

Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Disability can affect any one of us: a brother, a sister, a neighbour, a work colleague—someone we hold dear. And it can happen at any time. What we know is that one in six Australians live with a disability. It touches us all. And that is why Labor created the NDIS more than a decade ago. The NDIS was and is groundbreaking, and it has been life-changing for so many people across our nation. At its heart, the scheme represents the best of who we are as Australians. Looking out for each other and supporting those who need it most—that is what the NDIS is all about. When we introduced the National Disability Insurance Scheme some 12 years ago, it carried a profound promise to value people with disability, not measure their price in a budget, and to see the whole person, not just their impairment. And it has been delivering on that promise every day since. I have met participants who now live independently for the first time, parents who tell me the scheme has given their children the chance to learn to work and to belong, and older Australians who never thought they would see such support in their lifetime. That is the NDIS at its best.

But we also know the scheme is not without flaws, and we must keep working to strengthen it, because we know it is profoundly life-changing. We also know the scheme relies on social licence and families, providers, advocates and the disability sector working together to get the best outcomes for people with disability. As Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS and as an MP in the Geelong region, the birthplace of the NDIA, my office and I often speak with the NDIS sector. I see the passionate providers. I know how much they care. Their work is not easy. Occupational therapists, speech pathologists, support workers and plan managers—too often these people do not get the thanks they deserve. So today I do want to thank them, because, despite the headlines about rorters and fraudsters, I know that the vast majority of providers are good people doing good work.

But many of these providers have raised concerns directly with me about the NDIA's recent annual pricing review, and I acknowledge these concerns. They deserve to be heard. The reality is that some providers have said they want more consultation with the NDIA. After raising these concerns with the NDIA directly, I note the agency has been engaging with providers on the annual pricing review, and I certainly urge the agency to do more consultation with these providers in the lead up to next year's review. Of course, the NDIA is in a difficult position after a decade of the former coalition government's neglect of the scheme, and we know gaps in the scheme have been exploited by some bad providers. They would schedule inefficient travel, stringing out journeys so they could pocket more of a participant's budget, and that is not acceptable. It's bad for people with disability. It's bad for Australians, whose trust in the scheme is already fragile. We need to strengthen trust, and we need to close the gaps. If people lose faith in the scheme, they will lose faith in its future. This is a program that must endure. It is worth fighting for.

I recognise that the NDIA is committed to this goal. I also acknowledge that the agency has stated that it seeks to close the gaps as part of this review. The agency has said that no other comparable scheme compensates therapists for travel in the way the NDIS does. Under Veterans' Affairs, an exercise physiologist may get a kilometre allowance, but only where the distance exceeds 10 kilometres and there is no closer provider. Therapists under TAC, Comcare and the Lifetime Support Authority cannot claim for travel at all. By contrast, under the NDIS, providers can still claim up to 50 per cent of the therapy rate for travel time—that's about $90 an hour—and, in remote and very remote areas, providers will still get 40 to 50 per cent loadings.

This is a significant support. It recognises the unique challenges of delivering care across our continent, and it ensures the scheme can continue to be fair to participants, to taxpayers and to the workforce who deliver the care. So, I will continue to stand with participants, families and providers to ensure the scheme continues to thrive.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.