Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Nicola Cave is a constituent of mine, a young Wagga Wagga mother of three, as she says, 'incredible' children. She writes:

'If you'd asked me seven years ago whether I understood disability, I would have said yes. Of course I did. I spent my high school and uni years teaching children with autism, Down syndrome and physical disabilities to swim. I've been a nurse for 11 years and a midwife for eight. I've cared for people with all kinds of abilities. But I was wrong. I did not understand disability, not the way I do now, until I became the primary carer for my beautiful six-year-old son, Hux, who has autism spectrum disorder level 2, childhood apraxia of speech, oral apraxia, sensory processing disorder and hypermobility.'

She is concerned, as are so many people across the Riverina and the nation, about the changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. She told me that her son cannot get the therapy he needs in a group setting. He cannot get it under the Thriving Kids program, is what she said. He cannot get it from a generic therapist assigned by a government system. He needs a specialist. She had this to say:

'Changing his therapist because of parliamentary changes will be to his detriment. It will cause regression. It will cause distress. It will undo years of work. I need to say this clearly: the fraud and corruption that has occurred within the NDIS is real. It is devastating. It has robbed participants of funds they desperately need. But that fraud was committed by unscrupulous providers—providers that successive governments allowed to register, operate and continue unchecked for years. Families like mine reported it. Advocacy groups reported it. Other providers have reported it. The systemic failures were known. The systemic failures were ignored by the government. And yet the response to that failure is to punish the participants. It is to restrict, gatekeep and dismantle the supports of the very people who had nothing to do with the corruption—the vulnerable, the children, the adults, the families who were navigating the system in good faith, working with legitimate, ethical, highly trained providers to build capacity and access a life with dignity.'

Her statements, her heart-wrenching, heart-rending appeal, is not isolated. She is not alone. She is like so many who turned up to a forum I conducted to hear the stories, to listen to these people throughout Wagga Wagga and the region. I do feel for Nicola because she genuinely, like every good mum and parent would, just wants the best for her child. We know the NDIS needs a complete audit. We do know that. But the difficulty with the recent changes in the budget is it is taking funds away from those children and others who so desperately need it, and it's simply wrong.