Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Bob Carr) and the Minister for Finance and Deregulation (Senator Wong) to questions without notice asked by senators today.

It is a little disappointing that today, the day of the National Disability Awards and only a few days away from the International Day of People with Disability, the government has continued to answer what are legitimate questions about the funding of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the NDIS legislation with partisan and dismissive diatribes. I would have hoped that if there were one area of policy where questions could be asked and answered in a civil way it would be the area of disability policy. I must take issue with the continued contention of those opposite that the opposition does not really support a national disability insurance scheme. The opposition does support a national disability insurance scheme. Also, I must take issue with the contention which we heard—repeated by Senator Wong and through Senator Evans's interjections—that the opposition only has a policy for a committee. What the opposition wants to see is a mechanism that can lock in the support of all parties in this parliament for an NDIS. What the opposition wants is a mechanism that can oversee the implementation of the NDIS over the several parliaments that full implementation will take. That is the purpose of the parliamentary committee that the opposition has proposed, to be chaired by both sides of politics, to oversee the implementation. That is the essence of our proposition. It is completely different from the characterisation that the government has given it.

The questions that I asked Senator Wong were pretty straightforward. They were about whether it was the intention of the government to announce this week funding to enable the implementation of a full NDIS. The reason why I asked if that announcement will take place this week is that the government are introducing tomorrow, in the other place, the legislation to give effect to the national disability insurance transition agency. It is not just me and it is not just members of the opposition who are asking the question as to when the government will announce funding certainty for the NDIS; it is also Australians with disability, it is also their families and it is also their carers. It is not a partisan question to ask the government of the day if they are going to provide funding certainty for an organisation which will be given effect to by legislation to be introduced tomorrow. That is not a partisan question. That is a legitimate question, and the fact that the government continue to hurl partisan abuse across the chamber every time we ask simple legitimate questions in a sober and reasonable fashion does not reflect on the opposition. It reflects on the government that the most simple questions and the most basic questions about the NDIS and NDIS funding cannot be asked without receiving partisan diatribes in return. Every time I ask questions on the NDIS I make sure I circulate the Hansards to people with disability, their families and their carers, so they see what the true attitude of this government is when it comes to bipartisanship and the NDIS. The government pay lip service to bipartisanship when it comes to the NDIS, but every time the hand of bipartisanship is extended, it is rejected by the government. The ultimate proof of that was when I moved a motion in this chamber to establish a non-partisan parliamentary oversight committee for the implementation of the NDIS and the Labor Party and the Greens combined together to vote it down.