Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Duniam for his question and interest in these matters. This budget gives certainty to all people in Australia living with a disability, to their families and to their carers that their needs will be met as the NDIS moves towards full scheme in 2020. The budget provides $33 million over three years for a local care workforce package to help disability providers deliver the work that is needed to meet demand from people entering the NDIS, as well as older Australians requiring aged-care services. A new independent national body, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, will be established to oversee NDIS service standards and enforce participants' rights, at a cost of $209 million over four years.

Significant reforms to disability employment services will also better connect jobseekers who have a disability with a job that is right for them. Significant reforms include allowing jobseekers to choose and change their DES provider, with funding following them to the provider rather than locking them into someone they are dissatisfied with; putting the responsibility on DES providers to attract jobseekers to them, rather than being guaranteed a certain number of jobseekers; and linking funding of DES providers to outcomes—jobs for people with a disability. This includes higher levels of funding for placing people with greater barriers to employment in a job or for securing employment in a more challenging labour market.

Of course, this budget includes a proposal to increase the Medicare levy by 0.5 per cent from 1 July 2019 as the system ramps up to once and for all ensure that Labor's funding gap for the National Disability Insurance Scheme is addressed and these services—and the financing to provide these services—are sustainable in future decades.