Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Streamlined Governance) Bill 2019. This bill amends the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 governance arrangements between the Commonwealth and states and territories regarding rulemaking and decision-making under the NDIS Act. It creates provisions for a 28-day process for the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme to consult with states and territories on appointments to the board of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, other than the chair, and NDIS Independent Advisory Council. It inserts a new requirement that the minister be satisfied that the Commonwealth and a majority of the group—consisting of the Commonwealth and host jurisdictions, rather than the Commonwealth and all states and territories—support the appointment of a board member other than the chair. The changes will require the minister to consult states and territories about the appointment of each member on the advisory council, other than the principal number.

The bill establishes a requirement that the minister be satisfied that the Commonwealth and a majority of the group consisting of the Commonwealth and the host jurisdictions support the appointment of a board member other than the chair. Under this process, the minister gives notice to one host jurisdiction minister for each host jurisdiction seeking agreement of the jurisdiction to the appointment. A request is made that agreement be given before the end of the 28 days, beginning on the day the notice is given. State and territory ministers may request a longer period of time to reply, in which case the process extends to 90 days.

The process for seeking agreement takes into account a host jurisdiction's need to seek a longer period in instances where there is a state or territory election and caretaker conventions preclude a response being provided. This 28-day process has been implemented administratively since it was agreed by COAG's Disability Reform Council in November 2017, where all jurisdictions agreed to provide responses to requests for agreement within 28 days, with no response taken as agreement. The bill introduces a definition for 'host jurisdiction minister' and replaces the words 'state and territory' with 'host jurisdiction' in section 127.

Labor will be moving two second reading amendments: removing the NDIA staff cap to allow the agency to do its job properly for participants of the scheme and to defer consideration of the bill, because we are concerned that it waters down states' and territories' stake in governance arrangements, that those governments and disability advocates have not been sufficiently consulted and that the Tune review, which is underway, has scope to overlap this area and is yet to report back on governance arrangements. This bill should be deferred until the findings and recommendations of the Tune review have been published. Senator Malarndirri McCarthy will be speaking on a second reading amendment regarding the issues relating to this bill and the timing of the Tune review.

The Liberals are deliberately underfunding the NDIS by $4.6 billion so they can prop up their budget position. They are doing it at the expense of Australians with disability and their families and carers. The effect of this underspend on NDIS participants has been terrible. Through the Liberals' maladministration and lack of any leadership, people are falling through the cracks as the NDIS is rolled out. This is the consistent feedback from NDIS participants, providers, carers and state and territory governments.

The very poor implementation of this scheme is clear from the state of the agency responsible for its very implementation. It has been without a CEO for nearly 170 days, with a mass exodus of its senior leadership in the past months; a staffing cap that means longer waiting time and less access to services to NDIS participants; and a substantial lack of proper representation and understanding, at the staff and board level, of lived experience of disability.

Labor has seen countless examples of the real-world impact that the Liberals' cuts and neglect have had, including families who can get a response from the NDIA or the Liberals only when they start a community campaign exposing the neglect, like Angus and his mum in Queensland, who relied on a wheelbarrow for transport on the family farm because he couldn't get access to a suitable wheelchair. I have mentioned a number of these examples before, but it is extremely important that the Senate again be reminded about some of the issues participants are having when they try to access the NDIS.

I mentioned Kayla in Penrith, born with spinal muscular atrophy, who has started a GoFundMe page to get a car so she can get to and from university; Tim in Tasmania, who died while waiting for the NDIA to deliver vital medical equipment; a wheelchair-bound man with progressive spastic paraplegia who was initially told he wasn't disabled enough; and the countless people with disability who end up in hospital because they don't have suitable NDIS plans, or the inconsistent and inadequate transport arrangements, like the cap on subsidies in Tasmania, that will leave people with disabilities isolated.

These examples show how little regard the Liberals have for people with disability and their families. Unlike the Liberals, the Labor Party will stand up for people with disability, their families and their loved ones. We'll make sure the neglect is exposed and that Australians with disabilities get the care and support they deserve. Labor will continue to stand up for people with disability and their families by making sure that they are in control of their plan through quicker, simpler and easier processes; holding the Liberals to account to increase the number of staff to clear the processing backlogs for the NDIS; resolving the issues of access to transport, employment and housing; and ensuring that the National Disability Strategy is appropriately resourced.

Why does the staffing cap need to be lifted? The staffing cap imposed by the government on the National Disability Insurance Agency is forcing the nation's disability scheme to breaking point and must be removed. Labor's vision for the scheme projected a workforce of nearly 11,000 by now. Instead, the Liberals have starved and stunted the National Disability Insurance Scheme by artificially and arbitrarily capping staffing levels for direct employees at 4,000. Our position is that the cap needs to be removed completely and the workforce needs to be at 11,000. The Liberals' cap, first imposed in 2014, has meant that the NDIA simply does not have the people to approve plans for people with disability and get vital equipment like wheelchairs, beds and hoists out to those who need them.

Labor has affirmed our pre-election commitment to scrap the cap and is urging the Liberals to do the same. This cap is causing too much dysfunction in the scheme and ultimately hurting people with disability and those who love and care for them. Groups ranging from disability advocates to the Productivity Commission also want to see the abolition of the cap. This cap is leading to massive and costly outsourcing and an over-reliance on temporary contractors who can't give people with disability any continuous service. The NDIA has reported a 600 per cent increase in the use of consultants and contractors over two years, from $70 million in 2016 to $430 million in 2018, and the agency's chair, Helen Nugent, has been embroiled in conflict claims over the lucrative outsourced contracts.

By ripping $4.6 billion out of the NDIS, overseeing executive exodus at the agency and failing to appoint a CEO for nearly 170 days, this government has done enough to harm this vital scheme. It is time that NDIS minister Stuart Robert did the right thing by releasing pressure from this overwhelmed scheme and scrapping the cap. We have heard from the Community and Public Sector Union how blowouts in processing times under the National Disability Insurance Scheme are being driven by the arbitrary cap on the number of staff the agency can employ. The joint parliamentary inquiry looking at the shortcomings of the planning processes under the National Disability Insurance Scheme has been inundated with stories of potential participants waiting months for their plans to be finalised, or up to 15 days for an email to be returned.

Fixing the scheme will not be possible without scrapping the average staffing level cap. More than 7,000 people working for the agency are employed through labour hire firms or local area coordinators. Inadequate staffing levels and insecure employment have led to high staff turnover, high workloads and a loss of expertise within the agency. Labour hire staff are placed on rolling contracts, which give them little job security and lead to high staff turnover. As a result, NDIS participants have little continuity, meaning they have had to tell their story over and over again to different staff. It is not uncommon for the NDIA to spend $430 million on labour hire in a financial year. Imagine if that were invested in ongoing employees? This is why Labor proposes the following amendment to the second reading motion. I move:

At the end of the motion, add:

", but the Senate calls on the Government to:

(a) remove the average staffing level cap for the National Disability Insurance Agency set out in Part 2 of Budget Paper No. 4 (2019–20); and

(b) directly employ the number of people required to administer the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013."

Labor would welcome the support of the chamber for our amendments directed at ensuring that people with disability can continue to get a fair go from the scheme and the agency that was intended to work for them. I commend the amendment to the chamber.