Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the explanation.

We've heard that response from the minister representing the government on this so many times that I think I could repeat it verbatim, and the same issues and absences of engagement persist this time, as they have done with every single statement. The government claims public interest immunity. However, it does not detail the way in which the relationship with the state and territory governments will be prejudiced by the release of this information. The government claims to have released key documents in relation to the request of the Senate. The documents they've released are irrelevant to the questions that we are seeking to get answers to, and I believe the government knows that. The government's response references the NDIS review, a review to which they have not formally responded. The government references their commitment to the NDIS and to collaboration and consultation despite progressing the largest legislative changes to the scheme through the parliament with the barest minimum of consultation through closed-door processes and with the aid of non-disclosure agreements. At this point, the statement from the government is little more than a joke.

The reality is that the National Disability Insurance Scheme matters to the lives of the 660,000 participants who rely upon it for vital support. It exists as a national embodiment of our collective community's commitment to doing right by disabled people and their families. There are many people in this chamber with whom I have deep political disagreements and who have deep political disagreements with me. Yet we are able to find common cause in the idea that, when changes are made to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, they should be thoroughly and properly scrutinised by the parliament on behalf of the Australian people, particularly those who are disabled and their families, allies and organisations.

The way in which the government has engaged with the NDIS since coming to office has been so much less than the collaboration and co-design that they promised at the election. Because of the vast gap between what was promised and what has been delivered, you see a rising fury in the disability community. The government should know the power that exists in the community and in the alliance between disabled people, their parents, their allies, their organisations and the allied health professionals who provide them with services, equipment and supports, because it is that alliance that successfully prevented the previous government from advancing its own set of so-called reform proposals that would have done great harm to the disability community.

Basic pieces of information about the government's intention in relation to this scheme, the government's intention in relation to the current bill before the Senate and the positions of the states and territories are not known to this Senate. The basic financial assumptions committed to by state and territory ministers when they came together and agreed to the framework are not known to the Senate or to the community. The impact of the amendments offered by the government to the legislation is not known to the community or to the Senate, because the government continually dropped them at the last minute, providing no ability or time to thoroughly scrutinise them. And the position of the states and territories, in detail and individually, in relation to the bill is not known to the community or to the Senate, because they were not called as witnesses during the 2½ days of hearings into the bill that we were able to extract from the government.

So there is an extension to the inquiry to enable us to get to the bottom of that information and to scrutinise, because that is our job as a senate. If that inconveniences individual members of the government, then, tough. Our job is not to represent the views of the government, nor to rubber stamp their legislation; it is to scrutinise on behalf of community affected by legislation. (Time expired)