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

I speak in reply to the Governor-General's address to parliament. In doing so, I want to acknowledge the fabulous kids in the gallery here today as well. I will begin my reply on a topic that is of real importance to literally millions of Australians, and that is the NDIS. While senators and MPs were off having a little break post election, the NDIA decided on its annual price guide changes. Back on 1 July, the agency's pricing arrangements and price limits came into effect, and what a treat they had in store for NDIS participants and allied health providers! In case you hadn't heard, the agency has reduced, without consultation, the amount that physiotherapists, occupational therapists, support coordinators and many other allied health services and supports can charge for their essential services. In a cost-of-living crisis, this decision effectively reduces the amount that allied health and disability support providers are being paid. Yes, you heard that right. In a cost-of-living crisis, the agency that runs the NDIS, under this Labor government, has reduced the amount of money paid to allied health services and disability providers, and this puts disabled people further at risk.

I have heard from hundreds of NDIS participants and professionals, who have detailed the very dire impacts of the NDIA's pricing decisions. One person in WA shared: 'Almost all of my colleagues have reported unpaid work and unpaid overtime in trying to ensure a client is supported. The hardest thing is telling clients in need that we cannot see and we cannot help them—not because we don't want to but because we are part of a system that does not value us or our work. People with disabilities are being abandoned.' Another, who worked in the disability sector throughout their career, emailed me to say: 'I am disappointed. I am burnt out, devalued and now looking at financial stress due to the actions of the NDIS with the support of this Labor government.' From where I am sitting, it is clear that the NDIA failed to adequately consult providers and participants, and they have demonstrated a clear lack of understanding of how their decisions have harmful, immediate impacts for disabled people.

Let's talk about some of those impacts. Whether the NDIA like it or not, the reality is that, for many disabled people, we need to access therapies outside of a doctor's office. Research and our lived experience show that accessing therapies at home, at school and at our workplaces has much greater outcomes for our wellbeing. To be frank, it is pretty difficult to get access to an OT to assess what your needs are for supporting you to pack your kids' lunches in your own kitchen or what assistance you might need to have a shower when the OT is not able to travel to your home.

For those outside the major cities, some people simply don't have the means or adequate support to travel into the city or the next town to have the therapy. Many regional and remote communities don't have local providers who can meet all the needs of those communities. However, these latest cuts mean that a physiotherapist who travels from Perth to regional WA to see participants once per week is no longer paid enough to provide that support. Rural, regional and remote loadings have been removed, and travel time has been cut to a maximum of 30 minutes. That is, I guess, in the agency's view, too bad for WA participants in beautiful Gingin, which—and this is just their reality—is over an hour from Perth by car. Their physiotherapist will no longer be able to provide weekly outreach services unless they do the travel for free, which nobody should be required to do in a cost-of-living crisis.

Telehealth to get physiotherapy isn't possible, and now we are hearing it is practically impossible, thanks to the NDIA, for a physio to travel from the city to your place. The outcome? No access to physio. Therapies like physio, occupational therapy, podiatry and the like are critical for disabled people's daily functioning. But here we are, living in a world where the NDIS is no longer willing to put out a pricing agreement that enables access to this support locally. So now either disabled people will go without those supports altogether or the NDIS will have to increase participant plans to cover more transport costs and support worker hours to make those appointments possible. Devastatingly, it will cost the agency more when all of this comes out in the wash. The NDIA says it is committed to improving services for people in the bush but, in reality, the agency is putting up more and more barriers for participants to access support.

I've heard from plan managers and support coordinators that many participants are having to find new support coordinators and plan managers because some smaller providers are closing as they can no longer absorb these increasing costs. These professionals—and they are professionals—haven't seen a pay increase in seven years. Again, let me underline that: in seven years there has not been an increase to the price that the NDIA is willing to pay these professionals. Think about how much the cost of living has gone up in that time, and yet they are having to absorb increasing costs and having to perform more and more hidden administrative functions. They are having to do these administration processes in the context of the IT system, known as PACE, and anyone out there familiar with this system knows the problems with that particular program.

In a sector that is already under stress, we are very likely to see many highly qualified and compassionate people leave because they simply can't make ends meet as the NDIS changes so many of the goalposts and expectations over and over. We've already seen a report of one provider who has announced their closure in August directly as a result of these pricing arrangements. This will mean that more than 100 NDIS participants will no longer have access to speech pathology services.

The NDIS minister needs to demand that the NDIA review its pricing arrangements immediately. Then we must have a full and proper review of the pricing arrangements process to ensure they are independent, transparent and fair. This Labor government has gutted the NDIS in so many ways since it first got elected in 2022, and every single time disabled people and community are ultimately the ones who suffer. We must not forget all of this is happening because of the cuts to the NDIS that were underpinned by agreements and financial sustainability frameworks that the Senate was first told didn't exist; we were then told that they did exist but that we couldn't see them. So, again, in conclusion, I call for the government to release the financial sustainability framework, which the Senate has been demanding.

Now, I was only able to make that observation because of my re-election to this place. I want to conclude by thanking the many people who helped build our massive campaign across WA. Together we had tens of thousands of conversations, from Esperance to Broome. Firstly, I'd like to thank our lower house candidates. There were our metro candidates Sophie Greer, Clint Uink, Amy Warne, Kitty Hemsley and Eric Hayward. Our outer metro candidates were Matthew Count, Scott McCarthy, Jody Freeman, Abbey Bishop, Adam Razak, Jordan Cahill, Tamica Matson and Nicholas D'Alonzo. Our regional and rural candidates were Brendan Sturcke, Georgia Beardman and Giz Watson. Additionally, I extend my thanks to the WA Senate ticket candidates and acknowledge the hard work undertaken by the Greens WA staff and volunteer team, who worked tirelessly to achieve such an amazing result. To my incredible staff team: you are intelligent, creative and compassionate. Thank you for your dedication to working every day so that we can best represent our community in this place. We are so committed to supporting people when they need it, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to work, learn and shake things up together.

Some of my highlights of this campaign were conversations with people who had chosen to join their local Greens team at a polling place, on a doorknock or at a community stall event, and I'd like to thank everyone who took the time, perhaps for the first time, to volunteer with the Greens this election. Together, we heard from the community that they are feeling let down by the major parties. Election campaigns take their toll. It would have been easy for cynicism to overcome hope, but our team of volunteers led a strong, joyful and hopeful election campaign that was focused on building links between different communities to make us all more powerful and capable of achieving what we want to see.

The cost-of-living crisis and the climate crisis are creating some of the most trying times for our community. People in WA and across the country are doing their best in the face of these challenging circumstances. I believe that politics, including in this place, must be a force that changes the world for the better. We must take action every day, driven by the principle that life can and must be better for everyone in our community. I know that achieving this will take all of us. No senator or MP can single-handedly change the world for the better. It is here in the parliament, and it's out there on the streets, going door to door. It's protest action. It's success built together. It takes a movement of people working together to achieve change, and, while doing so, push back against the corporate interests that drive the decisions of the major parties and which, by extension, loom over our parliament, casting a shadow.

Our priority in this place must be to act on what the community has sent us here to do: dental and mental health into Medicare and strong action on the climate crisis and a transition to clean energy, and for them to be able to see a GP for free and not to rack up tens of thousands of dollars in student debt. Labor has one of the biggest majorities in history in the lower house. The Australian Greens have the balance of power in the Senate. Now is the time to start the bold and progressive reform that will actually help our community. We can and we must.