Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

In this country we apparently have a principle in the law that no-one should be tried or punished more than once for the same crime. But in 2024 this place passed an amendment bill to the NDIS, the Getting the NDIS Back on Track No.1 bill, which effectively ripped that principle to shreds. The 2024 amendment has meant that anyone convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for two or more years or crimes involving fraud or dishonesty can no longer manage their own NDIS plan or the plans of their children and family members, even after they've served the time.

As we all know—and I keep talking, to educate you fellas, about cultural awareness, to know the situation of the nation—Aboriginal women are disproportionately represented in the criminal legal system as a direct consequence of the racial and gendered violence entrenched in colonial history in this country. A lot of minor offences carry maximum penalties of two years for so-called crimes like failing to follow the direction of the police, or stealing food. What's more, 95 per cent of First Nations people appearing in court charged with a criminal offence have an intellectual disability, cognitive impairment or mental illness. This means that First Peoples and First Nations women, especially those with disabilities, are criminalised.

But instead of giving people control and autonomy to manage their own lives and their own affairs, which is the intention of the NDIS, the amendment that passed in 2024 strips criminalised people of their agency and forces them to relinquish control over their lives and those of their families. The 2024 amendment directly contradicts the push towards self-management and self-direction of disabilities and basically says to criminalised people and their families, 'We don't trust you'. Because the 2024 amendment applies to carers and parents not able to manage plans for their kids, Aboriginal mothers are further punished and Aboriginal children further institutionalised. This is a return to the old mission era: roundin' us up and givin' us our little rations—flour and sugar. The 2024 amendment has meant that family members who serve as critical safeguards and supporters for disabled people and ensure their needs are met in a culturally safe and respectful manner are stopped from managing the care of their loved ones.

I urge the Senate to pass my current amendment to repeal the changes made to NDIS in 2024, because it's not just black fellas that are affected. It's everybody who is affected: everybody who may have made a mistake, got a 2-year term and completely lost control of their own lives. If my amendment is not passed, the idea that Australia does not believe in second chances for criminalised people is further entrenched. I mean, even senators who've been to prison get a second chance! If my amendment is not passed, we entrench the idea that we must punish, and punish again, and offer no pathway to freedom—especially for criminalised First Peoples with a disability.