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

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Gallagher) to questions without notice asked today.

It was wonderful to have so many disabled people in the gallery of the Senate today. They are here in Parliament House because they are angry. They are angry with this government. They are disgusted with this budget. They are horrified by the fact a government they voted for on the promise that Labor would protect the NDIS has delivered a budget that cuts out $185 billion from our NDIS over a decade. This budget raises 10 times more from the cuts it makes to the NDIS than from the changes that have been made that will tweak around the edges of some of the privileges enjoyed by wealthy property investors. Shame!

There are many moments in politics where people look into Parliament House and are rightly confused, frustrated, angered, repulsed by what they see, but last night's budget and its treatment of disabled people is one of the most horrifyingly immoral decisions that I have ever seen a government make. It makes no sense to make these cuts to our NDIS, to introduce so much struggle into the lives of families and communities that are already doing it tough.

I asked the minister today to give some assurance and clarity to the community. I asked the minister to repeat the pledge that had been made by so many other ministers when they have sought to make changes that turn out to be cuts to the NDIS. I asked them: will they guarantee nobody will be worse off? Nothing—no response; they pretended they did not even hear the question. I asked the minister to give some assurance to the Australian autistic community, to autistic teenagers and adults, who fear they are the ones in the sights of the government in this moment. When the government talks about kicking 160,000 people—at least—off the NDIS, they fear it will be their community that the government comes for first. I asked the minister to detail the supports and services for adult autistic folks, for teenage autistic folks, and what was the minister's response? Well, they said these services do not exist; they were removed as the NDIS rolled out. That is exactly the point: there are no alternative services.

The government has been peddling a myth for so many years now that there will be these supports, that there are already these supports outside the scheme, when we know the reality—that there is so little available for anybody, and when you move beyond services for babies and younger kids, there is nothing. What the government is proposing to do is kick over 160,000 people off a cliff and then promising to build a trampoline by the time folks hit the bottom. Well, that is not good enough. The Greens will continue to organise with the disability community to oppose these cuts. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.