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

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) Labor's NDIS Bill is completely friendless, with almost every witness to the inquiry saying that the bill shouldn't pass in its current form,

(ii) the bill will have a devastating impact on disabled people, their families and carers, and it imposes inhumane and cruel requirements on disabled people, including requiring people to repeatedly prove permanent disabilities and navigate new layers of bureaucracy to access essential services, and

(iii) the government's own modelling shows that they want to remove 241,000 people from the NDIS by 2031; and

(b) calls on the Government to withdraw the bill.

This bill represents one of the cruellest acts perpetrated on a community by the Australian government. It is unfair. It is unjust. It is inhumane. From the moment it was introduced into the parliament, the Greens have opposed it. We will continue to oppose it. We will continue to work day in, day out to see this bill withdrawn—to see it scrapped. That is our goal. That is our purpose. That is the work we are engaged in, and proudly we've engaged in that work alongside the disability community across this country, who are unanimous—who are united in their view that this bill must not proceed.

This Labor government believed that, by forcing disabled people to attempt to pull together evidence, by only giving us eight to 11 days to make submissions to the inquiry into this bill, it would prevent us and our organisations speaking clearly about this bill. Well, it could not have been more wrong, and I want to congratulate every single one of the over 4,500 people who, amid everything else putting pressure on them, took the time to make submissions to the inquiry and who spoke with such clarity and courage in the face of this awful law. We heard such powerful evidence from so many people, across three days of hearings, about the harms that this would do to disabled people, the pressure it would place on families, the jobs it will cost across the economy and the businesses that will go to the wall because of this, and we heard about the risk to life. Again and again, people spoke in the clearest terms. They told us that, if this law passes, people will die. People will die. We must listen, for no apology after the fact, no public statement by a government inquiry, no response to a royal commission decades in the future and no compensation scheme will ever wipe this away or deliver moral forgiveness to those who would vote for a bill that so clearly will do harm and so clearly will put people at risk.

This is a moral question. This is about who we are as a society. The Australian community believes, still, in a fair go, in justice and in support for those who are struggling. The community backs disabled people and our families and expects the government to do the same, not to cut the vital supports that we need and that we rely on to go to work, to go to the doctor or to have a shower. They back the disability community. They have heard our call over decades: 'Nothing about us without us.' They do not accept that any government should have the power to prescribe, to require, to demand or to mandate that, before you can access a basic support under the NDIS, you'd have to prove you've done everything you can to cure yourself and that you've undergone all appropriate treatments to get rid of your disability before you can get support. The community think that is disgusting, particularly given the fact that the legislation in its current form contains no adequate safeguards whatsoever against a future government requiring that a disabled person undergo a restrictive practice before getting access to the scheme.

We heard from the Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Rosemary Kayess, and from Women with Disabilities Australia that the legislation as written would allow the government to require children to undergo medical treatments—they would be forced to take medication—before they could access the NDIS. I'm sure the government, the ministers and the backbenchers, are about to launch to their feet and talk about their intentions. Well, I've got a very firm response to that on behalf of every person that gave evidence on that question: we do not care about your intentions. What matters is what the law would allow you or any future government to do. We will not, now or ever, place our rights, safety and liberty upon the safeguard of your intentions, because for generation after generation we have suffered at the hands of governments who have abused, exploited, violated and neglected us while they claimed to have the best intentions. So, no, the fact that you do not intend to do one thing or another does not allay our concern. If these are your intentions amend your bill, or better yet: shred it, and apologise to the communities who you have caused so much distress and fear.

The Greens want this bill revoked—withdrawn, removed—and only the Greens have this clear and steadfast commitment. Two hundred and forty-one thousand people will be kicked off the NDIS because of this bill. That is a staggering number. There are so many people that it is easy to lose connection to the reality that behind each number is a human life, a family and a community. During the course of this inquiry we heard so clearly the harms that the bill will do to so many, and I want to tell you about a couple of people that have come to me, which were shared in the evidence, and about the community members that have attended rallies, events and forums to try to persuade their representatives to do the right thing. I had a mum come up to me in Albany and talk to me about how the cuts that have already been made to her plan mean that she is losing the little function that she has to stand up because the NDIS, through this government, has cut the support hours that she receives. So instead of the two people required to enable her to transfer safely in and out of bed there's only one person, and she has to weight bear. That is wearing out her knees.

She said to me: 'I'm in my middle age. The NDIS was meant to make sure this didn't get worse, and in the last year I'm in more pain than I ever have been.' This person is a mum to wonderful kids. She uses what little funding she currently has from social and community participation supports—which is the very area of funding that this government wants to cut by 50 per cent—to help her kids go to school. She does not know what she will do if this bill passes. She's a single mum. She's it. She's the thing that sits between her kids and a life beyond imagining. She's struggling to make it work, to keep her head above water. She took her time on a Saturday night to come out and use some of those support hours to talk to me about what the legislation would mean for her. It meant so much to me that she did, and it is so inappropriate and so cruel that she had to.

The life of a disabled person in Australia today is complicated. There are joys and struggles and there is success and failure, just like in any other human life. Because of the discrimination that exists, because of the ableism that exists, often life is tough—tougher than it would be for other people. It's quite frankly sick that any government, any person in a position of power, would seek to make that life harder and put more barriers in place.

I spoke to another woman, who works for Foodbank. I kid you not—this person in a powerchair works two days a week at Foodbank in WA. I was there as part of a celebration of that fantastic organisation. She came up to me and talked about what the cuts would mean for her and what the cuts she's already experienced have required her to do. This person can't go out beyond her front door without a support worker to help her. She had had her plan reviewed by the government and her support hours had been cut, so she had had to make a choice: did she want to keep working two days a week at Foodbank, or did she want to go out on the weekend? So she decided to give up her weekends to keep her job. If her plan is cut, if those hours are cut—if they are slashed savagely as this government intends—I don't know how she will keep that job.

The inquiry heard over and over again what this will mean for disabled people. We also heard really clearly from the allied health professions—the physios and the occupational therapists—who do so much hard work to support disabled people, to ensure we get the right technologies and supports and to make sure that the chairs we sit in and the software we might need to be able to read a document work well for us. Those people, those professionals, all across the country have banded together, have put their life's work on the line and have built small businesses in communities to provide people, particularly in small regional towns, with access to these services and supports. These cuts will close their businesses. I heard from an allied health worker in Mount Lawley. She's built a very successful practice. But, if these cuts go ahead, she's not sure what the future will be for all of her workers and for her business.

These cuts go too far. They go too fast. They put too many lives at risk. They will cost too many jobs. They are cruel. They are wrong. This bill must be withdrawn.