Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I rise to speak to the government response to the report of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme's inquiry into the provision of services under the NDIS for people with psychosocial disabilities related to a mental health condition. Having complained a few times this week about how slow government responses often are, I should note when they're prompt, just to demonstrate my capacity for balance and fairness. I want to briefly say that this report and the response covers one of the areas where the NDIS clearly still has significant challenges, and that is people with psychosocial disabilities related to a mental health condition.

In the short time since I have come back into this chamber, just nine months ago, and I have been meeting with people around the community, as opposed to people emailing me in general, there is no doubt that the issues most regularly raised with me have been those relating to the NDIS, the National Disability Insurance Scheme. A significant subset of those issues relate to mental health services for psychosocial disabilities. I would really like to pay tribute to the individual people themselves who are having to work through and live with the challenges of some of these psychosocial disabilities, their families and their friends, as well as the other people who assist them or who are carers for them. I've met a number of these people and learned a lot from them in the last nine months.

There will always be transition issues. I think there are some genuinely significant transition issues and genuine questions that need to continue to be asked about the model that's at the foundation of the whole NDIS scheme. Nonetheless, there is the aspect of a major boost in the amount of overall resources being provided, with at least the goal of trying to assist people with significant and ongoing disabilities. There are now a number of people receiving some assistance who weren't previously getting support. In Queensland, there are now over 16,000 active NDIS participants and 3½ thousand registered providers, which is a 24 per cent increase since March. That's a very rapid increase, which of itself presents some issues.

When you're looking at the content of this report, which is the area of psychosocial disabilities, and the response, there is a lot of difference, a lot of variance, between individuals when you're looking at disabilities of this sort. You need to have providers who actually have the skills and the capacity to deliver appropriate support, and that is an ongoing challenge, which I also want to draw attention to.

Question agreed to.