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

In relation to the Commonwealth Ombudsman's report on the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013, for the period 1 July to 31 December 2025, I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I read with interest this report. It speaks very clearly to the great value of the Public Interest Disclosure Act to the Australian community. I thank the Ombudsman for the report.

The main thing that it brought clearly into focus, for me, was the urgent need to bring the National Disability Insurance Scheme legislation in line with the Public Interest Disclosure Act and the other pieces of law that sit around it that go to supporting whistleblowers to make disclosures to the public. This is a very live issue before the Senate and the parliament right now. Let's be really clear: when providers commit fraud, when NDIS providers commit fraud, that is a disgusting violation of Australian law and, I believe, Australian moral standards. It is very much the responsibility of government to ensure that everything is done in order to take on and hold to account those providers who would commit fraud against NDIS participants and their families.

There are two parts to addressing fraud. One is the consequence of fraud; there must be firm consequences to committing fraud and there must be tough penalties. As a Green, it is not within my usual lexicon to talk about the need for tough criminal penalties, but, when it comes to these large private providers ripping participants off, I say there needs to be an expedited and efficient legal process to see them held to account via the justice system.

But that's only one part of how we solve this. The other part is enabling people to report and disclose fraud. This is where the National Disability Insurance Scheme legislation has been found so significantly wanting for so long. It is one of the last pieces of Commonwealth law to lack some of the basic protections for those that want to blow the whistle on fraud, who want to report it.

As a member of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, I participated in the inquiry into the integrity of the scheme alongside you, Acting Deputy President Kovacic. We heard persuasive evidence from the Human Rights Law Centre about the need for further strengthening of the whistleblower protections that exist within the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act. One of the most significant things that we could do would be to align the relevant sections of the act with the Public Interest Disclosure Act, because that would grant additional protections and create additional pathways to enable people to report things, including fraud.

I was also quite shocked, as a member of the inquiry, to hear evidence given to us in such explicit detail of the barriers that the absence of these whistleblower protections creates for people trying to report wrongdoing. I'm happy to say that the Greens managed to successfully amend a piece of legislation earlier in the year to secure some improvements, some protections, around whistleblowers when they come forward after they have ceased their employment with an NDIS provider. But there's much more work to do. Kieran Pender and his associates from the Human Rights Law Centre gave detailed evidence about what work still remains to be done. They said—I think accurately—that 20 per cent of the work has been done to enable whistleblowers to be properly protected and supported when reporting fraud, but there is 80 per cent left to do. And I agree with that.

We should urgently move, as a parliament, to align the NDIS Act with the Public Interest Disclosure Act to provide people with the necessary protections to report fraud. Let's get this done. There seems to be a lot of hot air and narrative around fraud from the government. Let's get to work and put these protections in place.

Question agreed to.