Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Corangamite for her great interest in the NDIS—the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The location of the NDIA—the authority which is responsible for the scheme—is in Geelong. Her electorate of Corangamite includes part of the great city of Geelong, a very impressive and booming city in Victoria as far as a number of these sorts of services is concerned. Her consideration for this is something which is very significant.

The member for Corangamite talked about Colac. I travel everywhere by bike, and the last time I was in Colac I was on my bike as well. Indeed, I met with a group of carers and a group of people interested in disability there. We met at one of the motels in Colac on a Saturday or Sunday morning. There was a large group of people there who were very concerned about these issues regarding disability. On that occasion the Prime Minister and I spent some time with them listening to their stories and what they were concerned about. This was at a time before the NDIS had actually been thought of and brought into operation. It is for those sorts of people, their families, their carers and their friends that the NDIS is a scheme whose time has come.

I pay tribute to the previous government for their commitment to the NDIS. This is something that has been bipartisan in Australia. It is one of those things which happens only every so often in this country where a major social change has come about. We are in the throes of the implementation of it. It is going to take a number of years. The honourable member talked about the trials which are occurring in the Barwon region in Victoria and elsewhere around the country. The whole purpose of those trials is to provide us with the information that can help us to roll out this scheme in a way that will work for the people that is aimed to work for.

The Productivity Commission identified some hundreds of thousands of people who this was intended to apply to. The reality in Australia is that, if you are injured as a result of a vehicular accident, state accident compensation schemes around the country apply to those people. But, if you have a disability through some other cause—through no fault of your own—the reality was that you were not in the same situation as an individual or as family and friends of people injured in that sort of accident. This is aimed at providing equality of treatment, if I can put it that way, and equality of outcomes in terms of the care that can be provided for people who have a disability.

This is a very important development and it is going to take time. There is a parliamentary committee that oversees this process, which the Labor Party, the coalition and others are involved in, because we believe—and we argued this for a long time in the parliament—that this is too important to just be the subject of partisan politics. That is why when we were in opposition we threw our support behind this proposal and that is why now in government we are fully committed to the rollout of it.

The member for Corangamite mentioned the efficiency dividend. The reality is that there was an efficiency divided applied to the NDIS and this was something which we thought was inappropriate in relation to a commitment to rolling out this scheme. In this budget, the efficiency dividend of $44.9 million—which was effectively a cut to the NDIS—has been reversed. I think that is a clear indication that this government is fully committed to the rollout of the NDIS.

If anybody anywhere in Australia ever suggests that the coalition is not committed to the NDIS, they are, frankly, telling porkies. We are committed to the NDIS. We will see it rolled out. We do not underestimate the difficulties involved in the rollout of this scheme. That is why the trial sites are so important to provide the learnings for us over the next few years as to how this can best work. Already there are some results in from the first couple of quarters from various trial sites around the country. Some of those results have been mixed. What we have to learn from that is whether or not, for example, the results which are not as good as we might have thought are simply a product of the start-up of a new system and whether or not these things will be ironed out over time or whether they are longer term issues that need to be addressed in terms of how the system is put into operation. But I assure the member for Corangamite, who is a great supporter of the NDIS, and all members of this House and the parliament and the people of Australia that the coalition is 100 per cent committed to the implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Proceedings suspended from 13:00 to 15:59

Education Portfolio

Proposed expenditure, $1,329,516,000

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