Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, I present the committee's report entitled Independent assessments.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—In August 2020 the government announced a proposal to introduce independent assessments for participants in the National Disability Insurance Scheme. This inquiry was initiated by the committee following widespread community concern about the proposal. While some disagreement over policy reforms from affected individuals or interested stakeholders is an expected and constructive part of democratic decision-making, evidence to this inquiry suggested there was widespread opposition to independent assessments in their proposed form. This opposition was almost universal in evidence from state and territory governments, academics and universities, allied health professionals, allied health peak bodies, disability providers, advocacy groups, and people with lived experience and their families. The committee therefore welcomes the announcement by the new Minister for the NDIS, Senator Linda Reynolds, that the government will not be proceeding with independent assessments in their proposed form and will be taking time to consult in a meaningful way. The committee is hopeful and confident the minister will continue to listen to the sector, as well as hearing and taking action on the basis of expert advice, to ensure that future changes to the scheme centre on the needs and experience of people with disability.

This report steps through the background and rationale for the proposal to introduce independent assessments. Chapter 2 outlines the proposal's initial announcement, trialling of assessments, consultation by the government on the proposal, and the new minister's announcement, in July 2021, that independent assessments as proposed would not proceed. Chapters 3 and 4 examine the two reports relied on by the government to support the proposal, and key elements of the government's stated rationale for the proposal. Chapters 5 to 7 consider concerns raised in evidence to the inquiry about independent assessments, and chapter 6 highlights concerns raised by people with lived experience of disability. The final two chapters of the report discuss the committee's observations regarding why the proposed introduction of independent assessments were met with such united opposition from people with disability and their families, along with experts in the wider disability sector, and make suggestions for next steps. On this point the committee is particularly interested in approaches that will allow the government and the sector to rebuild trust and work together moving forward. Crucial among these is the use of co-design and undertaking appropriate consultation on proposals to amend the scheme.

The committee makes six recommendations, set out in chapter 9, going to broader matters of financial sustainability, approaches to co-design and consultation and bulk-billing consultations—key features that could be incorporated into a revised model if this approach is later pursued by a government with appointments with medical and allied health.

Finally, as part of the committee's role to inquire into the implementation, performance and governance of the NDIS, the committee has decided to conduct an inquiry into the current scheme's implementation and forecasting for the NDIS, with a focus on how the NDIS is implemented and funded and what supports are or should be available for people with disability, in addition to the NDIS. This new inquiry is designed to complement the report which I have tabled today, and the terms of reference can be read on the committee's website. I commend the report to the House.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—Labor welcomes the release of the report by the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme into the Morrison government's failed independent assessments. The report has found what Labor, people with disabilities and, indeed, everybody who works with the NDIS, other than the senior management of the NDIA, knew as a fact: independent assessments were unwarranted and represented a severe breach of trust against the fundamental tenet of disability policy, 'Nothing about us without us'. Unfortunately, due to a revolving door of NDIS ministers with a one-track mind of cutting the NDIS and making the scheme harder for people with disability to access, independent assessments have taken up a lot of time and energy, with no appreciable outcome for people with disability.

The Morrison government wanted every one of 466,000 NDIS participants to effectively reaudition for packages of support. They wanted people who had chronic lifelong disabilities to prove again and again that they were really disabled—for the deaf to prove that they still couldn't hear, for the blind to prove that they still couldn't see and for people with other impairments to somehow demonstrate that they were still permanent. They wanted families with young children with permanent disabilities to be reassessed by a stranger who knew nothing about their child or their family or their experts and who was being paid by the government. The reality for NDIS participants was that independent assessments were a terrifying prospect and proof that the government didn't trust them. People with disabilities told them, experts told them and state governments told them that independent assessments needed to be binned, but, unfortunately, the government didn't listen until recently. The government underestimated people with disabilities, their families, their carers and the sector that supports them. They fought back. They did everything that the government asked of them. They took up places in the trial. They submitted themselves and their loved ones to the independent assessment trial process. They provided expert reports on their own experiences. None were positive. In fact, there was almost universal rejection of the independent assessments process, as the member for Menzies identified.

The report lays out a litany of charges from participants. The experiences of people who went through the trials were documented as follows:

… 'I am terrified of independent assessments. I'm scared that I would not be heard, that my needs would not be met and that my funding would be cut'.

Another quote:

'… my worst fears were realised'.

Another quote:

…'inaccurate, incomplete and irrelevant'.

Another quote:

'…I believe that the risks … to the participant and their families outweigh any … to the Commonwealth…'

It was unconscionable, really, that Australian people had to be subjected to the fear of either the loss or the degradation of their right of choice and control. leasingly, though, the joint standing committee has demonstrated its commitment to the parliament by unilaterally rejecting independent assessments. The government has been forced to stop its planned independent assessments. It has done it begrudgingly, but it has admitted that it has failed. This should be the end of this sorry chapter—the final nail in the coffin. I am concerned though that, following an election, if the Morrison government is re-elected, it will bring independent assessments back to life.

For the past eight years we've seen that successive Liberal governments have continually gone low when Australians were demanding the high road for people with disability. We cannot forget that this is the government that illegally forced thousands of Australians—many of whom were extremely disadvantaged—to repay money they never owed in the robodebt scandal. There has been colossal mismanagement of the NDIS at the very top, and it's people with disabilities who have been required to pay for the mistakes of others. We would now like to see the government not bin this report but respond to the recommendations that a bipartisan NDIS committee of the parliament has made, and the responses should be done in a timely fashion.

The committee noted that the NDIS has been transformational to the lives of people with disabilities and should never be denied to eligible participants. It pressed the point that Australians across all ideological divides support the scheme because it benefits everyone. It urged the government to introduce an NDIS reserve fund. The committee has also said that the government must fix the tier 2 supports available to people with disability who don't access the NDIS before it even considered cutting access to NDIS supports or reducing numbers. We welcome the innovative recommendation for bulk-billed free allied health assessments.

We keenly await the government's response to the report. Labor will continue to work with people with disabilities, with carers and with everyone in this country who wants to empower the lives of people with disability. Any changes need to be done with the co-design of people with disability and must be evidence based. Australians overwhelmingly support the NDIS. The NDIS is one of the bright spots in public policy in the last decade of Australian politics. We support the choice and control and the right to an ordinary life which the NDIS provides hundreds of thousands of our fellow Australians—and any one of us might need this scheme one day. But I would submit that, in reading the report, only a Labor government can actually be trusted to fix the damage to the NDIS and make sure that it works in the interests of all.