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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-03 Daily Xml
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Light Electorate

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (17:26): Today, on behalf of the constituents in my electorate, I would like to raise some issues of deep concern to them and that affect them greatly. The issues I am going to talk about are not issues that are under the purview of the state government but ones that are covered by federal legislation in the federal government. I raise these not in the capacity of a federal member but as a local member who, I believe, has a duty to advocate on behalf of my constituents, whether local, state or federal.

I am probably not an orphan when I say that the number of issues that come to my electorate office that deal with the National Disability Insurance Scheme, that deal with Centrelink and that deal with aged care has actually increased by an incredible number over the last few years. I raise these issues because on 21 November the people in my electorate, who belong to the federal seat of Spence, will have an opportunity to have their say on how this federal government is actually dealing with those issues and how it is impacting on them. As I said, I am sure that every MP in this chamber is getting complaints from constituents in those areas.

The first one I would like to provide some detail about is the operation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. In fact, things are so bad in my electorate that my office is assisting some constituents to bring their cases before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal because in some cases there are young children who need support to ensure they get a fair go in life, get a fair go to learn, get a fair go in therapy and get a fair go to be the best people they can be and this is not happening. It is not happening because this federal Liberal government is arbitrarily cutting the plans available to people living with disability.

When they renew their plan for whatever reason, the parents often do not even know that their plans are cut by 50 per cent. In other words, half their support services are cut and removed from them. These sorts of cuts are putting incredible pressure on families to ensure that their children actually get the support services and the therapy services that enable them to be the best people they can be.

Behind the National Disability Insurance Scheme was the philosophy that each person would actually be able to pick the services they need and require to ensure that the impact of their disability is minimised and they can grow as human beings. That is the philosophy behind it. When governments, and in particular this federal government, cut the value of these plans by 50 per cent, you can tell it has a massive impact on those people. We have people whose psychological services have been cut, people whose speech therapy support has been cut and people whose transport to get services has been cut.

We have a government that is indifferent to the actual suffering imposed on these families and their children. If there is one reason alone why people in my electorate should be voting for our wonderful Labor candidate Matt Burnell it is that a future Labor government will redress this problem and ensure that people living with a disability get a fair go in our community, get a fair go to grow, get a fair go to prosper and thrive.

When it comes to aged care in my community, we have some wonderful providers, but they only have limited resources. Basically, we do not have a vision for aged care in our community. What we have, again, is a federal government whose aim is just to reduce costs to the federal government and not actually provide the services that people in our aged-care system need to live in dignity, the people who work in the sector—who are not being paid reasonable and meaningful salaries for the work they do, which is very important—and also the people, the consumers, who receive the care.

We have now established a system of aged care in this country where once you get old you are essentially institutionalised. The care you get is not the individual care that you should be receiving in the way the National Disability Insurance Scheme was set up years ago by a Labor government to ensure each person is given the care they require to live in dignity. The only way people in this community are going to live in dignity is if we vote Scott Morrison out at the federal election.

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