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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-03-23 Daily Xml
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NATIONAL DISABILITY INSURANCE SCHEME

The Hon. S.G. WADE (15:44): I thank the chair for adding on to me the amount of time that Mr Darley and Ms Bressington did not take. In the nine minutes available to me this afternoon, I would like to acknowledge the tabling on 28 February of the Productivity Commission draft report on the National Disability Insurance Scheme. I take this opportunity to express my conviction that this initiative is of huge importance for our state and our nation.

I know that politicians are known for hyperbole and it is not appreciated by our electors, so I will try to be circumspect. Nonetheless, I regard the NDIS proposal as the policy and moral challenge of our generation in building an inclusive society for people with disability. In the early 1900s, we started providing disability pensions. In the 1960s, our nation started providing real options for people with disability to live beyond institutions. In the early 2000s, we have an opportunity to take the next key step towards an inclusive society, an NDIS, a scheme to meet the income and other support needs of people with disability.

In the end, it will not be politicians who take up the challenge. Electors collectively determine the priorities which politicians reflect in policy commitments. Let us be clear that we are talking about the worthwhile lives of large numbers of our fellow Australians—and it may well become our own personal future if we acquire a disability.

The Productivity Commission estimates that we are talking about 360,000 people being assisted by the scheme—that is one in every 50 Australians, plus their carers. The commission found that in 2009-10 Australian governments collectively provided $6.2 billion of funding for disability services, $4.5 billion coming from states and territories, $1.7 billion from the federal government. The commission's preliminary estimates suggest that the amount needed to provide people with the necessary supports would be an additional $6.3 billion, that is, roughly equal to the current level of funding.

To put it simply, people with disability are getting half the level of support they need. The only way for people with disability to survive with less than half the level of funding they need is, as follows:

1. to make do with fundamentally unacceptable services;

2. to draw heavily on the resources of others, including family members, friends, volunteers and the charitable sector; and

3. dramatically fail to pursue their life goals or deliver on their potential.

It is an important step to stop, see and feel the real-life trauma of this lack of support. There are thousands of ageing parents who have a son or daughter with them who they have been caring for for 30 or 40 years after they reach adulthood. There are hundreds of young people living in nursing homes, there are thousands of children who are unable to avoid the onset of lifelong disability because they cannot get the early intervention services they need, and there are families under so much stress they are at risk of disintegrating. This is a national shame, and it is urgent that we address it.

The draft report acknowledges that the current disability support scheme is under-funded, unfair, fragmented and inefficient. The commission found that there should be a new national scheme, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, that provides insurance cover for all Australians in the event of significant disability. Support packages would be individualised and portable across state and territory borders.

The Productivity Commission report has been widely welcomed, including at the federal parliamentary level. In this regard, I particularly acknowledge the press release of Senator Mitch Fifield dated 28 February 2011. As the federal spokesman on disabilities, on behalf of the federal opposition, Senator Fifield welcomed the release of the Productivity Commission's draft report as an important step towards providing a better deal for people with disabilities. He said:

The Coalition notes the funding options canvassed in the Draft Report and approaches...the Final Report with an open mind. People with disability aren't focussed on funding...outcomes, they just want things fixed.

The Liberal Victorian Premier, Ted Baillieu, has confirmed his commitment to a national scheme. He announced that the Victorian government is setting up an NDIS implementation unit and offered Victoria to trial the approach, as recommended by the Productivity Commission report. Bill Shorten, the Assistant Treasurer, writing in The Daily Telegraph on 4 March, said:

Australia is a rich and generous country, but something we have never got right is how we empower Australians with a disability and their carers. I believe this is the last frontier of practical civil rights in this country. The bottom line is we can do better. So it is testament to the power of ideas that even in a frenzied parliamentary climate there is an emerging bipartisanship on reforming disability support services.

For my part, I am committed to be part of this emerging bipartisan movement to positively make a difference and to make a vision of an NDIS a reality.

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