Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-03-20 Daily Xml

Contents

Minister for Human Services

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (14:51): Supplementary: if the minister is so happy to answer a question on a portfolio and a funding issue that belongs to another minister, why does she run away from answering questions on issues that are directly linked to the people she is supposed to represent in the disability community?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:52): The short answer to that is where the money flows from. The money has been directed from the department, and it has been committed. The matter of the transport subsidies is a matter for minister Knoll and his budgetary arrangements. Can I just remind honourable members, in relation to some of the questions that they asked me in the last sitting week, that the Labor Party signed the bilateral with the federal government about which services would transition to the NDIS.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter, please, a running commentary is not helpful.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: If the Labor Party had concerns about the NDIS and transport subsidies going to the NDIS, then they should have sought to carve that out from the previous bilateral. It's pretty simple. It's pretty simple that they made arrangements that are now in train. The NDIS train has left the station. It left the station several years ago and it was designed—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! I cannot hear. Minister, go on.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: The NDIS train was a product of the former South Australian Labor government. We are now at the stage where we are close to full scheme and we are managing those issues as assiduously as possible, but it is quite rich for the Labor opposition to now complain about the transport scheme shifting to the NDIS when they were the ones who designed it.