Additional Comments – Coalition Senators
Coalition support
All Senators know that the system of support for Australians
with disability is broken. The evidence received by the Committee through more
than 1,600 submissions made this point in every case.
The evidence received from witnesses again reinforced that
the level of support a person with a disability receives depends on a number of
factors including the state they live in, whether the disability is congenital
or was acquired and, if acquired, whether it was in the workplace, a motor
vehicle accident or some other context. Workers compensation and motor vehicle
accident insurance provides coverage in some jurisdictions. But if you are born
with a disability or acquire a disability later in life it can be a different
story – waiting lists and queues. The result is that many people with a
disability are left without the assistance they need.
In the words of the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Tony
Abbott, “the NDIS is an idea whose time has come”.
The Coalition agrees Australia needs a new system of support
based on need rather than rationing with the entitlement for support going to
the individual. The individual needs to be at the centre and in charge, able to
pick the supports, equipment and service providers of their choice. This is the
vision of the Productivity Commission’s landmark report into long term care and
support for people with disability. This is the vision of the National
Disability Insurance Scheme.
The Coalition has enthusiastically supported each milestone
on the road to the NDIS:
- The Coalition supported the work of the Productivity Commission.
- The Coalition supported the $1 billion dollars in the last
budget.
- The Coalition supported the five launch sites.
- The Coalition supported the agreement between the Commonwealth
and New South Wales for a full state-wide roll out after the Hunter launch.
- The Coalition supports this legislation.
The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Abbott, has demonstrated
his personal commitment to Australians with disability and those who care for
them by dedicating $540,000 raised by the 2012 Pollie Pedal charity bike ride
to Carers Australia. Along the 1,000 kilometre route Mr Abbott met with people
with disability, carers and disability organisations. The next two Pollie
Pedals will also be in partnership with and raise funds for Carers Australia.
Any comments the Coalition makes about the NDIS are offered
in a constructive spirit - to help make the NDIS the best that it can be. The
Coalition stands ready to work with the Government to see an NDIS delivered as
soon as possible. The Coalition believes an NDIS can be delivered within the
time frame recommended by the Productivity Commission by a prudent government
that manages well.
Beyond partisanship
The NDIS is a person-centred and self-directed funding
model. It is aligned to the objectives of empowering the individual, removing
government from people’s lives and reducing red tape. The Coalition believes
that the full implementation of an NDIS would be nothing short of a new deal
for people with disabilities and their carers. We have to get this right.
Because the NDIS is a once-in-a-generation reform that will
unfold over the life of several parliaments, it should be the property of the
Parliament as a whole, on behalf of the Australian people, rather than that of
any particular political party. To get this right will require a very high
level of consultation and attention to detail not just now, not just in the
launch sites, but from now until full implementation.
The NDIS should be beyond partisan politics. The Coalition
has been disappointed when some members of the Government have claimed the NDIS
represents quintessentially Labor values. It does not. The NDIS represents
Australian values. A fair go. Helping those who face challenges for reasons
beyond their control. No side of politics has a mortgage on these.
The Coalition has called for the establishment of a joint
parliamentary committee, to be chaired by both sides of politics, to oversee
the establishment and implementation of the NDIS. A parliamentary oversight
committee would lock in all parties and provide a non-partisan environment
where issues of design and eligibility could be worked through co-operatively.
Mr George Christensen, the Member for Dawson has, had a
motion in the House to establish this committee for some time. Regrettably, the
motion has not been brought forward for a vote. Senators Fifield and Boyce
moved a similar motion to establish the oversight committee on 27 June 2012.
The Government and the Australian Greens combined in the Senate to vote it
down.
Mr Abbott reiterated the offer to join in establishing a
parliamentary oversight committee in his Press Club Speech on 31 January 2013
saying,
The Coalition is so committed to the National Disability
Insurance Scheme, for instance, that we’ve offered to co-chair a bi-partisan
parliamentary committee so that support for it doesn’t flag across the three
terms of parliament and among the nine different governments needed to make it
work.
When the Government has been offered the opportunity to
embrace genuine bi-partisanship in relation to the NDIS it has declined to do
so. This legislation gives the Government another opportunity to correct this.
The Coalition intends to give the Government, the Australian
Greens and the independent Members and Senators an opportunity to accept the
hand of cooperation by moving an amendment to this Bill to establish a
non-partisan oversight committee. We urge the Government to accept this offer.
The Coalition will move an amendment to this effect in the House (Attachment
A).
A joint venture of all Australian Governments
It is important to note that every Government in Australia
and every Opposition in Australia supports and wants to see an NDIS.
It was disappointing that the Prime Minister did not treat
all jurisdictions as partners at the COAG meeting in July 2012. It was to the
credit of the Victorian and New South Wales Governments that they continued to
negotiate in the face of misrepresentation by the Federal Government and
reached agreement to host launch sites. A cooperative approach is essential.
There can be no NDIS without the states and territories. They are partners, not
enemies.
The fruits of a constructive approach were evident when
Premier O’Farrell of New South Wales and the Prime Minister signed an
inter-governmental agreement in December 2013 for a full state-wide NDIS roll
out after the Hunter launch project. The Government should continue this
constructive approach in discussions with the other jurisdictions to conclude
further bilateral agreements. There can be no full NDIS without an
inter-governmental agreement with each state and territory.
It is worth making comment in relation to those states that
are not hosting launch sites. The Productivity Commission never envisaged every
state hosting a launch site and never saw the absence of a launch site as a bar
to taking part in a full national rollout. Indeed Premier Newman of Queensland
has written to the Prime Minister with a proposal to be part of a full national
roll out. Premier Barnett of Western Australia has written to the Prime
Minister proposing a joint Western Australia-Commonwealth NDIS.
Questions of funding also need to be cooperatively worked
through with the states and territories. Legitimate questions and due diligence
should not be portrayed as a lack of commitment to the NDIS. For example, while
the Coalition emphatically supported the Government’s commitment of $1 billion
to the NDIS in the last Federal Budget, there was some difficulty in
reconciling this figure with the $3.9 billion the Productivity Commission said
would be necessary over the forward estimates for the first phase of the NDIS.
We assume the Government will explain, account for this, and make appropriate provision
in the coming budget.
The Coalition will continue to place the NDIS above politics
and is prepared to work with State and Commonwealth governments towards a
better deal for people with a disability.
The need for full information
This Bill establishes the framework for the National
Disability Insurance Scheme and the National Disability Insurance Scheme Launch
Transition Agency (the Agency). This will enable the scheme to be launched,
and the Agency to operate the launch, in four sites across Australia from July
2013 and five sites from July 2014. The first stage of the Scheme will benefit
more than 20,000 people with disability, their families and carers living in
South Australia, Tasmania, the Hunter in New South Wales, the Barwon area of
Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory.
The Scheme will provide funding to individuals or
organisations to help people with disability participate more fully in economic
and social life through the provision of an entitlement enabling things such as
equipment, supported accommodation or personal attendant care.
The mechanics of the Agency will be established by way of
legislative instruments called the NDIS rules. These regulations, the NDIS
rules, will further detail areas such as eligibility and assessment criteria.
The Government released a discussion paper about the rules on 1 February 2013.
Rather than containing a draft set of rules, the discussion paper was a series
of questions.
This is significant as the Bill itself is essentially a
framework. It establishes the Agency, the Board, the Chief Executive and a
general definition of eligibility. But the mechanics of the scheme will be
established by the rules. A recurrent theme in evidence presented by witnesses
was that it was hard to offer advice or pose questions or to plan for the
launch sites in the absence of the rules.
The Government released seven sets of draft NDIS rules on
the final day of hearings of the Senate Community Affairs Committee on Tuesday
5 March. These included draft rules for becoming a participant, draft rules for
children, draft rules for privacy, draft rules for nominees, draft rules for
supports, draft rules for registered providers and draft rules for plan
management. These draft rules are still the subject of consultation with the
states and territories and disability stakeholders. The Coalition will study
them carefully.
The Government has also indicated that there are potentially
dozens of batches of draft rules still to be released. These need to be
released quickly and well before passage of the Bill. In her second reading
speech, the Prime Minister indicated the Government's intention to bring the
final version of the Bill to a vote in the Budget session. The remaining rules
need to be released soon to enable proper scrutiny and consultation with
stakeholders.
The risk, as always, with this government is in their
capacity to competently implement. The interaction of three components – the
NDIS Bill, the NDIS rules and the operating guidelines for the NDIS Launch
Transition Agency – will determine how, and how well, the NDIS operates. The
work of the Senate Committee is critical and it should have been afforded the
benefit of the full NDIS rules and the operating guidelines for the Agency
before concluding its work. Right now, it isn’t possible to develop a complete
picture of how the NDIS will unfold because of insufficient information.
A community effort
This legislation to give effect to a National Disability
Insurance Scheme is in the Parliament due to a grass roots campaign by carers,
Australians with disability and the organisations that support them. They came
together. They decided enough was enough. They spoke with one voice. They
declared “We’re as mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore”.
The two main intellectual drivers of the NDIS have been Mr
John Walsh AM, a partner at PwC, and Mr Bruce Bonyhady AM, Chair of Yooralla
and President of Philanthropy Australia, without whose determination,
professional expertise and personal knowledge this legislation would not be
before the Parliament.
Conclusion
This legislation is not perfect. The NDIS is a complex
venture. Amendments after introduction of the legislation to the Parliament
were inevitable. The Senate Committee process has again proven its worth
through this inquiry. The Government has undertaken to carefully consider the
work of the Committee. However, in the time available, the Committee was never
going to be able to address all design issues. The onus remains on the
Government. The prime function of the Committee in the compressed time frame
was to seek to ventilate as many issues as possible.
While the Coalition and other parties support the NDIS and
the broad architecture outlined by the Productivity Commission, the detailed
design of the scheme, the legislative drafting and launch site implementation
are the responsibility of the Government. The Coalition had offered to be
partners with the Government in the design of the scheme and the drafting of
the legislation through the establishment of a joint parliamentary committee to
oversee the implementation of the NDIS. This offer was not accepted. Therefore
the Coalition has not had the benefit of the information and the opportunity
such a Committee would have provided to work with the Government on these
issues.
The Coalition want the NDIS to be a success. The Coalition
want the launch sites to run smoothly. The Coalition wants this legislation to
achieve the objectives laid out by the Productivity Commission. The Coalition
stands ready to work with the Government and all jurisdictions to make the NDIS
a reality.
| Senator Mitch Fifield |
Senator
Sue Boyce |
| |
|
| Senator Dean Smith |
Senator
Bridget McKenzie |
| |
|
| Senator David Fawcett |
|
ATTACHMENT A
2010‑2011‑2012‑2013
The Parliament of the
Commonwealth of Australia
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill 2012
(Amendment to be moved by Mr Andrews*)
(1) Page 80 (after line 17), at the end of Part 6,
add:
103A
Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme
(1) As soon as practicable after the
commencement of the first session of each Parliament, a joint committee of
members of the Parliament, to be known as the Parliamentary Joint Committee on
the National Disability Insurance Scheme, is to be appointed according to the
practice of the Parliament.
(2) The Committee is to consist of 10
members, made up of the following:
(a) 2 members of the House of
Representatives who are Government members;
(b) 2 members of the Senate who are
Government members;
(c) 2 members of the House of
Representatives who are Opposition members;
(d) 2 members of the Senate who are
Opposition members;
(e) 1 member of the House or
Representatives or the Senate who is a member of the Australian Greens;
(f) 1 member of the House of
Representatives or the Senate who is an independent member.
(3) A member of the Parliament is not
eligible for appointment as a member of the Committee if he or she is:
(a) a Minister; or
(b) the President of the Senate; or
(c) the Speaker of the House of
Representatives.
(4) A member ceases to hold office:
(a) when the House of Representatives
expires by effluxion of time or is dissolved; or
(b) if he or she becomes the holder of
an office specified in any of the paragraphs of subsection (3); or
(c) if he or she ceases to be a member
of the House of the Parliament by which he or she was appointed; or
(d) if he or she resigns his or her
office as provided by subsection (5) or (6).
(5) A member appointed by the Senate may
resign his or her office by writing signed by him or her and delivered to the
President of the Senate.
(6) A member appointed by the House of
Representatives may resign his or her office by writing signed by him or her
and delivered to the Speaker of that House.
(7) Subject to the requirements of subsection (2),
either House of the Parliament may appoint one of its members to fill a vacancy
amongst the members of the Committee appointed by that House.
103B
Powers and proceedings of the Committee
All matters relating to the powers and
proceedings of the Committee are to be determined by resolution of both Houses
of the Parliament.
103C
Functions of the Committee
(1) The functions of the Committee are:
(a) to review the implementation of
the National Disability Insurance Scheme; and
(b) to review the administration and
expenditure of the National Disability Insurance Scheme; and
(c) to review any matter in relation
to the National Disability Insurance Scheme referred to the Committee by:
(i) the responsible
Minister; or
(ii) a resolution of either
House of the Parliament; and
(e) to report the Committee’s comments
and recommendations to each House of the Parliament and to the responsible
Minister;
(f) such functions as agreed to by
resolutions of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
103D
Annual report
As soon as practicable after each year
ending on 30 June, the Committee must give to the Parliament a report on
the activities of the Committee during the year.
[parliamentary joint committee]
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