E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC DRIVE
TUESDAY, 2 FEBRUARY 2021
 
SUBJECTS: Getting young NDIS patients out of aged care; Labor leadership; Morrison Government arrogance.

LEON DELANEY, HOST: Today the Shadow Minister for the NDIS and Government Services, Bill Shorten, did what they call in the trade a doorstop, to have a few words to say about the NDIS and in particular about young people who have a disability but who are accommodated in inappropriate facilities because there's nowhere else for them to go. The Shadow Minister is on the phone now, good afternoon. 

BILL SHORTEN, MEMBER FOR MARIBYRNONG: Good afternoon. 

DELANEY: Thanks very much for joining us today. The story you told this morning is not a new story. This has been an issue for a long time. The government has promised it will be fixed, but we’re not seeing enough movement, are we?  

SHORTEN: No, we're not. This morning, I attended with Alicia Payne, who's one of Canberra's federal MPs, who has worked hard on this following story, I attended a house in Kambah, which is the residence of Angelina Giorgio. Angelina has some significant disabilities, but for many years she was in a locked down dementia ward of an aged care facility. But the tireless efforts of her sister-in-law, Tania and the work of Canberra community housing, has seen Angelina taken from a dementia ward of an aged care facility where she was non-verbal, to her own facility funded by the NDIS - but after a lot of effort by Tania and Alisha and others. Now she is verbal. She's able to enjoy bowls, she gets out. It's just a different world for her. And if we can succeed with Angelina, then we can succeed with other people who are under 65, who are forced to live in aged care facilities because there hasn't been adequate alternatives.

DELANEY: As I say, this has been a problem that's been with us for a long time. The government has made a promise to get it fixed. I believe the deadline they've set is next year. 

SHORTEN: Yeah. 

DELANEY: Is that good enough? 

SHORTEN: Well, in November of 2019, in response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care, the Australian Government or the Morrison Government, committed that no person under the age of 65 would enter a residential aged care facility by next year. And they've committed by the same date that no one under 45 will be forced to live in residential aged care. Now, we haven't seen the progress. Maybe they're doing it and maybe no one knows. But if they are doing it, for goodness sakes, tell us. But if they're not doing it, then we need to get our skates on. The funding is there. But what happens is that if you're a participant, that someone who's eligible for an NDIS plan, quite often you're getting bogged down in red tape, getting approvals. And we've just got to get our skates on. I mean, we have the support for people, and it makes a material difference in their lives and that of their caring families. 

DELANEY: Now, obviously, the NDIS is a very important service, but it hasn't yet fully lived up to its promise has it?

SHORTEN: Well, I helped design the NDIS, so I declare my interest. I'm a fan of it, the principle and the idea. But I've discovered, returning to the NDIS after my time as Labor leader, that the promise hasn't been fulfilled in many cases. So, we've just got to get on - and it doesn't require massive ideology or telephone books full of legislation. It just means a willingness and an empathy to put the participant at the centre of the decision-making system.

DELANEY: Yeah, there's also the question of people who work in the disability support sector, in many cases not being terribly well paid. And there was a federal court judgment that has reversed a pay cut in a particular case. How significant a challenge is that, finding people to do the work and then, of course, determining that they should be paid appropriately for that work? How difficult is that? 

SHORTEN: Well, it's a growth industry. The care economy is a real thing. And when you think about it and you join together the dots, people who work in housing, people who work in early years education, people who work in aged care, people who work in disability, there's nearly a million people working as carers of one sort or another. But the problem is, it's a largely feminised industry. And whilst that's not the specific problem, the problem is that women get paid less than men and as a result, caring industries, in my opinion, have been less valued in our traditional wages system. But now the government is doing something, the Morrison Government, they must have drunk their own Kool-Aid. And having narrowly won the election and got through COVID, they're now proposing legislation in parliament which will make it harder to lift the pay of people. And at the end of the day, why on earth does the government want to punish the people who got us through the virus, who look after our most vulnerable? We can't just rely on their emotional commitment. We shouldn't exploit the desire of carers to look after people. We should make sure they have a living wage. 

DELANEY: Indeed. And I know this is the question people have been throwing at you all day, but is Albo safe?

SHORTEN: Well, listen, I think Labor can win the next election.

DELANEY: That’s the answer you've been giving all day too. 

SHORTEN: That's right. Love a bit of consistency. No, I think the Morrison Government is beatable. Now, no political party automatically deserves to win an election or to get a go. You've got to make the case. But when I look at what we've been through, and Canberra has been perhaps more fortunate than other parts of Australia, hasn't been as hard affected by COVID-19. What we have is that there was an implicit deal between the government of Australia and the people of Australia. The people of Australia, not just direct workers, but small businesses, would take an economic hit in return for the government being on their side, as we get the vaccine and we come out of the virus. The problem is the government is going to freeze people's superannuation increases. The problem is the government - I can't believe it, it’s just so stupid. It just you know, I can't believe that I'm even debating this with the government - but they're proposing industrial relations laws, which will effectively cut people's pay in the future. So, I think the election is winnable and I think the government is unfortunately showing some signs of arrogance. 

DELANEY: Bill Shorten, thanks very much for joining us today.  

SHORTEN: Lovely to chat to you. And congratulations to Canberra Community Health and Bloomfield Services and to Tania and Angelina Georgiou.  

DELANEY: Thank you very much. Bill Shorten, Shadow Minister for the NDIS and Government Services.