E&OE TRANSCRIPT

SUBJECTS: $230 Million in Medicare benefits owed to 1 million Australians; NDIS review; state government input into disability services; NDIA data breach; Senator Van

BILL SHORTEN, MINISTER FOR THE NDIS AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES: Good afternoon, everybody. The Albanese Labor government has got some good news for nearly a million Australians who are feeling cost of living pressure at the moment. There is $234 million plus of outstanding Medicare benefits, which is available, ready to pay nearly a million Aussies.

The problem has been that this stockpile of money, which is owed to the citizens, has been building up for a number of years because we don't have the right bank account details to pay people with. So, I'm pleased to announce today that we've had a bit of a breakthrough, and we're able to now send a message on the myGov app to 680,000 people to let them know that they simply have to go to their message box, and they can find out if there's money which is theirs, which can be simply paid into their account within three days. There's about another 300,000 people who don't have the myGov app. Our advice is download the app and then you're able to check very simply, you will get a message from Medicare once you have the app, if you are owed money.

The average payment which Australians are owed these million Australians are owed is about $240. So, for checking the app, either uploading it or checking the app, for a two-minute exercise within three days, you can get on average $240 back. This is Medicare benefits payments, which are eligible, which are confirmed. We just need someone's details, this is particularly good news for young people. A lot of them seem to be bulked around having money to claim back from Medicare, and it's ready to go. Two minutes on the app, three days later, money in your account. Good news for Christmas. We're happy to take any questions people have.

JOURNALIST: Can I just ask on the NDIS review –

SHORTEN: Before we go there, this is still good news for cost of living. I mean it is the issue, isn't it? Any questions on this?

JOURNALIST: Is this a service people have already had but they haven't gotten the rebate back? So basically, go and pay your…?

SHORTEN: This is money which is ticked off. If you just go to your app, we'll send out a message. You go to your app, it'll have a message, go to Medicare and then it is a really simple couple of step process, 3 or 4 step process, three days later, on average $240 back in your account as we approach Christmas. Nearly a million Australians, the money the government wants to pay you. We just need your correct bank account details.

JOURNALIST: Is this for GP visits? Or could it be a specialist?

SHORTEN: All Medicare benefits. Okay, [inaudible]

JOURNALIST: On the NIDA data breach -

SHORTEN: Sorry, I did promise Sarah.

JOURNALIST: If I could just ask, on the NDIS Review, have you provided state governments with modelling about what further costs might be for them? We talk about tier two supports a lot over the last 12 months and the need for that to increase. Have they got modelling, and will the Commonwealth cover any of those extra costs that they might incur?

SHORTEN: Okay, just to back people up so they've got the sequence of events, election last year, we recognised that there are [inaudible] needs a root and branch review. We started that review last October, the review’s come in; we've sent it to the states at the end of October. The review or all of the recommendations, will be discussed at National Cabinet next week. In the meantime, we've also announced sending 1200, so in answer to our question, 1200 pages of supporting information to the states.

I've had at least two meetings with most Ministers already since the review, and we've certainly said, just tell us what else you need to know. Going to the substance of the reforms, I invite you to come along to the Press Club next Thursday because we'll talk about the review then. Specifically, it's no secret the scheme is growing faster than was intended and so, we and the Premiers and the Prime Minister have set a target of 8%. Now, what we're doing is putting the meat on the bone of reforms to achieve that 8%.

I'm very confident that if we can make the experience on the NDIS for the participants more human, less bureaucratic, if we can crack down on unethical service providers, if we can also have a long overdue discussion about what are we doing for Australians with disabilities whose disability is not so severe that they need to be on the NDIS, but we still need to have services.

I recognise the states and other Commonwealth departments are delivering a range of services for Australians with disability. I think the tenor of the review and from my thousands, tens of thousands, of conversations with Australians with disability, they'd like to see more support for people with disabilities outside the NDIS, and that will take years to develop.

JOURNALIST: Do states know how much that might cost them?

SHORTEN: I wouldn't want to pin the tail on the donkey, just throw a dart at a dartboard and just make up a number. We need to - I'm answering - we need to find out from the states what they are doing. The states are doing a range of things, you also asked in your question, does the Commonwealth see that it has any role to deliver services outside the NDIS? Yes, we do, but it's got to be in partnership with the states.

JOURNALIST: Just in terms of –

SHORTEN: Sorry, you were next.

JOURNALIST: Just on the NDIA data breach that was announced yesterday.

SHORTEN: Yeah.

JOURNALIST: Are you able to provide an indication of how many people were affected and over what time period the staff member was engaging in that data breach?

SHORTEN: Can't answer the latter question, I can answer the first, but just in case you missed it, the NDIA notified there had been a person who worked at the NDIA charged and arrested the previous day, and it appears that this person, the charge is, that this person is alleged to have provided about 11,000 records, not all participants, to providers who have also now been charged and arrested.

The initial concern about the data breach was identified by the Fraud Fusion Task Force, which I created. The Australian Federal Police working with the Fraud Fusion Task Force on November the 3rd executed a warrant against this staff member at the NDIA in Sydney at a Sydney residence. They have been charged, arrested, and charged. Then early this week, the people who we think this official of the NDIA was providing information to, one of them has now been charged and arrested. Another person has been questioned. We don't think it's been going on for a very long time, this is not a cyber breach. I think the police, and I don't want to comment too much more about the individual investigation, but certainly it is the case that someone who was working within the public service at the NDIA has provided information of a personal nature, and we've acted. And in fact, it's fortunate that we set up the Fraud Fusion Task Force, because without that, we might not have discovered this behaviour.

JOURNALIST: And are you able to say which proportion of the people affected are participants versus just other people?

SHORTEN: A smaller number than the 11,000.

JOURNALIST: Just back to the role of the States [inaudible] cuts to infrastructure funding, funding on health. There’s uncertainty about [inaudible]. What confidence do you have that they will step up [inaudible] including on foundational support?

SHORTEN: There's one assumption in your question, which I might go to, and then give you the short answer to the rest of it. We're not necessarily asking the states to commit to a particular dollar. This will be a subject of a National Cabinet negotiation. It's up to the Prime Minister and the Premiers to work out all of those issues. Yes, you know, you only have to read your paper and others to know that there's tensions in the hospital system. There's tensions about GST in some states, Western Australia. There are tensions about infrastructure funding, there's also tensions about the NDIS, I can't sugarcoat it. We think that this scheme should keep growing, we think this scheme should keep growing at about 8%, but we do think the scheme can be improved, and to do nothing would be a betrayal of people with disability. It would be failing the promise that we made at the last National Cabinet, at least a one in April, that we want to make sure this scheme is around for future generations. What motivates me and the Albanese Government on the NDIS is we want the scheme to be there for future generations. We want to make sure that the money is getting through to the people for whom the scheme was designed, we want to make it a more human experience for people in it.

We want to also crack down on dodgy service providers, not just the people in that earlier question. We want to make sure that people are getting value for money and funded on outcomes. I'm very confident there's a lot of goodwill from all levels of government and the community to see the NDIS succeed. What I don't think we have is an infinite amount of time. We need to move on and do these things, and so, I'm sure the people of goodwill meeting will work things out.

JOURNALIST: Mr. Shorten –

SHORTEN: Sorry, I'll come to you.

JOURNALIST: I'll just ask you, do you feel comfortable with the government negotiating with former Liberal Senator David Van on legislation and elevating his status in a joint press conference yesterday, when there were allegations of sexual misconduct against him?

SHORTEN: Oh listen, how the Senate is working and our negotiations I'll leave to others. But if they're elected senators, they're there, and you deal with - you know, this is a government who will work with, leaving aside Senator Van, we'll work with sometimes the Greens, we’ll work sometimes with One Nation, we work with the Liberals and the Nats. It's a democracy, and we've got to work with the people that the people give us.

JOURNALIST: [inaudible]

SHORTEN: Listen, I don't want to give so much of the story away that you won't come next Thursday, but we've said things on the record. We believe that an 8% target in about 3, 3 and a half years is realistic, 3 to 4 years. The NDIS is unique in the world, it is changing lives. There's a lot more good news in the scheme than bad news, but we do need to make sure that the money's getting through to the people whom the scheme was designed and not being absorbed in either wasteful practices, inefficient practices, services which are neither reasonable, necessary nor delivering outcomes for people. So, it's not that it's not a long journey, it will be a long journey to improve the scheme, but the best way to start a long journey is to start now, not put it off. It'll take years, I mean, the biggest people who matter in this whole thing and in the States are crucial. Other parties in this federal parliament are crucial, but it's people with disability. All I'm interested in is making sure that in Australia, your disability doesn't define your outcomes in life.

JOURNALIST: Why didn't the government accept the Royal Commission's suggestion to change the confidentiality status of those cabinet documents, and should cabinet documents made public?

SHORTEN: We respect cabinet confidentiality. Whilst we appreciate the Royal Commissioner’s suggestion, we weren't convinced of that. The other 56 things we're doing, we've accepted fully, or we've accepted in principle and are implementing. Sorry, I might pick someone I haven't spoken to, but I'll definitely come back to you again.

JOURNALIST: Thalidomide survivors say that the access to support is actually quite difficult and hard to get. Do changes need to be made to the system to encourage easier access?

SHORTEN: Well, I can speak for my part of the portfolio. Of the 11 recommendations of the inquiry into thalidomide, about five went to the NDA. I'm pleased to say to people that in March of 2021, so just over two years ago, only three people with thalidomide had access to the NDIS, it’s now up to 38. There's reasons why some people don't want to access the scheme, there's been a good bit of work done by the Department of Social Services talking to people with thalidomide. For some of them, it's traumatic to retell their story again and again and again. We've accepted all of the recommendations that were proposed in terms of improving access. There's now 152 people who've given permission to the Department of Health and Ageing to provide their records to the NDIS, and we've now gone from 3 to 38 people, and we'll keep working with people and we've got very senior people just to concentrate exclusively on how people with thalidomide are going with their…

[division bells ringing]

SHORTEN: I'm just checking if that's a real division, it is.