E&OE TRANSCRIPT

SUBJECTS: Northcott Dapto Disability Hub; NDIS reform; Housing; Interest rates; University of Canberra

BILL SHORTEN, MINISTER FOR THE NDIS AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES: It's great to be at Northcott today in Wollongong. The opening of the new multi-use hub is fantastic news for thousands of people with disability. In particular, the hundreds of clients that Northcott looks after every day.

JOURNALIST: You mentioned in your speech downstairs that it's a village of hope, and if you can expand on that, and that sort of means?

SHORTEN: Buildings reflect a society's values. If we build a brand new shopping centre, it reflects the value that Australians value shopping. But when a community or a group like Northcott build a marvellous, purpose-built building so that people with disabilities can have more fulfilling lives, I think it reflects very positive values. So this is not just a set of walls and windows, some fabulous rooms and a roof. This is a village of hope where people with disability cannot be invisible, where they can help – have dreams, have hopes, make plans and have social interaction. So the values of this building are based on the finest moral foundations of a fair go for people with disability.

JOURNALIST: Reflecting I guess on your time as the Minister in charge of the NDIS, you're obviously outgoing at the moment, there were recommendations about how to improve the service that were handed down last year. As you leave your position, what do you think? Do you think those – , yeah, what state do you think you leave the service in?

SHORTEN: You're right. I'm very outgoing. I love the NDIS, I bleed it, I was fortunate enough to be able to help create it more than 15 years ago. Coming back into Government, I realised that whilst it was changing lives for the better, hundreds of thousands of lives, it was off track. Money was getting  spent on the wrong things. There were a minority of service providers who were seeking to enrich themselves rather than look after the people they meant to. Australians are very generous. They, I think, don't mind spending some taxes on Medicare and on looking after people with profound and severe disability. Participants deserve fulfilling lives. So therefore, what we've spent the last nearly three years is get it back on track. Now I want to take it above politics. I want to make it politician proof. Now we've got the legal authority to outline what you can spend your money on and what you can't. Who you can spend your money with, with registered providers. We can now make sure that we've got a process for clear eligibility, which we're working on. And I think also most importantly – so who can be in it, what we can spend the money on and who with. We're clearing that up. We're clamping down on the fraud and the cheats and the crooks. They're not welcome anymore. But also what we're doing is writing a new chapter of inclusion by building supports outside the NDIS. For people who don't need the full orchestra of the NDIS, but have special needs, and so that the NDIS is not the only lifeboat in the ocean of services for people with disability.

JOURNALIST: Just on the changes that have been made, I spoke to a provider earlier this morning saying – who's here in the Illawarra – saying that a lot of clients are I don't feel like they have enough information about what can and can't access now, and that's actually worsening their mental health as well. Are there plans to kind of improve communications in that sense?

SHORTEN: Good providers should be telling their people what's going on. I mean, a provider can simply access a website. It's all there. I get any changes can bring anxiety. If you're a person with a disability or a family who has fought hard to get a personal budget, when you hear the words change, that's not what you hear, you hear, am I going to lose something? I don't want to go backwards. All we're doing is providing clarity. It's very easy to access on the NDIA or the National Disability Insurance website. Our providers, they're meant to be professional. They're paid to provide services. So I can understand participants taking longer to work out what's in and what's out. But a provider should be acquainting themselves with the road rules. You're not allowed to drive a truck without knowing basic road rules, and providers should do the same.

JOURNALIST: You talk about eligibility requirements. We have a local in Kiama who's the name of Bobby English, who's been campaigning for years to have her partner, who's over 65 and developed a disability, have him be included in the Scheme. I guess as you're leaving the position, do you regret not having this issue resolved? And will this be a priority for your successor, I guess?

SHORTEN: For the person who needs the support, I hope they're getting support. But for the proposition that the NDIS, to the NDIS should look after people of all ages of disabilities, that would sink the Scheme. The Parliament made it very clear in 2013, when it was legislated, that the NDIS is for people up to 65 and aged care would look after people over 65. When I started campaigning for the NDIS, aged care was in much better shape than disability. What's happened in the intervening 15 years, 16 years since I first raised it, is aged care had fallen backwards and for all of the problems with the NDIS, it was more generous. I think the answer to the issue of older Australians who acquire a disability after 65 is better support in the aged care system, which is what it's designed for. And the Labor  Government has been making pretty significant reforms in aged care to improve the support which would be available.

JOURNALIST: This is your, most likely your last visit to the Illawarra region is it?

SHORTEN: I don't know, nice to say, but you know you have –

JOURNALIST: Well I was going to ask –

SHORTEN: I'm going to do more farewell trips than Johnny Farnham, but I'll be coming back, to the South Coast anyway. I'm actually moving from Melbourne to Canberra, so actually I'll be closer to the Illawarra than I've ever been.

JOURNALIST: Yes, but last in a ministerial – as an announcement, with an announcement sort of thing?

SHORTEN: Yeah.

JOURNALIST: in terms of this region in particular, obviously you're a Federal Minister, but in this area, what do you hope the legacy of your role will be?

SHORTEN: I've been very fortunate to visit the Illawarra in different roles over my working life as a steel union rep with the Australian Workers Union. I've been at the north gate BHP. I've seen when things have gone bad. So I know this is a an industrial town. People work hard for their money here. Then I had the chance to work in disability here, and I realised it had a very strong culture of support for people with disability in the area, which I think reflects well on the values of the community here. I got to campaign here as Leader of the Opposition for six years. So I've seen how this area is reinventing itself and diversifying. And indeed, you know, to the south of the Illawarra has become a very crowded part of Australia. So I've seen this community reinvent itself. It works hard and it cares for the people within it. But what I'm pleased is that there's 5,600 people in the Wollongong region receiving personal budgets of support because of a severe and profound disability, which but for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, they'd be stranded. Families will have kids on non-standard developmental journeys, little precious babies who are two and three. But for the NDIS, they wouldn't get the sort of support they're getting now. There's ageing carers in their 80s who will be drying the dishes at 10:00pm tonight overlooking the, you know, the back window from the kitchen sink. They'll have that anxiety, who's gonna look after their adult child when they no longer can? We're not fully there at fulfilling that promise. But for people in this region, we're a lot closer to fulfilling a promise that even when you can't look after the person you love because they have a profound and severe disability, there'll be someone there.

JOURNALIST: Bill. Negative gearing is back in the spotlight today, with analysis showing more than 750,000 renters could become homeowners under your policy that you introduced in 2019. Is it time for the Federal Government to consider changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions?

SHORTEN: Well, unfortunately, Mr. Morrison won the election, so I didn't quite introduce my policies but thank you for the compliment. Listen, the Government said that we're going to focus on supply, that negative gearing is not on the agenda. I think that's fine. We did take a series of policies to 2019. They were narrowly rejected. I think the Government's got it right where we're going to focus on supply. I'd encourage the Liberals and the Greens political party to get out of the way. They're not – we want to build more houses. They're delaying that. I mean, I have to say of Mr Dutton's Opposition. They won't lead, they won't follow, and they won't get out of the way. That's a problem for renters.

JOURNALIST: Should the Prime Minister have bought an expensive home so close to the election in the middle of a housing crisis?

SHORTEN: Oh, it's so up to him. It's his business. Good luck to him and Jodie. Again, what I see is people are focusing on one house. I wish the Opposition and the Greens would focus as hard on the tens of thousands of houses that we want to support, and they are just on the Prime Minister's house.

JOURNALIST: You did used to call Turnbull, at the time, Mr. Harbourside mansion back in the day, saying he was out of touch. Should Albanese have waited until after the election to buy his own?

SHORTEN: I think the difference between Malcolm Turnbull and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is chalk and cheese. Mr. Albanese has worked very hard. He comes from or he came from a tough background. I just wish the very best for him and Jodie in their future. But the other thing is I've got no doubt that Prime Minister Albanese will lead us to the next election and successfully.

JOURNALIST: But just in terms of cost of living, do you think the Reserve Bank should hold off on cutting interest rates?

SHORTEN: That's a decision for the Reserve Bank. But I do know that 3 million mortgagees are doing it tough. I do know that the economy in large part is doing it tough. You know, it's great that Labor's been able to create a million jobs, and that shows you the focus of the Government. But people are doing it hard. It'll be up to the Reserve Bank when they cut rates, but that can't come too soon as far as I'm concerned.

JOURNALIST: Can I ask one more just for our Canberra colleagues? Your new position that you'll be taking up, will you be launching a review into the governance of UC?

SHORTEN: Uh, I'll wait until I get there. What I said about my new job is that until I finish my current job, I won't be talking about my new job. But the day I start there, then I'm open for – the shop is open for interviews. Thanks.