E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
5AA BREAKFAST
FRIDAY, 5 NOVEMBER 2021
 
SUBJECT: New report shows economic benefits of the NDIS.
 
LEON BYNER, HOST: Twenty-five to 10, now I've got a message here from a bloke that's very on the case with NDIS. He's the Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Member for Maribyrnong. He's on the show a fair bit. And he sent a note saying, and I quote, we now have proof the NDIS is actually a $52 billion a year boon to the Australian economy, and the Coalition cuts are a massive Aussie job killer. He goes on to say that the Morrison Government's put 10 confusing sets of numbers this year alone to justify cuts to the NDIS. But look, I'm a cut to the chase person. What does this mean for people who are at the receiving end of an NDIS benefit to which they're entitled? So, let's talk to the Shadow NDIS Minister Bill Shorten. Morning, Bill.

BILL SHORTEN, MEMBER FOR MARIBYRNONG: Good morning, Leon.

BYNER: So where does this leave people who are in turn for some help from NDIS? Does it mean that they'll still get fair treatment, or will they be duped?

SHORTEN: What I want to do is to change the way the Coalition Government is talking about the NDIS. The Coalition Government is always complaining about the cost of the NDIS. Now do I think money could be spent a bit better? Absolutely. Some of the service providers need to not overcharge. They need to deliver what they promise. The government agency needs to perhaps stop fighting over amounts where the cost of the fight is greater than the amount being sought by the person with a disability. But having said all of that, this Government, you can't walk around a corner in Canberra without running into a Liberal politician, you know, whispering and saying, Oh, this NDIS is too expensive. This report shows that in fact, when you invest in people with a disability, when you provide them with individual packages of support, it actually generates jobs and generates economic activity. This report, which was commissioned by the National Disability Services, who's the peak group for 1200 disability service providers so they're not, the people commissioning the report, not Liberal or Labor. It shows that when you properly give support to people with disability, it generates tens of thousands of jobs in local communities, and it provides a better standard of care. So, I guess if you like to cut to the chase, the problem with the Coalition in charge of the NDIS is they know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

BYNER: So how do we progress this to where people get fair treatment?

SHORTEN: Well, I think there's one committee of the parliament, which is working quite well, people might be pleased to hear of - it's a parliamentary committee made up of Labor and Liberal MPs, and they oversight the NDIS. I think that they often come up with reasonable suggestions on a cross-party basis. I think if we listen to people with disability, if we listen to the people in the system and then we make the improvements to the system in the way it's rolled out in a sort of bipartisan fashion, I think that's what we get to the sweet spot. And it's not a bad model for Australian politics, to focus on what we agree on more than perhaps what we disagree on.

BYNER: So, if you are a recipient of NDIS or you could well be potentially a recipient, who do you talk to, to make sure that you get what is lawfully supposed to be yours?

SHORTEN: Well, there's a very important point in what you just said, even in the framing of your question. If you're a person with a disability or you could be, and that's any of us - any of us might have a family or a family member, a little baby born with developmental delay through to multiple sclerosis or motor neurone disease, it can happen to anyone. What happens is that if you have a profound or severe impairment, you get in contact with the National Disability Insurance Agency and you have a plan prepared, based on your individual needs. So, the best way to make it work is you spend time making sure the plan is what you actually need, so you'll get reports from your treating allied health professionals, you might talk to the family, there might be a disability service provider you've been working with and you create an individual plan about your needs. Perhaps if you're still working in the community, it's about transport. It might be if your disability is such that you can't work, having day programs so that you're not stuck at home being, you know, treated as a sort of an ‘un-person’. And that's how you do it. You get the plan right. But what we hear from a lot of people is that they go to their planning meeting, but then the plan they – and it’s a fantastic meeting, you know, they go there or on the phone, they have a chat. But then what happens is that when they get the plan, it feels like it was prepared for someone else by someone who never listened to the actual potential participant.

BYNER: Alright, in a scenario like that what do you do, what’s your come back?

SHORTEN: Well, that's where it gets all hairy. You know, you sort of go back and say, Hey, this isn't what we needed. Sometimes it works out. Yep, but other times you have to start appealing your plan. Look, it becomes a bureaucratic maze. NDIS has changed a lot of people's lives, and it's a world leading scheme. But I do talk to people, you know, I've done events with Steve Georganas or Amanda Rishworth or Natalie Cook in South Australia, and you get people who say that managing their NDIS plan becomes a practically a full-time job.

BYNER: Yeah. Well, that's why the local member can do a lot, Bill, and thank you for coming on. The Shadow NDIS Minister Bill Shorten. But as I said, he's just mentioned a few people who will be very helpful in that space.

ENDS