CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
Thank you for the introduction.
I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land – the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respects to elders past and present.
I extend that respect to the First Nations people joining us today.
This time last week, I was sitting with my colleagues in Government House, waiting to be sworn in as a minister.
I’ve tried hard not to waste a single day since then. I am conscious of the task we face together to ensure that people with disabilities are at the heart of the NDIS.
So over the past week I have sat down with department officials and the NDIA.
I am making my way through the thousands of pages of analysis that reviews and commissions have produced.
I am reaching out to my state and territory counterparts.
I have been talking to advocates, service providers, regulators, academics as well as workers and their representatives.
But perhaps the most important conversations I have had are with people with lived experience of disability – the people who participate in the NDIS.
It’s one of the reasons I wanted to take the opportunity to come here today – to thank you for how generous your sector and community have been, with your time and with your hard won knowledge.
For decades, people with disability have told policymakers, “nothing about us, without us!”.
I understand the need to ensure your voices are loud and carry weight.
As Minister I have a responsibility to ensure NDIS is not done to or for participants without their input.
The scheme must be designed, overseen, and implemented in partnership with people who have a lived experience of disability.
Deep in my heart, I know that you can’t do this job properly unless you engage people directly. That’s been true in every project I’ve worked on as an elected representative.
Government cannot make good decisions without good information. We do best when we make decisions together – governments working with those who live and work with this scheme.
I know how important the strong relationships built by my predecessors have been to delivering good policy outcomes. And I am looking forward to getting to know all of you to continue that work.
The NDIS is a pillar of this country’s social contract. It has transformed the lives of people with a disability and their families. It is an honour to be a steward of the scheme.
When Labor legislated the NDIS we said the scheme would provide “security and dignity” for people with disability. We stand by that pledge.
That’s why I am excited to work with my colleague, Mark Butler, because bringing health, disability and ageing together gives us the best chance we have had in years to ensure these systems deliver for everyone.
To do this they must deliver for people with disability.
Too often, individuals are diverted from one system to another. Demand in one system can put pressure on another.
The people in this room have faced these battles on both fronts – you have led the charge to get young people out of aged care and people with disability out of long hospital stays when they no longer need to be there.
At the same time, I know you also have fought for people with disability to get the right acute and preventive health supports when it is needed.
We need our health, disability, and aged care systems to be connected and seamless. To support the social model of disability embodied in the NDIS.
I also see big opportunities for people working in the disability sector. Many people work between aged care, disability and health.
Likewise, providers often work across multiple systems. We have the chance to build a modern care economy, that responds to the choices of consumers and respects the skills of workers and carers.
Our new arrangements mean that all of the levers sit in a single portfolio with responsibility across health, aged care, disability and the NDIS.
I come into this portfolio with the benefit of the hard work and progress my predecessors have made over the past 3 years.
Bill Shorten was there at the beginning, but in 2022 he inherited a scheme that had been mismanaged by the previous government.
There is still much more to do, but over the course of the last term Bill, Amanda Rishworth, and our whole government have set about reversing the neglect of the previous decade, and returning the NDIS to its original purpose.
The Prime Minister has recently spoken about the pride that Australians feel in the social institutions we have created together. The NDIS is one of those institutions.
Our shared obligation is to secure its future, and to ensure that the experience of participants is put at the heart of the scheme.
We need to make sure the NDIS delivers better, consistent and fair decisions; that it protects the safety and upholds the rights of participants; and that it operates transparently.
We need to ensure that there is a vibrant and sustainable disability sector that provides rewarding careers for the skilled and committed people who work in it.
We need to be certain that every dollar allocated to NDIS participants reaches those participants, and is spent in a meaningful way that makes a difference in people’s lives.
That no one takes advantage of people with disability, their families, or taxpayers.
We need to be certain that people with disability can live with dignity and exercise choice and control over their future through the scheme.
We will continue to amplify the voices of people with disability – to ensure we get these improvements right.
One of the things I have learned across a lifetime in public policy, is the importance of trusted partnerships.
Much progress has made in recent decades for people with disability. And this progress has only been possible because of the trusted relationships between those working in the community and those working in the parliament.
It has been made possible because of the everyday work of tens of thousands of people.
It has been made possible because of courageous advocacy.
It has been made possible because of well informed, thoughtful and creative advice to government.
It has been made possible because of honest, open dialogue, where experience is valued and truly heard.
I am excited to be part of this story, and I fully intend to honour the legacy of all of those who’ve fought to get us to this point.
My hope is that the NDIS is a source of profound empowerment for Australians with a disability and those that support them and love them.
And that the NDIS is a source of profound pride for every Australian.