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Wednesday, 19 October 2016
Page: 2493

Ms SWANSON (Paterson) (13:48): This week, Carers Week, we have legislation for an NDIS 'special fund', which is no doubt a euphemism for 'budget cut'. And today we have the social services minister, Christian Porter, seeking to purge the NDIS by sacking the father of it, Bruce Bonyhady. It is a disgrace! Is this government trying to wreck the NDIS? I think so. Labor authored the NDIS and we will not stand by while this mob wreck it.

In my electorate of Paterson there have been massive problems with the NDIS rollout stemming from the government's failure to provide resources to cope with demand and its botching of the IT system, resulting in huge delays in participants being signed up and service providers being paid. I have made representations on behalf of disability service providers who have gone for months without being paid and clients whose list of complaints includes the long wait to be signed up, an inability to use the MyPlace portal and terrible communication between the NDIS and clients' own healthcare providers. For example, Mr Allan McCorquodale, from Medowie, has been waiting for months for his wife, Lesley, to be moved onto the NDIS so they can buy a new van and have it modified for their transport needs. My office has been told there are only two caseworkers assessing people for the NDIS across the entire Paterson Hunter region—two! Clearly, that is not enough. Mr Porter, you need to step up!

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Coulton ): Order! Before I call the member for Fisher I will remind the member for Paterson about the use of props. She is a new member, so I gave her some leniency. I will not do so next time.