E&OE TRANSCRIPT
SUBJECTS: Services Australia and NDIS co-location; NDIS expenditure
BILL SHORTEN, MINISTER FOR THE NDIS AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES: Hi. It's great to be here at the Marion Services Australia Centre with Louise Miller-Frost, our member for Boothby - and I congratulate Louise for her advocacy in this upcoming announcement. I'm pleased to announce that the Albanese government, we're just getting on with governing. And one of the big things that we want to do is make sure that when citizens need the services of the government, they can find them as easily as possible. So, I'm pleased today to announce that the Marion site is the 100th Services Australia site where the National Disability Insurance Agency will be co-located.
Practically, what that means is that for Louise’s constituents and constituents and citizens right across Australia, that if you have to come to Services Australia to deal with a matter to do, for example, to do with a Disability Support Pension, there's also highly professional staff at the National Disability Insurance Scheme where you can go and ask your questions. And also, if you're one of the thousands of people in Boothby, just as there are in every electorate in Australia, who are benefiting from the National Disability Insurance Scheme, you can come here and if you've got other Centrelink matters which you may well have, you can sort them out. So, this is the Albanese government bringing services to the people, creating one door for citizens to walk through, to get answers for their legitimate needs. Happy to take any questions.
JOURNALIST: When can we see this partnership begin?
SHORTEN: Starting now. And in fact, we've seen it at other places. There's 1,130 staff for the National Disability Insurance Scheme co-located with the 20,000 staff plus, who work for Services Australia right throughout the continent. There’s 318 service centres, but in over 100, you can now go here and also find out about your NDIS questions. This is all about making government easier for people to use. The one thing that Australians haven't found a way to reproduce is more time. There's 24 hours in a day and no more. And in our busy lives, trying to deal with government should be not the headache which it sometimes is. So, this is about making it easier for citizens to be able to access their basic rights at one location, which they can also do online, but if they need to come and see someone, it's at one place, which is really how government should work for the people.
JOURNALIST: Will this mean more jobs for this site in particular, or is it relocating?
SHORTEN: No, it will actually mean - and courtesy of Louise's advocacy in this matter - it will mean up to 35 NDIS staff will eventually be working here. There's 80 people working for Services Australia here. 29 or so in the front office dealing with customers but it's also a service centre, so there's another 50 people working behind the scenes. This will also bring more jobs and more people to Marion, which is great news for the small businesses in this community as well as the citizens.
JOURNALIST: And yesterday you said it's not the end of the world if the NDIS spending growth targets are not met. Do you concede if it's not met through that, there will be impact on the budget bottom line?
SHORTEN: Oh, I saw a very unusual intervention from a stranger to Australian politics, Michael Sukkar, the Opposition spokesperson for the NDIS – it’s always good to have a proof of life video from the gentleman. The truth of the matter is that Labor is absolutely committed to achieving our target. There's only one political party in Australia who has a plan to improve the NDIS. After nine years of Coalition negligence, they've given up the NDIS as too hard and I have to say on the far left the Greens political party, they say that we shouldn't do anything. Now, the reality is that people disability in this country and the people who care for them are love them, they deserve better from Australian politics. So, Labor's got a proposal and plans co-design with people with disability to make sure that the Scheme is here to stay and that every dollar gets through to the participants of the Scheme. And that's why our reforms I think will improve the Scheme; I've got no doubt about that. But we can also achieve that 8% target. The point I was making yesterday, it's a target, not a cap, but I'm absolutely positive that with working with people, not against them, we will achieve that. And again, I just make the point to our political colleagues in Canberra, there's only one political party in Australia that has a plan for the NDIS. The rest of them are in the grandstand of Australian politics, acting like spectators from the sidelines.
JOURNALIST: And the budget papers show that $74 billion in savings over the decades of the NDIS. Isn't that at risk if this target isn’t met?
SHORTEN: No. In fact, I'm optimistic that we can probably improve upon that. The reality is this Scheme is changing lives. It is changing lives. And we never want to go back to life before the NDIS existed. But it can be run better. The Coalition had nine years of running it better and they just didn't. Let's face it, that's not letting out a state secret. They were just hopeless at the NDIS and running it. So, what we're proposing is simple things which people with disability and experts in the area have been recommending.
Let's have better decision making by government, by the government agency. Let's go for longer term plans so that people with disability are not dehumanized by having to tell the government every year that they're still blind. Or still a quadriplegic or still have Down Syndrome. We also want to make sure that we stop the price gouging. We want to make sure that we stamp out the crooks and the spivs and the rent seekers who have been getting in between the taxpayer and the person for whom the money was meant, the person with a profound and severe disability. We also want to make sure that we're getting our housing system right, which is crucial right now. And we would like to see other government departments federally, state, local government, step up a bit so the NDIS isn't the only lifeboat in the ocean. We're going to have more reforms to announce in October following a process of consultation and design. I am completely optimistic that this Scheme can be run in the best interest of participants without necessarily the massive growth in expenditure which was predicted under the Liberals. Thanks.