Page 2413 - Week 08 - Thursday, 5 August 2021
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I was quite taken aback by Mr Milligan’s comments. I do not believe that it is grandstanding to stand up and say, “Let’s keep what has been one of the biggest social reforms of our generation true to its core principles and look after the people who need the care that is provided by the NDIS.”
If you want to call that grandstanding, Mr Milligan, go for your life. I do not think that it sits right to say that at all. It is never grandstanding in this place to assert our values and say that we support looking after those in our community who need support. We know that, during the last few months in particular, there was a significant drive by the federal minister to bring in those independent assessments. While ministers may have said no at the meeting, it was clearly a case of the federal minister having to back down, because of what has been one of the largest campaigns we have seen from the disability community, who got out there and advocated for themselves to make sure that this was not brought in, because of their fear about the impact that this would have on their lives.
Again, it is not grandstanding to support that and to provide reassurance that, at an ACT level, as a partner within the NDIS, we remain committed to those core principles and will not walk away from them, no matter how much pressure is applied in the future.
I also go to the point of co-designing. Minister Davidson made the very good point in her speech that, once trust is broken, it takes a long time to be rebuilt. Because of what we have seen through smaller decisions within the NDIS, building up to the independent assessments, it is fair to say that there is significant distrust in the approach and the way that the scheme will be handled on behalf of the federal government.
We need to start rebuilding that trust and showing at our level, within the ACT, that we are committed to that—that we want co-design, that we want to make sure that this is a person-centred scheme that puts decisions and control with those who are participants in it. Again, there is nothing grandstanding about that.
Mr Milligan, I encourage you to read the debates that have happened here today. I hope you can walk away from that nice bit of reading with a slightly more enlightened view than you brought to the debate today.
I would like to thank Minister Davidson for her comments and for the advocacy she has done up to this point. I believe she will continue to do that. I am very happy, as a local member, to have moved this motion today, calling on this place to support Minister Davidson in her work in staying true to the core principles of the NDIS, and make sure that everyone in Canberra who is a participant in the NDIS and a supporter of those people knows that the ACT will be staying true to that core, founding principle.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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