Disability services
Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (12:13): My question is to the Minister for Disability. Media reports this week indicate thousands of Victorians with profound disabilities are facing eviction from their group homes when the state NDIS transition subsidy to the government’s five preferred providers ends this year. Noting your comments yesterday, Minister, and understanding there are negotiations, if no resolution is reached, will you commit to extending the state funding subsidy until a solution is found to ensure our most vulnerable continue to have a roof over their head?
Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:14): I thank Ms Bath for her question, although at the outset I would say that she is misrepresenting my answer yesterday, because I did not say that there were negotiations happening. What I explained yesterday – and not just yesterday in response to Mr Bourman but to Mr Ettershank previously and on a number of other occasions – is that we have contributed this year $3 billion to the NDIS for a national disability insurance scheme that provides a nationally consistent framework for people with disability across our country. It was an extremely important reform. There has indeed been further work in recent years, certainly over the last two years, about how we can further reform the NDIS to make it a sustainable system. But first and foremost, the national disability insurance scheme exists to ensure that people are serviced nationally through those state government contributions to provide those services.
The program that is being referred to here was a transition payment which expires at the end of this year, and there is not a negotiation to continue that, as I have said previously in this chamber. What we do say is that the Commonwealth is to use the funds that we pay to the NDIS as a state to ensure the provision of services across the country, including in Victoria, so that through people’s plans services are funded. That includes supported living services. What we did here in Victoria was go above and beyond in providing a transition payment which has, in a stepped way, been approaching the end of this year where it terminates. That is the case, that it terminates, and I have not said anything different here, in PAEC or in response to a number of questions both in this chamber and in the media. What we say is that the Commonwealth needs to ensure that there is fair and just pricing for the provision of services to people who have a national disability insurance plan, that they should not be withdrawing any of those plans from people and that they should be making sure that people get exactly what they are entitled to, including their supported living payments.
Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (12:16): I thank the minister for her response. Minister, the five preferred providers announced by the state – Aram, Scope, Life Without Barriers, Melba and Possability – have issued a statement saying funding shortfalls will not allow them to continue services. Minister, have you met with these agencies recently on this potential disaster, and if so, what steps have to be taken to ensure they can continue to operate and serve our most vulnerable?
Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:16): As I have said repeatedly, the Commonwealth government has the responsibility to ensure that there is fair pricing for the provision of supported services for people with disabilities who have an NDIS plan, including their supported living. The providers that you listed off are exactly the providers that we are talking about, and indeed the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, in relation to some of the clients within those providers, have been going above and beyond their state responsibilities to work with those families and those providers. But this remains a Commonwealth government responsibility, to ensure that there is fair pricing which is adequately then provided for within a plan that pays for somebody’s supported independent living service.