Mike Freelander
Macarthur · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“She started the longest and biggest prospective study of allergy and anaphylaxis in the developed world, called HealthNuts, which is still ongoing. She had a PhD, and her PhD thesis was on liver cell transplantation using a mouse model of Wilson's disease, a very rare but well-known cause of liver failure.”
“I knew Katie Allen in a professional capacity prior to her entering this place as the second paediatrician to be elected to the House of Representatives. I dealt with her professionally in her role as the head of the Centre for Food and Allergy Research in the Murdoch Children's Research Institute.”
“She was a really deep thinker, a really decent person and someone—like many paediatricians—who understood the implications of the social determinants of health and was willing to work hard to make sure that Australia led the way in paediatric health care. She was brave and she was steadfast. She was someone who stood up for her views.”
“Recently, we celebrated Australian Made Week in Macarthur, and to mark that occasion I visited the fantastic team at Sebel, a manufacturing business which produces chairs, stools, tables, desks and storage units in Minto in my electorate of Macarthur.”
“It's great to see the Sebel tradition of high-quality products being maintained now in my electorate of Macarthur. Harry and Queenie are long gone, but their legacy continues with a business that is employing lots of people and providing innovative products and 21st century manufacturing, including recycling.”
“It was founded by my friend Ross Doonan in 2004 and has gone on to national and international acclaim, producing products with coating. You often see them on railway stations—the signs and chairs that have wood coatings on aluminium products. I myself am doing a home renovation that will be using DECO products.”
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“The Speaker has received advice from the Chief Opposition Whip nominating a member to be a supplementary member of the Standing Committee on Education for the purpose of the committee's inquiry into the factors driving educational attainment.”
“She was a really deep thinker, a really decent person and someone—like many paediatricians—who understood the implications of the social determinants of health and was willing to work hard to make sure that Australia led the way in paediatric health care. She was brave and she was steadfast. She was someone who stood up for her views. I well remember the fight she had in this place with one of my colleagues, where she stood her ground—”
“She started the longest and biggest prospective study of allergy and anaphylaxis in the developed world, called HealthNuts, which is still ongoing. She had a PhD, and her PhD thesis was on liver cell transplantation using a mouse model of Wilson's disease, a very rare but well-known cause of liver failure. She, as has been mentioned, had an Order of Australia given posthumously, which was well deserved and only a small recognition of her talents. I respected her greatly prior to her coming here, and, when she came here, I respected her even more. I was expecting a rather patrician, aloof person elected as the member for Higgins, but what I found was just a really decent, lovely person, willing to engage on all levels, even though we represented different parties and had different political views.”
“I knew Katie Allen in a professional capacity prior to her entering this place as the second paediatrician to be elected to the House of Representatives. I dealt with her professionally in her role as the head of the Centre for Food and Allergy Research in the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. She had a national and, indeed, a worldwide reputation as a paediatric allergist and paediatric gastroenterologist. She specialised in allergy and, in particular, some of the rarer manifestations of allergies, such as eosinophilic enteritis and anaphylaxis. She had qualifications far greater than mine in an academic capacity. She was an inaugural fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.”
“The COVID crisis and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have exposed how vulnerable we are without a sound, stable manufacturing base, and our government is working hard to build up Australia's manufacturing and infrastructure capability. We do this all around the country, but I'm proud of what's happening in Macarthur and I'm proud that we continue our manufacturing, with small businesses that support local jobs and local people. And it's really a great place to live.”
“I really want to encourage all of us to celebrate our Australian-made products. We really need to keep a look out for Australian-made products and celebrate that they're made in this country, and we need to support these businesses by buying their products. The Albanese Labor government is proud to continue supporting Australian products through our almost $23 billion investment over the next decade to build the A Future Made in Australia campaign to support Australian manufacturing and jobs. We have some other great companies in Macarthur: the a2 Milk Company and the Leppington Pastoral Company, producing dairy products. We do some great things in Australia, and we do some great things in my electorate of Macarthur.”
“It was founded by my friend Ross Doonan in 2004 and has gone on to national and international acclaim, producing products with coating. You often see them on railway stations—the signs and chairs that have wood coatings on aluminium products. I myself am doing a home renovation that will be using DECO products. These products are high quality and made in Australia. They are being exported all around the world, and they're produced in their manufacturing facility in my electorate of Macarthur, and I'm very proud of that. They produce the signages you see at train stations, as I've mentioned, and the innovative coating products you see on houses by the sea. At Wollongong, Katoomba, Kiama and everywhere between, you'll see signs and coating products made by DECO in Macarthur.”
“I think there are probably some Sebel chairs in this parliament. It has really innovative products that are now going all around the world. When I posted this visit on my socials, a fair few comments were received from constituents saying they were surprised to learn that we still made things in Australia. I can reassure you that in Macarthur manufacturing is strong, and we have some great, great companies there. It was great to celebrate Australian Made Week, and we raised awareness amongst the companies themselves that they have partners and that there are businesses all around the country that are still manufacturing high-quality products. Across the road from Sebel, of course, is DECO Australia, which I have celebrated in this place before.”
“It's great to see the Sebel tradition of high-quality products being maintained now in my electorate of Macarthur. Harry and Queenie are long gone, but their legacy continues with a business that is employing lots of people and providing innovative products and 21st century manufacturing, including recycling. When I visited the factory, we saw part of the recycling plant there. They had 40-year-old plastic moulded chairs which were being recycled and made into new chairs which hopefully, I think, will last another 40 or 50 years. It's an incredible business, a small business started by a family wanting to take a risk and build up a life in Australia. It's a really innovative place. You'll find Sebel products in a whole range of environments around the country. Virtually every public school has Sebel chairs.”
“Recently, we celebrated Australian Made Week in Macarthur, and to mark that occasion I visited the fantastic team at Sebel, a manufacturing business which produces chairs, stools, tables, desks and storage units in Minto in my electorate of Macarthur. Established in 1951, and having won numerous awards since, Sebel now employs nearly 50 local workers who produce high-quality, built-to-last products that serve our nation. They are a trusted Australian brand bolstering our economy and employing many locals. I have a personal relationship with Sebel. Although it's no longer owned by the Sebel family, Sebel was started by Harry and Queenie Sebel, who were friends of my grandparents, in 1951. Harry Sebel came from England with very little money and built up the Sebel business to be a really fantastic business exporting all around the world.”
“Over $45,000 has been raised by members of our community via a GoFundMe page to help Shane, Marcel and their team navigate this devastating time. When I finish in Canberra this week, I intend to go back and give them a donation from me personally. I wish all those involved and affected by this terrible fire the best and I look forward to going back for coffee and certainly for a piece or two of cake when they reopen in the future. I wish them well for their recovery.”
“Thankfully, the building itself remains on its foundations and some of its historic property, including the ovens and the fireplaces, remains. There is, however, a lot of internal damage and, unfortunately, it will take some time for the store to be repaired. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Fire and Rescue NSW, the Rural Fire Service, NSW Ambulance and NSW Police as well as the community members involved in helping to contain and put out the fire. Their work has kept this historic building from total destruction. Now the long road to recovery begins for all involved to get the Store Menangle back up and running. From the ashes of this fire, the community response has been absolutely outstanding.”
“Over the years, the historic general store would evolve with the ever-changing region, and most recently it was a beloved cafe that sold local produce and delicious meals and coffee; employed local workers; and, most importantly, was a beloved spot for locals, including me, to catch up. It was also home to the local post office. For many years, my great mate Andrew McDonald and I would routinely get a coffee together in the morning ahead of our work as paediatricians at Campbelltown Hospital, and I have fond memories of the coffee, the staff and the cake at the store. Sadly, though, we will have to wait some time to go back to the Store Menangle, as the proud 120-year-old landmark was severely damaged after an intense three-hour fire.”
“Last Monday 25 May, our community woke up to the devastating news that the beloved Store Menangle was severely damaged by fire. The Store Menangle was based out of a historic building built in 1904 to serve the growing Camden Park estate, home of the Macarthur family and, of course, the birthplace of Australia's merino industry. At its peak in 1930, the Camden Park estate covered 28,000 acres, with the store being a major supply centre for this growing region. It was home in the sixties to the Menangle Rotolactor, the most advanced dairy in the world, it was said at that time.”
“Schedule 3, based on advice received by the NDIS review that NDIS pricing is not always transparent and we need to make sure that pricing is transparent and sustainable, will establish a clearer and more transparent pricing mechanism. The minister will then set maximum prices for NDIS supports. That's important. Schedule 5 deals with transitional matters relevant to the entirety of the bill. The minister said, 'Within 13 years, the scheme has gone from a dream of generations of activists to a deeply cherished institution,' and I want to make sure it's sustainable. Thank you.”
“There are many examples around the country where group therapy and parents supporting other parents can be the most effective ways of getting input for kids with disability and developmental delays. Currently, only one in 16 providers is registered. 'NDIS provider' can mean anything and is far too broad without proper oversight. It is important that groups are NDIS registered, so there's oversight. It's also important that we look at ways of registering providers such as single providers in a sustainable and affordable way. There needs to be different levels of registration and different costs associated with that.”
“One of the important aspects that we haven't spoken a lot about but is very important is training assessors and making sure that people who are doing the initial assessments are well trained and able to deal with the many, many different presentations of disability and the nuances of that. It's also important to me that the biggest threats are cost blow-outs, where the scheme could become unsustainable, and it is very important that we make sure that the policies we use are very evidence based and sustainable. Allied health is one issue where we know that, particularly for very young children, very transactional models of care are not necessarily the best practice. I go back to the starting points I spoke about.”
“It's resulted, of course, in the scheme growing too fast, and it means that billions of dollars have been spent on non-evidenced policy and in areas where providers have not provided the care that they should have. If left unchecked, this would skyrocket costs and would not be a benefit to the community and the individual participants. The National Disability Insurance Agency will have strengthened powers to effectively manage the integrity of the NDIS and to build on existing fraud measures we've introduced since coming into government. We must remember that the NDIS was always intended to be reviewed over time and that improvements can continue to be made.”
“I am confident that the scheme, over time, will be able to deal with these nuances as the new system is rolled out and the Thriving Kids initiative does progress. Schedule 1 will also enable the minister to make determinations to reset funding for groups of supports like social, community and civic participation and capacity building. This is important because capacity building has been a really important part of the NDIS, and it must be continued and must have transparency and oversight. It's an area where I think there have been some mentions of fraudulent activity occurring, and it's very important that the minister is able to have oversight of that.”
“We need to make sure the NDIS can retain its original intent of supporting people with permanent and significant disability, as was modelled by the Productivity Commission. The bill seeks to address inequity of access by clarifying the meaning of 'functional capacity' and providing the assessment of thresholds of that functional capacity. It does worry me a little that we are looking at developing a single assessment tool. I am concerned about that. I'm not sure that that will be able to deal with the nuances of the psychosocial supports that are needed and of the community supports that are needed in thin markets in rural, regional and remote areas. So I do have concerns about that.”
“This bill consists of five schedules that will make this happen, including schedule 1, which sets out the changes to access and eligibility as well as plan management for participants. This follows findings from the NDIS review that the current approach to accessing the scheme is inconsistent and inequitable. It found that the scheme is missing people with disability who require the most support. In particular, I'd like to mention that children that have significant disability and live in rural and regional areas are missing out on supports; children with, for example, fetal alcohol syndrome are missing out on supports in some of our Indigenous communities; and people who have disability but don't have people who are able to advocate for them are often missing out on the levels of support that they need.”
“Whilst the NDIS is a Labor initiative—and it's thanks to Julia Gillard and, later, Bill Shorten—I know that many on the opposition benches have supported it and continue to support it, and it is very important that it is bipartisan. However, there was a significant problem when the NDIS was first started, and the foundations have been a little shaky. We need to reinforce the foundations of the NDIS. It's important for people with severe disability, and it's important for the whole country. We need to make sure that people with disability are included, are supported and know with confidence that their future is assured. As an MP now, and in working with the Minister for Disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, I'm absolutely committed to securing the future of the NDIS.”
“But, with the use of a computer and a voice activator, he was able to communicate. In fact, he was very bright, but he clearly needed care all his life. His mum really worried about what would happen to him when she passed on, and now we know, with the NDIS, he will get support. These are the faces and the stories that give us the human perspective on the importance of the NDIS and this bill. This bill is about securing the future of the NDIS so that Australians with significant disability have a future with an institution they can trust and rely on for support for the rest of their lives. I had, as I said, a conversation about this with former prime minister Julia Gillard around 2008, at a meeting with the then member for Werriwa, Chris Hayes, and she understood well the importance of the NDIS being sustainable for the future.”
“I saw parents go through incredible difficulties, trying to put money aside so that their child could be looked after when they were either too infirm to look after them, or, in fact, had passed away. I can remember many others. Troy, a little boy I saw with Down syndrome when he was born, developed something called Eisenmenger complex, which is an inoperable heart condition. I watched him grow and develop. I watched his family look after him so, so well. His father died, and his mother was left to bring Troy up and care for him in his 20s, 30s and now in his 40s. Unfortunately, his mother has passed away, and he's now cared for by his sister. The NDIS has made all that possible and has allowed that family to keep Troy at home all that time. I remember Justin with cerebral palsy. He was not mobile. He couldn't speak.”
“There was Grosvenor Hospital at Ashfield in Sydney. There was Peat Island near Gosford, which I remember going to as a paediatric registrar. People with severe disability were managed and housed there when their parents were no longer with them. Thankfully, we no longer have those institutions. We now have group homes. We have fantastic ways of keeping people in their own independent living spaces, which has allowed us to do away with many of these institutions. That's a great thing, and that's thanks to the NDIS. It was a very important lesson for me, as I've said. It doesn't matter what the problem was, what physical or intellectual disability, the parents always worried about what would happen to their child when they could no longer look after them.”
“Throughout my career in dealing with children with disability, that was the very thing that always worried the parents—what was going to happen to their child that they'd cared for and nurtured throughout their childhood years when they were no longer there to help them. It didn't matter what problem the child had, what physical disability, what intellectual disability or what illness. Those parents always worried about what would happen to their child when they could no longer look after them. Often that meant institutionalisation. There were institutions around the country that cared for people with long-term disability. The old Callan Park, which was an institution for those with mental illness, and often became a de facto home for people with intellectual disability when their parents could no longer care for them.”
“I remember Tubby took me, a couple of other medical students, the resident, the registrar and a couple of the nursing staff into the side room of the department of paediatrics of the old North Shore Hospital, and he said to me in front of everyone, 'What do you think these parents are most worried about?' Obviously, at that stage, their worry was for her to get over this cardiac surgery and get over the complications, and when she could go home, and that's exactly what I said. Tubby said, 'Well, that might be the immediate worry, but what these parents are worried about is what's going to happen to their child when they pass away, when they're no longer there to help her.' That was a very, very important lesson to me.”
“His name was John Davis, but everyone called him Tubby. Tubby Davis, a great man who is no longer with us, did a lot to help and to mentor me. I remember doing a ward round with him when I was a medical student, and we saw a little girl with Down syndrome, and her parents were very, very anxious. She'd been quite sick in hospital following complications from cardiac surgery, and she was recovering.”
“In particular, I'd like to mention Lorraine Brown, who ran Starting Points Macarthur, which was an early intervention preschool for kids with moderate to severe disability. I acknowledge that we have created some anxiety in what we are doing now as a federal government to try and make sure that the NDIS is sustainable for the future. I want to pay credit to all in this parliament who support the NDIS, and I include many people in the opposition and crossbench ranks. I know that what we want is to have a system that works well for people with disability. I'm a strong believer in the NDIS and its role as one of the most important social reforms we've ever had in modern Australia. I'd like to take you through a bit of pre-NDIS history from my own experience as a very young medical student in 1972. I had an uncle who was a paediatrician.”
“I pay credit to my paediatric colleagues, particularly the people I worked with closely in south Western Sydney—Rick Dunstan, who, unfortunately, has passed away; Andrew McDonald; John Whitehall; Raymond Chin; Melvyn Polon; Mark Westphalen—all of whom gave care to people and their kids with disability over many, many years. You get bonded to those families and you want what's best for them. It's a great privilege to have worked with those people and to have contact with those families that have done so well and provided so much care for their kids and their families. I pay credit to all the allied health people that provided support for those kids. I want to pay credit to the people who ran intervention services.”
“I pay credit to the families of kids like Rebecca, Trevor, Troy, Michael, Hamish, Sydney, Harry and Harrison, and the unpaid carers, for what they did to help their kids and to care for their kids—many of them now adults who are doing well thanks to the NDIS. I pay credit to Bill Shorten and, of course, Julia Gillard, who first developed the concept of the NDIS. I remember speaking to Julia Gillard, long before she was prime minister, at a fundraiser for my good friend Chris Hayes, where we spoke about the importance of supporting people with severe disability and their families.”
“Many people have spoken on this NDIS bill, the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026, so I don't want to go into the tiny details of the bill. This is a very personal speech I'm going to give today. I pay credit to the families and the kids with disability that I've looked after over the last 50 years. It is very personal to me. I remember them all, including many who've passed away. I pay credit to my secretary and office manager, Cheryl Roberts, who worked for me for over 35 years, for the care she gave to her daughter Stacey, who had severe disability. Unfortunately, Stacey passed away in her 20s, not so long ago. I pay tribute to Cheryl and her husband, Dwayne, who looked after Stacey so well and helped her survive for so many years.”
“We know that the medications for some of the new genetically caused diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, cost huge amounts of money—sometimes up to $300,000 a year per patient for every year they're alive. The costs are huge. But the Albanese government is making sure that our health costs are amongst the lowest in the developed world, and, as a percentage of GDP, they are much lower than many of our OECD or equivalent countries are paying and certainly much lower than what is occurring in America. The Albanese government is doing a marvellous job in health care.”
“This reduction of the health rebate for the over-65s, bringing them in line with under-65s, is part of that. Hard decisions have to be made. We are encouraging people into private health insurance. We know that we need to get younger people into health insurance. As a general rule, younger people tend to pay more in fees than they receive in health care, whereas the opposite is true for older people. They get more health care than the amount they pay in private insurance or in Medicare surcharges. We are doing what we can to make our healthcare system equitable, and this is part of the solution. The Albanese government is doing a huge amount in health care, including in women's health and in our urgent care centres, so that all Australians can access the most equitable care that they can. Modern health care is expensive.”
“We've recently also started an inquiry into specialist access, including the gap fees that people have to pay, making it more equitable for people to see specialists. We have announced and introduced legislation to make transparency about medical fees be available to all Australians. We are doing whatever we can to make sure our health system is the most effective and most equitable in the world. In fact, in Australia we pay around 10 to 10.5 per cent of GDP every year for health care. This compares to around 12 to 14 per cent for other OECD countries and up to 17 per cent for the United States. So we are making our healthcare system efficient and keeping it efficient and still providing very high levels of equitable care to all Australians. We make hard decisions about health care. We make no apologies for that.”
“They worked very hard during the Abbott, Morrison and Turnbull governments to bring down Medicare. Unfortunately, they're still showing with this bill that they don't understand health care. All the Albanese government are doing is bringing the rebates down to show that it is equitable to make older Australians pay the same level of private health insurance as younger Australians. That's very, very fair. The number of people with private insurance is, in fact, increasing. We know that from the last data available from 2024. We know that private health insurance has to be value for money. And we've seen that the Albanese government, in its first term and now, is doing everything it can to reduce health costs for people, to make sure that our health system works appropriately. Our bulk-billing rates in general practice are now going up.”
“I'm very happy to rise and speak on this private member's motion. It's about leopards and spots, and the coalition is the leopard that doesn't change its spots. I've seen it through my entire medical career. The Fraser government tried to destroy Medibank, our first national comprehensive insurance scheme. The Howard government allowed de-mutualisation of the health funds and so introduced a profit motive into private health insurance. Then we saw Dutton, as health minister in the Abbott government, try to introduce a co-payment to destroy Medicare. It really shows the coalition, as far as health care is concerned, doesn't change its spots. They're not interested in equity. They're not interested in comprehensive care. All they want to do is bring it down. They haven't had a health policy in 10 years that's worked.”
“It's very important that we make sure people with severe disability do get the care that they deserve. That means some hard answers need to happen. It is very important that we do this as a government because, after 10 years of coalition neglect, the scheme was not fit for purpose. I thank Jenny McAllister and Health Minister Mark Butler for all their efforts for the NDIS.”
“Unfortunately, what's happened with the NDIS is that it has now exploded to caring for almost 800,000 people rather than the around 100,000 it was projected to care for. Many people are getting NDIS access whom the scheme was never designed for. I want people like Trent with severe disability to be cared for as part of the community's efforts through the NDIS. It's very important that we preserve the scheme for people like Trent and the many other kids with severe disabilities that I've looked after. Senator Jenny McAllister, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, is doing a fantastic job in making sure the system is fit for purpose for the future. That means giving people messages about who the scheme was designed to support.”
“She always worried about what would happen once she and her husband had passed away. Trent's three siblings were involved with his care and love him deeply, but the family really wanted to make sure that Trent could be looked after in an appropriate way for the rest of his life. He's still going strong, and, thanks to the NDIS, he's getting fantastic care. He loves his carers, interacts well with his siblings and lives in his own little supported unit in Melbourne. The family moved to Melbourne about 10 years ago, but I've kept in contact with them. The NDIS is giving Trent a life of fulfilment thanks to the support he gets from all those around him, including his family, and will do so for the rest of his life. That's what the NDIS means.”
“The NDIS is a fantastic Labor initiative. I have spent my working life dealing with kids—many with severe disability—and I remember Trent very, very well. Trent is now in his 40s. I looked after him when he was born. He has Down syndrome. He had congenital heart disease. He had a number of difficulties associated with Down syndrome, including bowel obstruction in the neonatal period, but he survived. He survived well with the efforts of his family, in particular—a working-class Campbelltown family who loved him as they loved their other three children and who looked after him beautifully. Unfortunately, Trent's father died suddenly some years ago, and, only fairly recently, Trent's mother passed away. Trent's mother's one wish for him was that he would be cared for for the rest of his life.”
“My question is to the Minister for Transport. What work is the Albanese Labor government doing to support Australians and the transport industry, who are feeling the impacts of war in the Middle East, and who is standing in the way?”
“We are improving the NDIS, but there's still a long, long, long way to go, and that's because the scheme was set up in a way that it has become all things to all people. That cannot continue. We must make sure that kids with severe disability and all people with severe disability get the support that they need. It's a Labor scheme, and I'm proud of it.”
“We have not allowed the rorting to continue. We have instituted inquiries into the NDIS and mismanagement and criminal activity. We've established a multi-agency taskforce to crack down on fraud and exploitation, and we've introduced stronger powers and reforms to ensure those abusing the NDIS can be held accountable. We've also introduced the Thriving Kids initiative to look at ways that children, particularly young children, with concerns about their development could get access to early intervention. That means early intervention. It's not diagnosis specific, and it doesn't require huge amounts of money to be spent on therapists and paediatricians et cetera to get them the support that they need. This is very important. We are doing the right thing.”
“Too many bad actors made a good living off taxpayers' money whilst recipients were seen not as people but as profits. For too long, the coalition failed to act decisively. However, when we came to government, Bill Shorten, as the NDIS minister, started to put in place ways of screening providers and screening recipients. The scheme was being brought back to its roots, if you like. Let's be clear. When our Labor government came to office in 2022, we did not inherit a system in good order. We inherited a system that had been neglected, distorted and in some cases exploited from nearly a decade of coalition mismanagement. We are changing things, but change can't occur overnight. The NDIS, believe me, is doing wonderful things. It's providing people with a certainty that their relatives with severe disability will be cared for.”
“The dysfunction in the scheme was built upon the very poor way it was administered by the coalition government from those times. The scheme drifted from its founding principles, as costs skyrocketed, without proper oversight or accountability. We saw exploitation by private providers who saw it as a cash cow for their own personal wealth growth rather than the personal growth and development of the recipients with a severe disability. We saw it become all things to all people. As a paediatrician, I was often coerced into making diagnoses to try and get kids into the NDIS who didn't have a severe disability. The rise of NDIS rorting was a blight on the coalition, and they should be the ones that hang their heads in shame about it.”
“These were kids with severe intellectual disability, non-verbal autism, severe physical disability or chromosomal disorders such as Down syndrome. These families needed to be supported. They hadn't been for a long time, and it was revolutionary legislation by the Gillard government that brought this in. I was very proud to be a member of Labor when we introduced this, long before I entered parliament. Unfortunately, under the coalition, the scheme was set up without proper safeguards. It was set up in such a way that it could be manipulated by unscrupulous people. And we saw that happen time and time again. I went to Stuart Robert, who was the minister for the NDIS when I first entered parliament, to try and get some change in that regard. He ignored my advice and my pleas.”
“As a paediatrician, I believe in the NDIS. I believe it's one of Australia's most important social reforms. It's a proud Labor reform. I spoke to Julia Gillard about it and its importance long before I came into politics. It was introduced by Prime Minister Gillard in 2013 following crucial advocacy from disability groups. As a paediatrician, I saw that the one thing that families worried about, about their kids with disabilities, was who would care for them in the long term when the families weren't there. The NDIS provided that certainty, and it has been revolutionary. It does great things. The intention of the Gillard government was for the NDIS to support Australians living with severe and permanent disability with dignity, independence and opportunity.”
“Like so many community theatre organisations across Australia, the Campbelltown Theatre Group operates entirely on the dedication of volunteers. Its longevity is a testament to the passion, talent and generosity of those who give their time both on and off the stage. I extend my sincere congratulations to every member, past and present, who's contributed to this extraordinary journey, and I look forward to seeing the Campbelltown Theatre Group continue to flourish for many years to come. I congratulate the council for its ongoing support and I look forward to seeing some great productions in the future.”
“The Campbelltown Theatre Group is far more than a performance company. It's a training ground, a creative hub and a welcoming space for aspiring artists of all ages. Through youth programs, workshops and work placement opportunities, it continues to nurture the next generation of performers, technicians and creatives, many of whom have gone on to professional careers in the arts. Today, with more than 130 active members, this group continues to thrive. Just the other week, I attended the opening night of their latest production, Come From Away , which was a terrific performance, and I congratulate all involved in putting it together. It was so professional. The performing, the singing and the music were absolutely wonderful. I would encourage everyone and anyone to go and see this—as well as their other works, including Billy Elliot .”