Ali France
Dickson · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“I rise to speak on the Aviation Consumer Protection Bill 2026 and the related bills. Australia is a big country, and we are a long way from almost everywhere, including, very often, from each other. That makes aviation more than a convenience for Aussies. It is how we travel to see our family and friends.”
“The project was funded, the business case was done, the designing and planning work was done, consultation was done, preferred tenderers identified and the site prepared.”
“The only mention is 'to progress the delivery of a number of hospitals, including the Queensland Cancer Centre'. That's where the information stops. That's because there are no real plans to start the build.”
“Most importantly, it will be free for the consumer to use to pursue a remedy to their complaint. Second, the bills establish an aviation consumer protections charter.”
“The aircraft noise ombudsperson will be independent of Airservices Australia and the Department of Defence, consistent with the commitment made in the aviation white paper. The ombudsperson will have the capacity to publish independent reports and make recommendations to the government for policy or regulatory change.”
“It is the most significant reform to aviation consumer protection this country has seen, and it flows directly from our aviation white paper—our plan to protect passengers while keeping our aviation sector competitive and while keeping our proud safety record intact. Let me set out what these bills actually do.”
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“My question is to the Minister for Social Services. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering on its commitment to strengthen paid parental leave, and how is it supporting families and women in the workforce? What are the risks to this?”
“At a federal level, we've backed in the states with $25 billion in additional hospital funding for the states over the next five years. The Commonwealth has done its part. I beg the Crisafulli government to get started on this project. Queenslanders need this project. We need the Queensland Cancer Centre to be built. We need those beds. Queensland cancer patients deserve better. Please start the construction of the Queensland Cancer Centre. Make it a priority. Cancer does not wait. It doesn't pause for a review and it's not going to defer itself until 2031. Please stop the excuses and get shovels in the ground.”
“The only mention is 'to progress the delivery of a number of hospitals, including the Queensland Cancer Centre'. That's where the information stops. That's because there are no real plans to start the build. There's a generic line item in the budget for money spent for hospitals across Queensland—which, of course, we applaud—but no specific plans to start the build of the Queensland Cancer Centre. The Crisafulli government claims that the project was stopped because of cost blowouts, but we all know construction doesn't get cheaper while you sit and wait. Delay, delay, delay means costly plans get shelved. Consultation needs to be redone. It will cost a lot more in five to 10 years time, way down the track, and have impacted many, many families across the state, as they fight for their lives in hospitals across the state.”
“The project was funded, the business case was done, the designing and planning work was done, consultation was done, preferred tenderers identified and the site prepared. This project was a long, long way down the track, but, after three years and millions of dollars spent on consultation and detailed planning, the Crisafulli government put all of that in the bin. They say that construction has been deferred to 2031 at the earliest. The Crisafulli government released their state budget earlier this week. Their budget cites $2 billion towards new hospitals—which is welcome, of course—including the Queensland Cancer Centre. You might start jumping for joy at seeing that sentence, but, when you look a little further and you try to find specific funding, a line item, for the Queensland Cancer Centre, that's when your heart sinks.”
“Families of leukaemia and blood cancer patients, like mine, have been waiting patiently for the construction to begin on the new Queensland Cancer Centre since it was announced three years ago. We were relieved when the former Queensland Labor government announced that construction would begin in 2025 and devastated when the Crisafulli government effectively cancelled the construction of the Queensland Cancer Centre last year. The Queensland Cancer Centre was shovel-ready. The landmark facility was ready to be built, with 150 dedicated beds and proton beam therapy facilities, the first and only in Queensland and one of the only such planned facilities in the whole country. This was a project that was ready to go.”
“Queensland has a desperate lack of specialist public cancer hospital beds, particularly for patients with complex cancers like leukaemia. You would think that this might have been a priority for the Crisafulli state government in this week's state budget. Well, think again. The lack of specialist cancer beds impacts every corner of the state, and I know what that looks like. It means immune compromised patients sharing cramped rooms and bathrooms with up to three others. It means moving between general, surgical, orthopaedic and other wards. It means teenagers sharing rooms with much older dying patients. It means patients who are already fighting for their lives are being forced into situations that further put their health and mental health at risk.”
“Changes implemented by Airservices Australia include limiting the ability of some aircraft to take off before 6 am, boosting the number of flights that are required to take off and land over water during the night and early mornings on the weekends, reinstating the previous flight path used for overwater departures so that aircraft take off—”
“Its geography means that sound is projected. For the families there, aircraft noise is not a passing annoyance. It's impacted on their quality of life, disrupted sleep and meant pollution and constant noise. I want to recognise the residents across my electorate who have advocated on this issue tirelessly for years, to make use of our airspace fairer for the people most affected by the noise. We take your concerns seriously, and these changes finally mean your complaints and concerns will be heard by a new independent ombudsman. I am proud that our government has already taken real steps to look out for consumers and residents impacted by flight paths.”
“The aircraft noise ombudsperson will be independent of Airservices Australia and the Department of Defence, consistent with the commitment made in the aviation white paper. The ombudsperson will have the capacity to publish independent reports and make recommendations to the government for policy or regulatory change. Our aviation consumer protection bills are not just about passengers. We're also looking out for the people who live under the flight paths, who live with the daily noise and impact of every aircraft passing overhead. The new runway at Brisbane Airport opened in 2020 with little community consultation, particularly when it came to aircraft noise. Since the new runway has arrived, I've met with Samford Valley residents regularly on this issue. Samford Valley sits like a natural amphitheatre.”
“For at least five years, I have heard from people living in my community of Dickson about the impact of aircraft noise on the Samford Valley and how changes in flight paths, increases in the number of flights and the difficulty in trying to give feedback to Airservices Australia have impacted on their quality of life. These bills establish an independent aircraft noise ombudsperson to address the impact of aircraft noise on people on the ground. The aircraft noise ombudsperson will conduct investigative reviews into how Airservices Australia and the Department of Defence handle aircraft noise complaints, the community consultation processes regarding changes affecting aircraft noise and how aircraft noise information is presented and distributed.”
“Where the ombudsperson helps the individual traveller, the regulator looks at the bigger patterns to make sure the industry is held to account if necessary. This framework is about meaningful protection for passengers while keeping aviation competitive, affordable and sustainable, including the regional routes that so many of our regional and remote communities depend on—in particular, my state of Queensland. There is a balance, and these bills achieve that balance. On top of that, these bills also make changes to deal with aircraft noise, an issue that matters enormously to the people I represent in Dickson.”
“Most importantly, it will be free for the consumer to use to pursue a remedy to their complaint. Second, the bills establish an aviation consumer protections charter. The charter will set out minimum standards that travellers can expect from airlines and airports—standards for what should happen with bookings, with check in and boarding, with baggage, with complaints handling and with the assistance people are owed when flights are disrupted, delayed or cancelled. For the first time, the expectations of airlines and what is owed to customers will be made plain and clear. Third, the bills establish the Aviation Consumer Protection Authority. The authority will be a dedicated regulator within the department to enforce the charter and to take on the systemic problems in the sector, not just one complaint at a time.”
“It is the most significant reform to aviation consumer protection this country has seen, and it flows directly from our aviation white paper—our plan to protect passengers while keeping our aviation sector competitive and while keeping our proud safety record intact. Let me set out what these bills actually do. First, they establish the new Aviation Consumer Ombudsperson, an independent body that will work with travellers, airlines and airports to resolve complaints. If an airline or an airport has not done the right thing and a traveller is not satisfied with how their complaint has been handled, they will have somewhere genuinely independent to go. The ombudsperson will be able to investigate, to compel information and to determine how a complaint should be resolved.”
“The conflict in the Middle East has caused major disruptions to flights and to fuel and real uncertainty for Australian travellers. We've seen passengers unsure of what to do next and unsure of what they are even entitled to do when a flight is cancelled. Our airlines have done a great deal of difficult work to get Aussies home safely during that conflict, and that work is appreciated. But this moment has outlined something important: Australians who rely on aviation deserve clear protections and a clear understanding of their rights, especially when the unexpected happens. That is what this bill delivers.”
“For far too long the deal for travellers when things have gone wrong has not been good enough. That's why the Albanese Labor government is delivering the most significant reforms to Australia's aviation sector in over a decade. Until now, when a complaint could not be sorted out, a traveller has largely been left to resolve the issue themselves, relying on the airlines, and most of us are all too familiar with how this arrangement ends up playing out. When your flight is delayed or cancelled or your travel is disrupted, you're often left with no choice but to wear it. Too many people have been left frustrated, out of pocket and with nowhere independent to turn for a resolution. Recently we saw exactly how badly this can go.”
“I rise to speak on the Aviation Consumer Protection Bill 2026 and the related bills. Australia is a big country, and we are a long way from almost everywhere, including, very often, from each other. That makes aviation more than a convenience for Aussies. It is how we travel to see our family and friends. It is how those in regional and remote communities get to see specialists and specialist services in major town centres. It's how our businesses work across states. And it is how families separated by thousands of kilometres get to sit together around the same table at Christmas. We rely on flying, in a way that not many other countries do. So, when things go wrong—when a flight is cancelled, when a family is left stranded at a gate with kids in tow, when your luggage with a week's worth of clothes doesn't arrive—it matters.”
“We're changing that with our five per cent deposit scheme, our help to buy scheme and record investment in social and affordable housing, as well as investment in new housing infrastructure and, of course, tax reform on negative gearing and CGT which means first home buyers no longer have to compete against investors for existing housing. We're levelling the playing field for people like Zeke and Emma.”
“Twenty-one years old, first job, first home—that's not a fantasy. That is actually possible thanks to Labor's five per cent deposit scheme for first home buyers. Zeke and Emma from my electorate of Dickson are two 21-year-old super savers who, after 12 months of searching, have managed to buy their first home using Labor's five per cent deposit scheme. Their purchase is just one of 1,846 by first home buyers in my electorate of Dickson who have taken advantage of our five per cent deposit scheme. I met Zeke a couple of months ago at his workplace in Brendale. He's a 21-year-old fourth-year apprentice metal fabricator. He said: If we didn't have access to the 5% deposit scheme, we would not have the house we're in now. For too long, young Australians have felt that homeownership is out of reach. Labor is changing that.”
“A lot of super went into poker machines and online gambling. The real harm is pretending that homes are affordable when they're not. The real harm is having our nurses and teachers—hardworking Aussies—paying a higher tax rate than investors. We could choose to ignore them. We could do that. We could take the easy way out. We could pretend that the tax system is just fine as it is. But then we would be the coalition. No thanks. We are here to even the playing field for working Australians. We are delivering exactly what the member for Goldstein asked for all the way back in 2018—a fairer tax system. You should be celebrating that.”
“Let's talk about real economic harm. During COVID, those opposite funnelled billions of taxpayer dollars into big corporations that actually saw turnover increases and went on to post record profits. It left us with nearly $1 trillion in debt—debt Labor is now paying down. As a share of the economy, debt is now lower than what we inherited from those opposite. Those opposite allowed manufacturing to collapse in this country, to the point that manufacturing self-sufficiency was at the lowest level in the OECD. That is real and lasting economic vandalism. And who could forget the early superannuation access scheme, which drained $38 billion from the retirement system? An economist described this as an absolute disaster. The third-largest spending category of that scheme was gambling.”
“Our working Australians tax offset, announced in the budget, will put $250 back into the pockets of millions of working Australians every single year. We've also introduced a $1,000 instant tax deduction, which will kick in on 1 July. On top of that, the tax cuts we've already legislated will land on 1 July this year and again next year. Add it up and the average worker will have about $2,800 back in their pocket by 2028. Those opposite voted against all of that. You lecture us as though you actually support tax cuts, but we all know that those opposite went to the last election promising higher taxes. The designer of that genius plan was the former shadow treasurer, now the Leader of the Opposition. When it comes to backing a tax cut for working Australians, for weeks those opposite have pushed misinformation about our tax changes.”
“I wholeheartedly agree, and so does this side of the House. That is a quote taken directly from Hansard , yet the shadow treasurer stands here today and cries the opposite. Let's get something straight: we are cutting taxes for working Australians—cutting them—and we are evening the playing field for working Australians. Why should working Aussies be paying a higher percentage of tax than investors? The member for Goldstein talks about hairdressers and brickies. Why should they pay a higher tax rate than investors? Why should investors pay an effective rate of 23.5 per cent on their earnings while nurses, cleaners and teachers pay 32 per cent? I've yet to hear a coherent answer on that from those opposite.”
“I have to say that this MPI is quite the own goal for the member for Goldstein, the shadow treasurer. I'll just start with this quote: Today it's time to be honest: the tax system is screwing over young Australians. Instead, it favours well-off, established interests against those trying to get ahead. I wholeheartedly agree. As we've heard in this place time and time again, that is the view of the shadow treasurer, the member for Goldstein. On 12 February 2018, in this very chamber, the member for Goldstein stood and admitted that the tax system, as it was, was unfair. He said that the tax burden fell 'mostly on young and working Australians'. He said: … people who can predominantly live off of income from their assets can pay very little tax and get discounts on capital gains from increases in asset values.”
“They reflect the scale of the challenge, but they also reflect the commitment and effort this government has brought to combating it. ABF teams across the country are targeting more shipping containers, inspecting more air cargo consignments, searching more international travellers suspected of carrying illicit tobacco and conducting more domestic warrants than ever before. I know that people in my community of Dickson are concerned about the proliferation of tobacco stores selling illicit tobacco and vapes. I too am concerned. Please know this government is doing everything it can with the states and territories to shut down the illicit tobacco and e-cigarette trade. This bill will disrupt and dismantle criminal syndicates, with tougher penalties and greater powers to detect and seize illicit tobacco and vaping products.”
“Our national strategy rests on three key focus areas: (1) disrupting and dismantling border threats, stopping illicit tobacco and vapes before they reach our shores; (2) enhancing detection, disruption and destruction at the border and within communities—this includes coordinated operations, targeted compliance activity and increased on-the-ground enforcement; and (3) strengthening national coordination across all jurisdictions, because no single agency or level of government can fight this alone. These measures are already producing real results. As of April this year, Border Force had seized a record-breaking amount of illicit tobacco over just four months, including over four million vapes and nearly 786 million cigarettes. These are extraordinary numbers.”
“First, it rebalances the risk-to-reward calculation for criminal actors by significantly increasing penalties for illicit tobacco offences. For too long, the penalties simply have not matched the scale or seriousness of the harm. Second, the bill strengthens and modernises the proceeds-of-crime regime to ensure that the Commonwealth can effectively target and recover the profits made through illicit tobacco.”
“These amendments provide greater consistency and clarity across existing warrant and access frameworks, ensuring that the law keeps pace with the realities of organised criminal activity. Last year we also cracked down on high-risk financial services, including crypto ATMs used to launder profits and conceal transactions. AUSTRAC now also has more powers to act and has put banks on notice that they must do more to scrutinise retailers linked to illicit tobacco, tightening the net. We are seeing results, with lots of accounts reviewed and removed, private ATMs removed and increased reporting of suspicious transactions. Cutting off the money supply and flow starves these criminal outlets. This bill seeks to achieve two primary objectives.”
“These new laws directly respond to key recommendations of the illicit tobacco and e-cigarette commissioner report, which made clear that strong consequences are essential if we are to disrupt and deter this serious criminal activity. We're also strengthening existing investigatory powers, expanding the circumstances in which those powers may be applied, including through computer access and surveillance capabilities available under the Surveillance Devices Act. The bill also amends the Telecommunications Act by including a number of illicit tobacco related offences within the definition of a serious offence. This change will strengthen the ability of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to identify, disrupt and prosecute those involved in illicit tobacco networks.”
“Reducing excise taxes might reduce the illegal trade, but it would also dramatically increase the take-up of smoking across the country and increase smoking related health costs and deaths as a result. This bill builds on the substantial work the Albanese Labor government has already undertaken to disrupt and dismantle illicit tobacco networks. Since 2023-24, the government has invested $345 million to bolster the Australian Border Force's ability to detect and seize illicit tobacco and vaping products. We also established Australia's first illicit tobacco and e-cigarettes commissioner, ensuring a coordinated national response. In the 2025-26 budget, we provided a further $21.3 million to strengthen that role and support whole-of-government coordination.”
“Commonwealth funding to the states and territories is now flowing, with $84 million over two years for training to improve licensing and compliance systems and enable joint operations, putting pressure across the whole supply chain—production, air and maritime routes, freight channels, warehousing, distribution and retail fronts. I've seen some commentary suggesting that we should surrender and that we should remove excise tax, make it cheaper and boost health education. That approach ignores the fact that the single most effective lever to encourage people to quit or reduce smoking is price. That's why we've had decades of success in driving down adult smoking rates. It also ignores evidence that demonstrates the illicit tobacco market is driven by a complex mix of issues beyond price. Giving in might appear easier.”
“It increases penalties across importing, possessing, buying, selling, producing and manufacturing. It expands unexplained wealth and proceeds of crime tools, and it enables enhanced law enforcement powers, including wiretaps, for serious tobacco offences. The goal is to harden the environment and make it really difficult for these crime syndicates to operate, and this will take time. It will take collaboration, coordinating action and sharing of intelligence between federal and state agencies. I acknowledge the efforts of some states, including my own state of Queensland, who have toughened laws to provide for long-term closure orders, investment in enforcement on the ground and penalties for landlords who knowingly lease to a criminal operator.”
“It hurts legitimate retailers. It is a multibillion dollar black-market operation that is flooding our communities with illegal products. These syndicates are also linked to violence, firearms, intimidation and firebombings, and they risk unwinding decades of success in reducing smoking rates in Australia. We saw a series of arson attacks between two rival syndicates on shops in Victoria a few years back, burning down tobacco shops and allegedly recruiting teenagers to do so. This is a public health issue, but it's also a community safety issue, and the profits are used for other criminal activities. This bill makes it harder for organised crime to profit from illicit tobacco and vapes. It creates new offences for large-scale illicit tobacco activity linked to organised crime.”
“Record seizures have occurred over the last financial year, with a 320 per cent increase in the number of cigarettes seized compared to four years ago. Organised crime syndicates made somewhere between $4 billion and $7 billion in the year 2024-25 and then reinvested that money into trafficking, scams and money laundering. Cheap smokes and vapes are everywhere. Almost every vape purchased in Australia was illegal in 2024-25—95.7 per cent of vapes. But this isn't just an Australia challenge. This is a global challenge, and it's something we must address because it hurts our communities. We've known for decades that smoking can kill us and costs our health system well over $150 billion a year. Two out of three long-term smokers will die of a tobacco related disease, and 20 per cent of the cancer disease in Australia is due to smoking.”
“Roy Morgan found that the 18- to 24-year-old age group reported the highest use, at 20.6 per cent in 2025, which is about four times the rate in 2019, which was 5.3 per cent. I never imagined that my kids would even be tempted, but there I was cleaning up my eldest son's bedroom, when I found a vape when he was 16. When I asked about it, the response was, 'Everyone is doing it, Mum.' Who knows where he bought it, but I soon learnt that many of the tobacco and vape shops that seem to be popping up in every suburban shopping strip are a cover for serious criminal syndicates and are making billions. In March and April this year, Australian Border Force intercepted record levels of illegal tobacco, seizing over one kilotonne since December.”
“I rise in support of this important bill and in support of our efforts to crack down on the illicit tobacco and e-cigarette market. I do so having spoken to many parents in my electorate of Dickson on the harm that the illegal tobacco and e-cigarette trade is doing to our young people. Not that long ago, I honestly thought that smoking was on the nose—too expensive, banned in pubs and clubs—and our laws that enforced plain packaging, restricted advertising and smoking in public places, as well as significant tax increases on cigarettes, resulted in big changes to the take-up rate of smoking. We will have one of the lowest adult smoking rates in the world, but recent data by Roy Morgan in 2025 suggests that uptake of vaping might be increasing.”
“My question is to the Minister for Housing. How is the Albanese Labor government progressing with its commitment to deliver 55,000 new social and affordable homes? Why is this approach better for Australians than other approaches?”
“Labor's bold and transformative changes to make the housing market fairer for ordinary Aussies will have an immediate and lasting impact, not only for Kathleen but for three generations of her family and all those who follow.”
“She said that this is more than a house, and she will finally feel safe and secure in a home where she, her daughter and her two young grandsons can build their future and thrive together. These changes are about restoring the great Australian dream of homeownership and ensuring that ordinary, hardworking Aussies once again have a fair shot at a place of their own: a home with a clothesline out the back and a verandah out the front. These changes ensure that the housing market works first and foremost for people seeking a home, not just first home buyers but those who have gone through a relationship breakdown. We know that women over 50 years old are the fastest-growing cohort of homeless people in Australia. Our changes to negative gearing and CGT are also for them.”
“Following the budget announcement, Kathleen noticed a dramatic shift: investor numbers at inspections had dropped significantly, and she was now competing alongside young families and other homebuyers like herself. This is more than tax reform. It is about restoring hope for families, for first home buyers, for those rebuilding their lives after divorce, for people who have fallen on hard times and for long-term househunters who simply want the security and the stability of their own home. Today, I am delighted to report that Kathleen has now successfully made an offer on a home which has been accepted. I spoke to Kathleen yesterday, and what she said was heartwarming.”
“Reforms to negative gearing and capital gains tax announced in the budget are already changing lives for aspiring homeowners in my electorate of Dickson. I want to share the story of Kathleen, a 65-year-old single mum from Lawnton who has spent the past year searching desperately for a home of her own. Time and time again, she found herself competing against droves of investors at open homes and watching properties sell under the hammer, only for them to reappear weeks later on the rental market. She described attending open homes as both depressing and heartbreaking, quickly realising that only a small number of attendees were genuine owner-occupiers looking for an actual roof over their heads.”
“Kathleen, a 65-year-old single mum from Arana Hills who has spent a year looking for a home, has been outbid many times. Finally, she had her offer accepted on the weekend. Now her daughter and her two grandchildren will move in with her, and she says she finally feels their future will be safe and secure. Our tax reforms finally changed the game. This budget is about levelling the playing field. The odds are finally in their favour.”
“First home buyers have been playing the housing hunger games, where only investors survive and thrive—first home buyers in the arena, armed with a deposit and hope, up against dozens of cashed-up investors. Only one house, one winner—until now. Over the last week I have spoken to many 'tributes' in my electorate of Dickson who say the game has finally changed in their favour. Our changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax incentives announced in the budget are already making a difference on the ground. Katie and her partner have been trying to buy their first home in Petrie, in my electorate of Dickson, for six years. They have been outbid by investors year after year. Last weekend, Katie went to an open home. It was just her and her partner, no investors. She now feels they have a chance.”
“Since coming to this place, I have had many conversations about this issue and have met with many organisations who operate in this space. I am hopeful for change. I was pleased to hear in the House this week that the Albanese Labor government has released a tender to do this important work and will work with the successful tenderer and the states to increase donors. Saliva tests should not be this hard.”
“No parent wants to hear that their child has cancer. It is a truly horrific experience. But what might be worse is the moment you are told a bone marrow transplant could save their lives, but, sadly, there is no match. We got that news, and my 19-year-old boy, Henry, passed in February 2024, after an 18-month battle with leukemia. Today is World Blood Cancer Day. More than 145,000 Australians, many of them young Aussies like my Henry, are battling a blood cancer and many need a stem cell transplant or a bone marrow transplant to live. Australia is failing kids like Henry because we are one of the worst countries in the developed world for stem cell donations—a simple saliva test or sample. Why? That is something that has haunted me for two years. Aussies are generous people. We do so well with our blood donations. Why is it so difficult?”
“We are committed to ensuring the NDIS delivers essential supports to Australians with significant and permanent disability not just today but for generations to come. Our responsibility is to build a NDIS that is fair, consistent and empowering—one that places people with significant disability at its heart. I commend this bill to the House.”
“I know these changes are going to be hard, I know these changes are fuelling anxiety and I know constantly advocating for your needs is so exhausting. For many this reform is a hard pill to swallow. But for others it is hope that help is on the way to their local town, to their community. We can no longer have a two-tier NDIS where, if you live in the cities and you have a package and you can access services and you have the health literacy to make applications for those services, you have a completely different experience than if you don't have health literacy or if you live in a regional or rural town and there are very limited providers where the market has failed. We can no longer have a system where some people with disability and significant disability are in and some people with significant disability are out.”
“This bill builds the framework to change that. This bill also reforms the plan management market, enabling the government to commission a panel of plan managers that are held to real standards on governance, integrity and conflicts of interest, and to commission a new, higher-quality support coordination and connection service. The bill gives the minister the power to be the decision-maker on pricing, acting on the advice of the NDIA's annual pricing review, and it gives the agency the ability to recover money from a provider when a participant has been overcharged. If we want the NDIS to be the system it was intended to be—to truly provide security and dignity for people with disability—the NDIS needs the structural change proposed in this bill.”
“It introduces a legislated end date for every plan so that plans are properly renewed rather than rolled over indefinitely. Unspent funds will no longer be carried forward in a way that inflates plans over time. This bill finally gives the NDIA the powers it needs to properly regulate, monitor and investigate the payment of more than $50 billion every year. It clarifies the definition of 'NDIS provider', which has been so broad that mainstream retailers are now defined as NDIS providers, and it introduces a range of new civil penalties so that there are real consequences for fraud and noncompliance that has gone unchecked for far too long. Right now, only one in 16 providers is registered. I completely understand that for some of the smaller providers the system that has been set up to date is not built for them.”
“That is why I am pleased that a technical advisory group will be established to advise on the right threshold and the right assessments, informed by consultation with the disability community and with the states and territories. The bill also clarifies what it means for a support to be 'reasonable and necessary' and what 'permanent' means for people applying to access the scheme. We will also reduce the number of unscheduled plan reassessments. Some of those requests are being made by intermediaries—middle men and women—sometimes without the participant even knowing. Under this bill, only a participant, or their nominee or guardian, will be able to request an unscheduled reassessment, and only when there has been a genuine, significant and ongoing change in their circumstances.”
“The bill is made up of five schedules which collectively address issues on how people access the scheme, how their plans are managed and how we can properly regulate, monitor and investigate how money is spent. The bill also increases the decision-making powers of the minister and makes way for transitional arrangements. Key changes in the bill include a definition in the act of 'substantially reduced functional capacity' and how that will be assessed in a consistent, evidence-based way. This means access to the scheme will be based on a transparent assessment of a person's functional capacity rather than on a specific diagnosis. Getting this part of the bill right matters, and it matters a lot to the disability community.”